Amazon Archives - Wandering North

Peru South America

Final Day in Iquitos

The day we left Peru we did not fly out until the evening, so there was still one final day to enjoy. After luxuriating in our wonderful hotel room and breakfast buffet, i set out to the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm and animal rescue. To get there i took a 4 Sole tuk tuk ride from the hotel to Bella Vista-Nanay, a nearby town along a tributary of the Amazon. It had started to rain, so when i was dropped off at the muddy market along the river, i waited out the rain at a floating cafe and watched the boats depart.

I then found a boat heading to Padre Cocha, the village where my destination was located. I had been told that a boat would cost 20-30 Soles, but the going rate seemed to be 3, which suited me just fine. I got on a simple boat with a thatched roof and run by a rickety motor. I was the only tourist on the boat which was mostly filled with locals and items going to or from market. The trip wasn’t very long, but suddenly seemed to take forever when water began entering the boat and a couple of people had to pitch in, bailing water with buckets. This made me nervous, but we were always swimming distance from shore and i just tried to put giant Amazonian fish out of my mind. No one else seemed too concerned.

We arrived and i landed in the village. There were no signs, but the place wasn’t very big, so i just started walking, figuring that i would find a sign at some point. I walked past the simple houses, which were not on stilts, due to the village being elevated somewhat from the river. It was a pretty, sleepy little place and the few people i asked about the butterfly farm seemed to have no idea what i walk talking about, despite my passable Spanish and excellent butterfly charades.

Finally, i saw a sign, or rather, a series of signs, leading me along an increasingly tropical and beautiful jungle path.

I headed back by boat to Bella Vista-Nanay (this time suffering not a near sinking but an engine that regularly cut out and left us adrift), where i spent sometime at the market, ogling the giant grubs being grilled up for snacks (and being thankful of my vegetarianism).

We flew out that night, from Iquitos to Lima, Lima to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Vancouver. We even got upgraded to business class on one leg of the trip. The business class seats were entirely unbooked i guess and in some weird, racist airline policy, the only white people on the flight got bumped up. One couple, with a white woman and her Mexican partner, found that only she was offered an upgrade. I can’t support the policy, but i did not decline the upgrade. I’d never pay for first or business class, but it really is better.
I wish i didn’t know that.

And that was it for Peru. I am happy with the trip. I did everything I wanted to do and didn’t feel rushed. There is always more to see, but i am happy with our choices. I think I am done with South America for a while, but this was a great trip. Home now and time to start daydreaming about the next destination.

Peru South America

The Village in the Peruvian Amazon

Our third and final day at the Tahuayo Lodge in the Amazon was only a half day, as we were scheduled to go back to Iquitos by boat in the afternoon. After breakfast we took a boat downriver to a nearby village, nicknamed Los Chinos, for reasons i couldn’t really determine. The village was simple. Huts with thatched palm roofs and many sitting on stilts were located around a central field along the river and on the edge of the forest. The houses were very simple and were open at the sides. Few had walls, or had only half walls.

One man invited us into his home. It had a single room which served as living room, kitchen, etc. and then a separate area as a bedroom for him and his family. It was very simple and completely open. on the fire freshly caught river fish were grilling.

Most houses did not appear to have electricity, but some central, shared buildings had wires and satellite dishes and there was a public phone outside under a palm shelter on a wooden stand.

We spoke with (through our guide) a woman who was picking tropical fruit which could be used as both a medicine and a pigment.

Then it started to rain, gently at first and i naively said it was not a problem. Then it became a torrential, tropical downpour so heavy that it was blinding. We took shelter under an outdoor but covered area where a couple of women were cooking lunch for the whole school of kids. They had a fire going and were making fish, rice, and spaghetti. We warmed and dried ourselves by the fire (a smell, as it turned out, we would wear for the rest of the trip) and then pitched in helping with lunch. It was a marvelous way to wait out the rain until it was time to head out on the boat.

