Amazon Jungle Cruise

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We arrived in Iquitos after dark and were immediately surprised by all the mototaxis and motorcycles! There is no way to drive into Iquitos; it is only accessible by boat or air. Cars were few and far between and the rules of the road for the motorcycles and mototaxis seemed to be "don't run into anyone" and that's about it! Lanes were just a suggestion and no one wore a helmet. The owner of our cruise company, Dawn on the Amazon, met us as soon as we arrived at our hotel and suggested a day trip to the Butterfly Farm for the next day. We had a huge dinner of rice for me (still feeling a bit sick to my stomach) and a giant pile of deep fried alligator, yucca and who knows what else for Chuck and Morgan. We ate at the Yellow Rose of Texas and the proprietor makes a mint beer and a chili pepper beer which we had to sample.

The next morning we had breakfast around the corner and met up with Richard, our guide, who ushered us into mototaxis for an exhilirating ride to the dock. We were soon on the water in the small boat used for day trips. The heat in town had been oppressive and we were glad of the breeze on the Amazon. As we putted along, I had one of those moments, thinking "I can't believe we're really on the Amazon!" The Butterfly Farm turned out to be one of the best of our Amazon experiences. In addition to farming the beautiful butterflies of the rain forest, it is also a wildlife rehabilitation centre. This was not the original intent of its' owner, but once she took in one orphan animal she developed the reputation and people kept bringing them to her! Most of the animals are re-released into the wild and there are also wild monkeys that hang around because of the free food. We spent an amazing hour just hanging out with these monkeys, which included Howlers, rare Red-Faced monkeys (also called English monkeys at one time because they look like a gringo with a sunburn!) and Squirrel monkeys. The most interactive were the Red-Faced guys who would pick through our hair in search of bugs and who enjoyed the same treatment from us. I could have spent another hour in their company, but we moved on to explore the rest of the compound, which also housed a jaguar (a permanent resident), a Giant Anteater, a baby two-toed sloth, a capybera (sp?) and the many beautiful butterflies.

After a delicious lunch on the boat, including champagne, we visited the local Serpentarium, which was to be a disturbing experience after seeing how well the animals at the Butterfly Farm were treated. Apparently this Serpentarium had been raided by government officials and all the animals released due to poor living conditions, and the owners just went out the next day and got more. We saw three-toed sloths, woolly monkeys and anacondas, all in dirty cement enclosures with filthy water, inappropriate foods and nothing to do. One of the little monkeys latched on to Chuck and it was all I could do to keep from bursting into tears as I imagined he was looking for rescue. It was easy to feel anger towards the owners of such a place, but they do this in order to make a living and the animals are neglected through ignorance, not malice. We wracked our brains thinking of ways we could help but could not come up with any. If anyone reading this has any suggestions, let me know! We left wishing we hadn't visited and I hoped that seeing animals in the wild on our River Cruise would reassure me as to the state of the Amazon Rain Forest.

The next morning we had another death-defying (okay maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but it did wake us up!) mototaxi ride to the docks and we boarded our home for the next week, the Dawn on the Amazon. We had chosen the "adventure" option rather than the "luxury" option, so we would be sleeping in hammocks in the open air on the boat for 6 nights. The first two days of our journey were spent just travelling as we were going upriver against the current trying to reach the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. We had expressed our desire to see wildlife and had been told that this was the best place to go. I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed pace and the delicious meals that were prepared for us three times a day, but Chuck and Morgan became a bit restless. I didn't even step off the boat for the two days, enjoying reading, journal-writing, endless card games and just watching Amazon River life, but the boys jumped at the chance to explore the village where we stopped to stock up on ice and the most important necessity, beer.

Once we reached the reserve, we stopped at a local village to pick up a local guide and headed into the smaller branches of the river (which is not actually called the Amazon this far south). We saw the pink river dolphins diving for fish and frolicking as dolphins do. They are strange creatures because of their round heads and almost human colouring. We did some pirahna fishing (well I just watched) and were not disappointed! Our first jungle walk was a highlight for me. It was amazing to absorb the sounds, sights and smells of such a lush, rich environment. Everywhere we looked there was something crawling, flying or jumping and there were plants growing on everything, including other plants! Unfortunately the photos don't do it much justice as the canopy was so dense that it was quite dark along the trails. When a particular trail was overgrown, our guide would hack through the foliage with his machete! We didn't see monkeys on our first walk but on later walks we saw Howlers and Squirrel Monkeys. They peered at us as we peered at them, and then bounded away through the canopy.

That night the boys went caiman hunting and caught a little guy, who I observed once his jaws had been bound with duct tape. They also caught these weird pink, veiny, almost-blind catfish that made noises of distress with their little gaping mouths! The first night was to be our first experience with Amazon mosqitoes and they are truly as fierce as we had heard! We all slept in hammocks that night and any arm or leg that was touching the mosquito nets came away with bloody welts the next morning! Poor Chuck didn't fit in his net and his feet were the worst off. He tried sleeping on a mat for the rest of the trip but inevitably a foot or an elbow would protrude from the net and the bugs would feast! I stayed in a hammock the whole time and it was like being in a nest or a kids' fort. Once it got dark and the bugs came out I would look forward to getting into my hammock cocoon!

Our three days in the Reserve were spent in similar fashion with fishing, jungle walks and swimming (the piranhas do nibble!) during the day and caiman hunting and fishing at night. I went out twice to hunt the caiman and the ability of our guide to pick out their glowing red eyes from the darkness of the riverbank was amazing! We would sneak up on them with our guide slowly and silently paddling the little wooden canoe until we were almost on top of them, they they would dart away with a splash and I would inevitably shriek like a little kid! It was amazing to glide along in the silent canoe with the nighttime jungle noises all around us and the only spot of light being from our big boat in the distance.

Our last day in the Reserve dawned rainy and it took only a day and a half to return to Iquitos now that we were going with the current. I was thouroughly satisfied with our experience, but I know that Chuck wished that we had had a bit more activity. He grew restless on the days we spent on the boat and the nights being spent eaten by mosquitoes didn't help! Were we to go back, we might chose the "luxury" option of a boat with cabins and we would try to do a trip that included some activity each day. My only disappointment was that we didn't see a tapir, although we heard it's calls at night.

Arriving back in noisy, hot, bustling Iquitos was kind of strange after a whole week spent at such a peaceful, relaxing pace. Morgan left and Chuck and I treated ourselves to a hotel with air conditioning, a TV and a fridge! We spent the next day doing nothing much: a bit of shopping, a quick walk through the stinky, garbage-strewn Belen market (I'm not sure why this is listed as a tourist attraction) and an afternoon nap. We had our last dinner in Iquitos feeling like we had experienced the best it had to offer and were eager to get out of the stifling heat and humidity to fly to the cooler weather of Lima.

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Comments

[alayne]

thank you
This sounds wonderful, we are planning a trip to south america next year and look forward to a river boat trip. Great information...thank you!!