Amazon Adventures

IQUITOS
We so enjoyed our time in the Amazon, the part in northern Peru based out of Iquitos.  We arrived Thursday night to stay in a hostel in Iquitos...thank goodness for window mounted air conditioners!!  We certainly were not in cold Cuzco anymore!!  Hot and very humid does not begin to describe it.  Iquitos is separated from the rest of Peru due to its location...you can only reach it by boat or plane.  There are about 20,000 bike taxis that rule the roads with no visible rules of the road, yet we witnessed no accidents.  In the morning, the company picked us up and took us over to have some breakfast before taking an extremely lame ¨walking tour¨of the neighorhood, just wasting time until the boat was ready to depart.  We finally made it to the peer and some very strong men carried our (and others) suitcases down several wabbly flights of stairs on the peer to the boat which was waiting for us.

AMAZON Ride and Lodge

We traveled along this tributary for quite some time before it opened into the real Amazon River, where the water actually changed color!  Amazing.  After about an hour, we pull up to a make-shift dock and are helped into the jungle by some other nice guys.  We walk along this really long, covered walkway to the lodge bungalows deeper in the forest.  Words can´t describe the array of jungle noises (jungle orchestra) that filled the humid air.  Our bunglalow had 3 beds and a small bathroom and was lined with screened walls.  Totally awesome!!!  At night we could hear triple the jungle noises and music made by all the different animals and insects, as well as the jungle rain...that sure cooled things off quite a bit which we appreciated.  The food was ok - always eggs and bread for breakfast, heart of palms salad, rice, and meat for lunch and dinners.  To tell you the truth, by day 4, I couldn´t even eat another bite of rice or eggs!!!  But it wasn´t that bad.  All the guys there were so helpful and nice.  We were joined in our group by the Peruvian Vazquez family from Chicago and they were lots and lots of fun.

Amazon Excursions
We did a few excursions during our 4 days, including walks through the dense jungle, visiting a native tribe, going fishing for pirahnas, being attacked by monkeys at Monkey Island, holding sloths, boa snakes, and baracuda fish that jumped into our boat, watching for pink and gray dolphins, visiting a sanctuary of caimanes and huge sea monster fish, to many rides up and down the river and walks through the jungle.  We loved the rain, especially if we were indoors, but sometimes walking in it getting drenched was fun, too.  We had to wear rubber boots because of all the mud and our pants just got filthy.  I ended up leaving both pairs of my trail pants there - in the humidity, our clothes grew!!!

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LIMA
We spent yesterday chillaxing until our ride through the rain back to Iquitos and then to the airport.  There was a mistake in our flight time, so we ended up sitting in the boring tiny airport there for more than 4 hours!!  Our bed and breakfast in Lima is really the nicest place we´ve stayed and we have enjoyed being slightly pampered with a nice bathroom, comfy beds, soft towels, and a yummy breakfast buffet and a very kind staff.  Glad to spend 2 days here!  (And we´re glad to see that the toilet and shower water is clear again...in the Amazon, it was always brown....yuck!!)  We can´t believe our 18 days ends tomorrow night and that we´ll be headed back to the hot, dry heat, but I think I speak for us all when I say...Peru has been awesome, but we´re tired of traveling and living out of a suitcase. 

This may be our last blog post for the trip...thank you for coming along with us!  We´ve enjoyed your comments through the blog, Facebook, and emails.  What an experience of a lifetime!