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My tree house
like the view
Just as quick as it came, it is almost over
The 23 days have flown by. Last we spoke, I was in Cuzco on my way to Iquitos and the Amazon
After getting into Iquitos, I was mauled by about 10 different taxi drivers wanting to take me into town. Luckily they were harmless and I chose the one who spoke English.
Some quick info on Iquitos
- largest city in the world without a road or train into it. This means the only way there is by boat or plane
- over 400,000 people
- over 80,000 motor taxis. For those of you who have been to Thailand, they look a lot like a TUK TUK except its a motor cycle at the front
The amazon surrounds Iquitos so it is extremely humid and hot there.
After one day of being there, I was off to the amazon and to the refugio
The Refugio is a 1200 acre complex owned by Scott, aka the Gringo Shaman. The land hugs one of the tributeries to the amazon river. The river is the main source of travel and water for everything from washing clothes,
showering/ bathing, canoeing, to water for the livestock.
The water is a very dark brown from all the runoff of silt into it from the sorrounding amazon. I had a beautiful speed boat ride down the river. As we sped around, I could only see a slight bit of the tree line and only the brown muddy water as the boat had a roof to help with the rain. After a few minutes of staring at this muddy mess, the beauty of the water showed itself to me as I began to watch the sky glare off the perfectly silky smooth surface of the water. There were times when you could see the sun, clouds and the trees all glaring off the water. The ride lasted about 10 minutes but it was surreal.
THe amazon itself is absolutely unbelievable. My first reaction was one of utter amazement as the enormity of the sorrounding trees and plants was overwhelming. Now imagine that little fern you have behind your desk or in your living room. Now imagine that fern about 20 feet high and you will understand what a humbling experience it was to walk through the jungle for the
first time
The bananna trees leaves were about 15 feet each. They look like massive tounges just sticking out. My favorite thing to do was walk around and find fruit trees
The hard part about the amazon besides the horendous and evil mosquitos is that you really have to pay attention to where you are stepping. The ground has so many roots of trees sticking out that you can fall and hurt yourself really bad. It makes it tough on sight seeing but well worth the multi stoppages. The root systems are so intense in spots, it almost looks like the ground has skin as the roots cover each other to form an outer layer.
The ground in itself is something that has to be exprienced. The clay/ soil is so rich and full of life. There is so much going on beneath your feet, you could spend hours just looking at the ground in amazement.
One night as I walked back to my tree house room, I looked down in front of me only to see about a 5 inch terranchila running to bite my friend as he had stepped on its accidently. That freaked
my kids
we had dinner together 3 of the nights me out but luckily, the knee high rubber boots make the critters pretty harmless unless you fall. Yes I slept in a tree house that was 40 feet high and it had a shower and toilet along with my bed. see attached picture
The rest of the time I would spend mostly reading on my hammock. I really enjoyed doing that so I bought a few hammocks to bring home as presents. For whatever reason, I would spend time just staring at these three trees. I think that when the Bible refers to the Garden of Eden in Genesis, it was describing the amazon. It was hard to believe that such beauty and utter peace could co-exist in a such a eco-system of constant decay and survival of the fittest.
The animals all co-exist in constant battle for life. As one dies, the others feast of it and the cycle continues over and over. It was fun to watch as the chicken would feast on the bugs and with the vulture circling above awaiting the chicken. I had a chance to see one in action and it was crazy
The best and most unnerving part of the amazon is the sound at night. The animals in the woods all blend into one harmonious meledy that is indescribable. One night as I lay there in trance by their sound, a plane was flying by. This along with the crickets, birds, and the monkeys blended together to create the most beautiful trance- ambient song with the plane as the bass player and the crickets and animals as the lead singers
What sucks about the amazon - besides the damn mosquitos - is that your clothes are all immediately sticky and stinky.
The two times a day rain sessions were also pretty powerful. It was almost like having sheets of water coming down which made for wet conditions throughout.
I spent most of the time with my three new friends just chatting about their travel experience.
It was very humbling and inspiring to hear their stories of years of travel throughout all of south america.
As a result of their stories, I tried my best to get to RIO but was unable to.
After 5 days of the amazon, it was time to get back to Iquitos for some fun
Iquitos was a blast. It is soooooooo cheap that you almost feel guilty. I was in a 3+ star hotel for 25 dollars US. The best restaurants meal was about 7 US.
