Blogs from Loreto, Peru, South America - page 15

Day 10! Only 19 more to go.. =( Hope it doesn´t go too fast- I am loving this place! Still sick today so taking it easy. I did make it to the school, Nuestra Sra. de la salud, where the kids were a little shy. Took quite a bit of effort to get them to smile for pictures, as you can probably see... kidding. They love being able to see the pictures on the cameras after we take them. No more waiting to get home, dropping off the film, and then seeing all the memories of vacations. Can´t say I am complaining at all about that! I tend to get a little impatient when it comes to waiting for pictures, as some of you know. Used to do that whole one hour developing thing. Took ... read more

Today was a long day with a lot of activities so be prepared for a long entry! After a small breakfast at the hotel, we were on our way to Cahuide, a school run by ACEER that promotes and focuses on environmental conservation. The school is located about 1 hour from the hotel, and all of the teachers are staff of ACEER. There are approximately 100 students at the primary school level (elementary and middle school) and 75 students at the secondary level (high school). As a welcome to Iquitos and Cahuide, the students had prepared a show for all of us, dressing as animals and hunters and re-enacting what takes place in the jungle. We got to sample ubillos, which are similar to leche nuts that you might find at a chinese restaurant. Very ... read more

I love the people of Iquitos! They are full of warmth and generosity. I was walking home from dinner in Iquitos one night and a little boy, no more than 9 years old, came running up to me and hugged me so tightly! He looked up at me and said (in Spanish), “You are from India but you live in the United States, right?” I was so surprised and I responded “Yes.” And then he said, “You were here last year, right?” He had mistaken me for another Indian girl from the States but he was so happy that I couldn’t bear to break his heart. Whoever she was, she must have made quite an impression on this young man. I replied that I was and I was so happy that he remembered me. We ... read more

We're hungry! There's no electricity, so the kitchen keeps food in coolers with blocks of ice. Some of the meat and fish have been salted in order to preserve them. Yuck! Oh well, we have crackers and cheese in our suitcase. This morning we went fishing at 6:00 a.m. It's beautiful in the Amazon in a small wooden dugout canoe as the animals all wake up for the day. We were fishing with a wooden pole and a line tied to the end. Edson brought along some bait and some breakfast, and I'm not sure which was which. The fish were certainly biting, but lots of them just wanted to eat our bait. We ended up catching piranha, sabolo, catfish, and some others that I don't even know the name of. It was really a ... read more

We were awakened this morning by the squawking of two scarlet macaws and the wooly monkey. Apparently, they like to tease each other in a very noisy way. Our headlamps were a huge help last night. Since we're so close to the equator the days and nights are each about 12 hours long, so it gets dark about 6:00. This morning we hiked through the jungle to the canopy zip line. The hike was muddy and unbelieveably hot. We felt like extras in an Indiana Jones movie. The zip line had 3 platforms that were about 100 feet up in the canopy of the rainforest. We were harnessed up, hoisted to the first platform, then zipped from one to the next. It was great, but not nearly long enough. The heat was getting to Sally, ... read more