We said good bye to the lodge and sped back to Iquitos in the rain (this time taking half the time as it had to get there). We returned to the Casa Morey hotel where we found we had been upgraded. Our previous room was huge and more than adequate, but this room was so grand that we simply giggled upon entering. It was easily bigger than the main floor of Betty-Lou’s house and was many times bigger than my apartment. It had three big beds, 20 foot ceilings, and giant french door type windows that opened up with views of the Amazon and the city. There was a sitting room and a giant bathroom with an antique tub, and outside was another sitting area looking down on the pool. The hot shower was the best thing i could have imagined.

Peru South America

The Peruvian Amazon

Day two in the Peruvian Amazon began early – before dawn – so I could go on a bird watching trip. Full disclosure: I hate bird watching. It’s super boring in my opinion, but this was to be from a small boat on the Amazon, which sounded better than my last experience, which was standing in a wooden tower with binoculars.

The boat ride was lovely. The air was wonderful and the scenery was spectacular in the morning light. And yeah, we saw birds. It was a nice trip though I still am not excited by spotting a scarlet tanager, or whatever, high in a tree.

We returned to the lodge for breakfast, followed by a jungle walk that three of us and two guides went on. We walked for a couple hours, sometimes on pseudo paths and sometimes cutting our way through the trees with a machete. In some areas we were sucked into mid-calf-deep mud and in others we walked precariously along slippery logs. It was fun.

We did see some wildlife: a tree rat, some monkeys, a lizard, a millipede, and more frogs.

After our hike we relaxed at the lodge for a couple of hours, which of course meant that i lounged in a chair by the river with a couple of cigars. Then a group of us and several guides went out on a boat in search of the Amazonian pink dolphin. I was huge cynic setting out on this boat ride: sure, what were the chances that we would see the rare pink dolphin? Not bloody likely, but it’s nice to go on the boat. We set out and we saw a sloth high in a tree, a ton more birds, and some sleeping bats. The scenery was pretty. We traveled past some villages where people were visible along the shore, bathing and doing laundry, and the air was pleasant with the breeze from the boat.

And then, we saw them. Unexpectedly, slivers of bright pink started to appear around the boat. At least two and maybe four pink dolphins. It was quite exciting. I have no pictures to prove it because it was impossible to know when and where they would surface and the one picture i have where one is visible is so blurry that it looks like a grainy loch ness monster photo from the 1920s. But we saw them and it was pretty cool.

We opted out of a nighttime activity and Betty-Lou and i stayed in the lodge that night to play some cards before killing a hoard of cockroaches and going to bed. It was a very full day.

Peru South America

Return to the Jungle

We were picked up from our hotel in Iquitos by tuk tuk and taken to a boat dock along the Amazon. This would be my second trip to Amazon, the first having been in 2010 in Ecuador. It was a great experience and one i was happy to repeat, feeling like last time i had conquered my fears of darkness and nuclear-sized spiders.

The boat sped us along the brown river until it got narrower and the vegetation closed in, and then, finally about 4 hours later arriving at the Tahyayo Lodge. It was a welcoming sight, with its thatched roofs peeking out between the trees.

The lodge had common areas: a dining room, a hammock room, and a games room, and the rest was private cabins, some with washrooms and showers and some without. Everything was high on stilts to accommodate the rainy season when the river rises as much as 15 feet. The hammock room was the best, as it had lovely views over the river and a tree full of nests of particularly active and boisterous black and yellow birds.

Our room was cozy and had beds protected by mosquito nets, and a bathroom, which had a few too many cockroaches for my liking. The whole thing was made of jungle trees so it was enclosed, but still allowed in all of the steamy jungle air and wonderful (and at times frightening) sounds.