I went to a movie and dinner with a friend for about 20 US.
I spent about a week in Iquitos and did a ton of shopping. My friend Stephen from the UK gave me a great idea. He travels the WORLD and I mean the whole thing and everywhere he goes, if he finds a great deal on something, he will buy it and sell it on ebay.
This is how he has funded his travels
So I am going to give it a try in order to setup my travel fund for Iran and India next year
The market in Iquitos is absolutely nuts. They sell everything right there including fresh fish, snake, monkey and turtle meat. For those of you who know how sensitive my sense of smell is, this made for quite a difficult time as the adventorous side of me wanted to see and experience the market but the scensory psycho side wanted nothing to do with it. We compromised as I learned very quickly how to immediately breathe out at a nano-seconds notice. The locals got a kick out of it.
Iquitos also has its amusing side. I had a chance to really sit back and get a feel for the people and how they live. There is this mad rush to get everywhere but when people get there, there seems to be nothing for them to do
I mean the mad rush is crazy. I swear I felt like FROGGER crossing the streets as the taxi bikes all aim for pedestrians. You definately need to focus on how you cross a street
One funny thing I noticed was the randomness of many things there.
I would be sitting at dinner and these guys would be walking around selling misc. items like a bathroom plunger, flashlight batteries and a chicken.
Calculators were also very popular. So after a few of them, I really started to pay attention.
Another dude had a calculator, watch strap, and an antenna pointer. The antenna freaked me out as I had a professor in college who taught MIS who had a prostetic arm and used the antenna pointer all day as he would use the blackboard. Needless to say, all I would do is stare at the pointer rather than pay attention- got a B in that class, communist!!!!
Last random thing I saw was at a underwear store. As I walked buy, I saw all the undergrments in the store but in the window, they were selling coffee, candy and WICKS, the ice theraputic stuff. I tried but could not find the connection there. As I pondered that thought, I heard a PSSST and walked off.
There is also the whole PSSST thing. In Iquitos, it is very normal for people to PSSST when they want your attention. It did not work with me as my brother Jimmy had midevil torchered me with that as a child so I was immunized against looking. Thanks Jimmy!!!!
The past few days, I have been in LIMA. I am in the center of LIMA´s cool district - Mira Flores - staying at a 3 star for 20 dollars US.
Its amazing
I do have great news. The Atlantic City Casino gratiously offerred to pay for my whole trip last night as I had an amazing run on the craps table. The whole table was having a blast screaming OCHO with me everytime we would roll an eight. They also laughed as I gave them a new reason why the roller should roll another 8 one of which was YOU QUIERO UN OCHO PORQUE ME HIJOS QUIERN ZAPATOS ROJOS. They dug how I rolled the RRR´s.
They also threw in an extra $700 so that I can buy these beautiful wooden sculptures from this artist.
The pictures of his works are the last ones on my pictures which you will be getting an invite very shortly to see.
One of the funniest things is how the people of Peru cannot say RODNEY. Everyone I would talk to could never figure out the D in my name is it was always Rony, roooony or some mix of it. By day 22, I was accumstomed to calling myself rooney till I heard the best name ever. I was at KFC when this girl asks my name for my order. I said rodney which she entered as WALO.
So from now on, my name is WALO.
For parting thoughts, I have to say I really loved Peru. The people are extremely hard working and proud. From the Indians that I saw in Cusco and Machu Picchu to the Indians that I saw in the Amazon, they all were very family oriented and righteous people
The topography of the land is very diverse so you can travel Peru and experience everything that would please you including desert, mountains and amazon
I would whole heartedly recommend Machu Picchu as a MUST SEE to the likes of the Pyramids of Egypt, the Panthenon of Greece, and the Sisteen Chappel in Rome. For the non-wild folks, the ¨train to Machu Picchu is fine.
The Amazon does require someone who is adventurous though. The conditions are a bit rough but if you can hack the heat and evil mosquitos, it is well worth it.
Lima is no big deal so it is what it is.
THanks to all of you who read my long notes. I did not want to short change the experience but writing some short non-sense so I hope you enjoed this and enjoyed the pictures on KODAKGALLERY.COM
I will be back tomorrow and look forward to your emails and notes
God bless you all
rodney
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Garrett
non-member comment
Wow!!!
I luv'd reading about Peru. Sounds like it was an absolutely amazing trip!!!