In the jungle the mighty jungle: Iquitos!

Iquitos

So we were supposed to go to the rain forest..but thanks to the cloudy lima skys our flight got canceled after waiting in the airport for seven hours of delays. We waited around to try to get in on the next flight on Friday but that was a feria day here and the flights were full so we got our trip rescheduled for the next week. It worked out kind of cool cause now we have another three day weekend next week! While at the aiport we had the priveledge of being reminded about the swine flue..gripe porcina here. As soon as we got there I was jolted by the amount of people wearing masks. It made me nervous to be honest..but then it turned into a form of entertainment aw we tried to get as many pictures of masked people in the waiting room as we could.
Our first flight to Iquitos was canceled and we therefore had to wait a week to go. The week was very enjoyable though, and the trip tourned out great postponed one week. We left the Lima airport around 7 and got there around 9 , this time there weren’t so many people wearing the swine flu masks as the fervor over the flu had died down a little during the week. When we got to Iquitos immediately we felt the heat and humidity. It was almost like suffocating humidity but it really wasn’t that bad. Just different to get used to for the first few minutes. We had a personal tour guide and a package deal for the weekend so we got picked up by our guide and headed to our first hostel. The hostel was only like a block or two away from the plaza de armas which is always nice.
We went out in search of food and Henry and I went for the street food as we normally we do. He found a killer burger and I got mollejas de pollo which is the stomach or pancreas of chicken. It was surprisingly good.

Friday we got up and took our little boat from the city of Iquitos to our lodge Sichuhuy or something like that which was about an hour from Iquitos. I was shocked and in awe by the size of the amazon river ..it felt like I was on a lake! The boat was a cute little boat that we were all able to pile into with its thatched roof. I never imagined after learning about the amazon or hearing about it on the discovery chanel that I would actually be there and be able to touch it..que loco! We got to the lodge and it was soo cool. Its like all made of wood and very rustic but at the same time very comfortable. The river was really high so it was pretty flooded but everything is on platforms so we got to stay on like this little island. There were hammocks and everything..it was awesome. From there we headed out in another even smaller boat through the amazon for a little and learned about the area. We went to a little village and walked through the forest a little to the house of a shaman. He did a presentation about the local products and local herbs and other things that they use to heal people. it was really interesting, we got to drink the liquid that came from one of the plants..how cool. we walked through to this womans house where she had a sugar cane juicer. It was a cool contraption that you put the cane in and push down ona lever and the juices come out into the bowl below. We all got to try it for a little ebit..its hard work, I cant really imagine if that was my job forever..hard. We haeded back to the lodge and rested then lathered up in bug spray and headed out in our little eboat to listen to the sounds of the selva. It was bien interesante. The sounds were soo loud and clear it was like listening to one of those relaxing noise cds only live and way cooler plus it was helped by the fact htat there was a full moon that was incredible and brighter than I have probably ever seen the moon. I keep being places on this trip where the sky is just so impressive at night from El Chalten, to Ollantantambo y Pisac, to Ica..its so impressive and here was no exception it was sooo dark. Our hotel didn’t have electricity which was nice and very tranquil. We used oil lamps to light the paths and our rooms.. I felt like I was in a different world!
Saturday we got up early and headed out on the boat to ride around the rivers..the amazing thing about the amazon is how many tributaries there is..its like there is roads only they are made of rivers..and they are wide, and people ride around in little boats and houses are elevated..but we saw so many with the water almost up to the doors..we went through a place where there was a lot of water and we were literally having to use a machete to chop down little trees so our boat could go through..they were really small like banana trees and stuff..we got a really secluded area a dlooked at plants and birds and stuff..we went into a pretty foresty part to see this huge hidden tree and all of a sudden the guy in the fornt who had been cutting trees started going at something like crazy with the machete..turned out to be a snake of the fer-de-lance family that is one of the most venomous snakes there is and almost attacked the guys foot..he was like inches away from it and it kills you in three hours..wow..he had to hack at it for a couple minutes until he was able to hold it up dead for all of us to see..later kept riding around exploring the different parts of the river, ate lunch at a different lodge that was even more secluded, watched the impressive sunset over the water..the sky and clouds in that area are really impressive..then headed back for a tranquil dinner and calm evening. The next morning on Sunday we got up and did a boat tour of birds ., oh yeah we saw dolphins! A lot of regular dolphins are in the river ad there are also pink dolphins, that we only saw one of but it was awesome! There are a lot of local mythis about the pink dolphin like its magical, pretty interesting. We fished for piranhas using stickes and pieces of chicken hanging off the srings..two people got lucky and caught them then returned them to the water. Then we visited the yagua Indian tribe that is one of the main tribes in the area, they have kept their own language for many years and now since the government has helped to promote their culture through tourism, there are a few settlements in the area that we were in that we were able to visit them. we had a brief demonstration and danced and then got our chance to shoot blow guns= cool! We headed back for lunch and relaxed before making the trip back to Iquitos which is the highest, largest city in the world not accessable by roads. We had free time to shop at the artisans and eat..street food again! This time we had juane which is a rice dish served with chicken and other thigs inside and is served wrapped up in a banana leaf..very good! Then we ended our trip with a calm flight back to Lima