Everyone or group who was there got their own guide and we had ours: Tito. That first night, after dinner, we went on a nightie walk in the jungle. This is an activity i enjoy immensely, despite finding it terrifying. I’m not afraid of animals, but i hate the dark and the jungle at night is pitch black. Having a flashlight makes it manageable but no less scary. We walked for a while. We didn’t see too much: a tarantula, a couple of large frogs, and a giant leech (like over 12 inches long). The sounds of the nocturnal creatures were eerie. Finally we packed it in when it began to rain. Back at the cabin, Betty-Lou killed the visible cockroaches and we searched our beds by flashlight before tucking our mosquito nets in around us and settling in for a spotty sleep in the heat and humidity.

It’s far from comfortable, but it is an adventure.

Peru South America

The Belen Market, Iquitos

I never do this, but i am writing this post from Vancouver. I wrote my last post on the Peru trip in Peru the day before we went into the internet-free Amazon and then i was so sick the one day we had back in civilization before heading back that i didn’t feel like writing anything. So as i write this i am am nestled in a leather chair, with a cigar, back in Vancouver. But for now…back to Peru…

The morning before we went from Iquitos back into the jungle i went to the Belen market. I had tried to go the previous day but by the time i got there it was packing up. The next morning however i had no such problems. Belen is an area in Iquitos, partly made up of a floating village and partly made up of the sprawling market. It is unquestionably a poor neighbourhood and much of what i had read about the market before leaving for Peru was that it was too dangerous to visit alone. Of course i have heard that before and i know enough not to listen to such advice (which is usually just borne out of irrational fears and racism).

The market (a short walk from the main part of the river boardwalk) was intimidating on first arrival, only because the entrance is thresholded by a large pile of garbage and ankle deep mud. Oh well, i wasn’t clean anyway. Once inside, the market is a sensory experience, with all of the sights, smells and sounds of a jungle market (including raw meat and fish sitting for hours in the hot sun). Sure, there are the usual fruits and vegetables, plus those of the tropical variety. Then there are sacks of peppers, spices, grains, and flours. Women sit at booths and on the drier parts of the ground, selling their wares while wrangling their children.

Then there were fish – so many varieties and many so large, fresh from the amazon – being sold raw and being grilled over barrels for eating.

There were tables of outdoor, makeshift eateries, mostly with rice, fish, chicken and eggs. Then there was the butchery section, where the ground was slippery with blood and water and i was almost hit in the head with a half a dead hog being carried down a narrow aisle. I wanted to and did take pictures, but so as to not appear like a judgmental douche-bag, i smiled at all of the women and tried out my Spanish on them, identifying various body parts and smiling with approval before snapping pictures. I did see some large alligators getting butchered, but didn’t feel right taking a picture.

Then there were the aisles selling Amazonian medical remedies for everything from diabetes to impotence, depression to cancer. The remedies themselves consisted of brown powders to incense to bottles of amber liquid filled with vegetable and animal parts. There were also skulls and bones and feathers for sale and various parts of endangered creatures. Fancy a jaguar pelt? You could buy one for $40. I didn’t buy anything like that, but i did pick up some small cigars, which were allegedly rolled of locally grown tobacco.

I could have wandered around there all day, but i had to be back at the hotel to get picked up to go into the jungle, so i slowly found my way out of the merchant maze and walked back down the boardwalk to the hotel. If i had more time i would have taken a canoe tour through the floating village, but the schedule did not allow it and the jungle awaited.

Peru South America

Iquitos

Our trip to Iquitos should have taken about five hours. A short flight from Cusco to Lima and then short flight from Lima to Iquitos. There are no direct flights from Cusco to Iquitos at this time. We arrived at the airport at 5:30 am for our 7am flight, but at just after 7:00 we were told the flight was cancelled. We had to pick up our bags and check in again for another flight. The problem was, so did everyone else. The line, had we stood in it, would have kept us queued up for 3 hours. Some fast talking (and a few lies) got us out of the queue and on to a 12:00 flight to Lima and a 3pm flight to Iquitos…but the 12:00 noon flight was delayed by an hour. We did make our 3pm flight but it involved running at top speed through the airport to make the connection, which we did. Miraculously, so did our bags.

We stepped off the plane in Iquitos onto the tarmac and were hit with a wonderful blast of thick, tropical air as well as the first drops of a fantastic downpour, complete with lightning. Thankfully, shortly after checking in to our hotel the rain had stopped.

We stayed in Iquitos at the Casa Morey. It is a historic building, built originally as a mansion residence for a rubber baron at the turn of the 20th century. Iquitos was founded in the 1500s as a Jesuit missionary, but in the mid 1800s it was transformed by the rubber boom and consequently the city is filled with faded and crumbly buildings which once were splendid but now are only dim reminders of a time long past. Casa Morey has however been lovingly restored. It is covered with beautiful ajuelos and the common areas are filled with period furniture, including the lobby, breakfast room and library. The rooms by the pool are a bit more simple in decor but they are massive. Our room, which opens onto the courtyard pool, is gigantic and has 20 foot ceilings.

After checking into the hotel, we walked – in the dark – along the streets, which seem quite dangerous. Iquitos is the largest city in the world not accessible by road, so there are very few cars, but the streets are electric with tuk tuks (called mototaxis here) and motorcycles, none of which stop for pedestrians. In this and other respects it feels more like a South East Asian city than a South American one. The streets, like the buildings, are in poor repair, so we stepped carefully.

There is a marvelous boardwalk along the Amazon however. It is wide and pedestrian and lined with a mix of restaurants and civic buildings. At night the side along the river was black. We could see nothing but an inky black void. By day however the river side was revealed as the verdant, river landscape that it is.

That first night we had dinner in the oppressive humidity along the river on the patio of a restaurant and went to bed, tired after our long day of travel.

The next day before breakfast i went for an early morning walk. I crossed a wooden pedestrian bridge high above the river below. On the river was a cluster of very poor looking floating houses of wood and corrugated metal. At this time of the day many children climbed the steep stairs out if the village and up to the bridge in their school uniforms, which were impossibly clean, considering the state of the houses that produced them.

I walked along a busy street to where i saw cluster of tuk tuks and people and found that a market of sorts had emerged. People cooking and selling food for breakfast (rice, fish, chicken and eggs for the most part). People unloading fish and chickens and thousands of bananas, still connected to the tree limbs for pickup or sale. Women sitting on street selling chilies, potatos and other vegetables. It was busy and delightful. I strolled along for a while, politely declining the numerous taxi offers and headed back for breakfast at the hotel. I didn’t take many photos, because i felt so conspicuous, but i took a few when someone gave me an ok.

We spent the day in Iquitos walking and looking at the buildings and streets. There really aren’t any sites per se, aside from one building designed by Gustav Eiffel and shipped over in pieces from Europe (a building which is, in all honesty, not particularly attractive). So we just walked past shops and squares, and along the riverfront. We went to the Mercado Central and to several huts selling handicrafts and souvenirs. And we stopped a lot of fresh juices, to help with the heat and humidity. Our hotel had AC but few other places seemed to. The city is definitely run down, but it is interesting and there are reminders of its glory days past.

We enjoyed the wonderfully colorful graffiti down by the boardwalk.

In the evening over dinner at Dawn on the Amazon, a popular restaurant on the boardwalk, we eaves-dropped on various conversations, most of which had to do with ayahuasca ceremonies. A lot of travelers come to Iquitos to partake in ayahuasca ceremonies overseen by shamans and they are keen to discuss their experiences and how it has opened their minds. (Just take any 1967 era conversation about LSD and substitute ayahuasca for LSD and you’ll get the idea.) A number of westerners seem to have given up their lives back home to move here and follow this way of life. Ayahuasca is such a big thing here that many restaurants have special menus to cater to people on the drug/following the lifestyle. Probably needless to say, we did not partake, but we enjoyed listening in.

Our first whole day in Iquitos really allowed us to see everything, but we still had a half day more before going to the jungle lodge. I’ll save it for a new post.

Ecuador South America

Why It’s Called the Rain Forest

Wednesday morning after breakfast we hiked into the jungle to a kapock tree, around which a wooden scaffolding had been built. At the top, we were above the jungle canopy and had incredible views of the lush green sea. Our purpose there was to look for birds. I have never gone bird watching before, but now that I have i can say that i don´t enjoy it. Don´t misunderstand – i like seeing the birds, but when you are waiting for birds to appear, it is very dull. Fortunately, we didn´t have to wait long. We saw bright blue swallow tanagers and brilliant red summer tanagers, parrots, and many other birds the names of which I cannot recall. Later that day we saw flocks of nighthawks, black vultures and toucans flying overhead.

Our bird watching was cut short however when a heavy rain came out of nowhere. We climbed down the tree and put on our ponchos. Some people wanted to return to their huts, so Bolivar took them back. They rest of us went on a rain walk with Marco. We were wearing ponchos and wellingtons, so we were quite protected. The rain was amazingly heavy. The whole forest became intensely green and thick with mud. It was quite a lot of fun. Aside from a few frogs, there isn´t much to see when it rains like that, because all of the animals hide, but it was a great experience.

Later that day, while walking, I spotted a black millipede. When i saw my first one the other day i was fascinated by it, but wouldn´t touch it. This time however, i felt brave and I let it crawl on my hand. Its many feet tickled a bit and it was not slimy. It was covered with shiny black armor. I am making progress in my fear of insects!

In the afternoon we tried our hands at piranha fishing. We had fishing line and hooks baited with chunks of raw meat. I did not have any luck. The piranhas, happily ate my bait, but i couldn´t get them on the line. A few people did catch some though and they ate them for dinner later that evening.

In the evening, we hung out and chatted and I read and went outside for a while to look at the stars and lightening. The rain quieted our activities a bit, but it was a very nice, relaxing day.

Later, when I returned to my hut for the night, there was a brightly painted wooden tortoise on my bed – a parting gift from the lodge. It really is a wonderful place. I recommend it highly.

Ecuador South America

Welcome to the Jungle: Day Two

I woke up at 5am and had coffee while watching the sunrise over the lagoon. It is so incredibly peaceful, just watching flocks of birds swoop over the water and the odd indigenous jungle resident silently sailing by on a dugout canoe.

I had breakfast (toast, yogurt and fruit) and then a very serene canoe ride down the river to a clay bank where dozens of parrots gather to eat the clay, which helps them digest certain fruits. We then went for a walk through the jungle and encountered a cocoa tree. I ate quite a bit of the fruit – basically, you suck this sweet white goo off of the bitter seeds. It was good.

We then went to the home of an indigenous family. They lived in this two room hut on stilts. The littlest girl (about 4 maybe) had a pet baby monkey – only 1 month old – the monkey sat on her head. She let me hold it and it clung to my chest. So adorable.

We walked a bit more and then learned how to shoot a blow gun. Our indigenous guide put a papaya on a stick and that was our target. I didn´t hit it, but i came close.

As our stroll continued, we encountered a large troupe of squirrel monkeys playing in the trees. They leapt from branch to branch and then they sat and watched us watching them. On this walk we learned about the various medicinal plants in the jungle. Plants that aid in healing a variety of ailments. We samples many of them. One tree has thick red sap, called Dragon´s Blood. It is good for a number of things, including helping to soothe itchy mosquito bites, which I was relieved to discover. We also ate the bark from one tree which is bitter with quinine, which I hopefully will not need, as i have been taking my malaria pills daily.

Now, I should say that on every trip I have at least one great fall, usually I step off a side walk and fall into the street. My great Ecuadorian fall happened this day. We were boarding our canoe, which involved walking along the length of another dugout canoe. I was first, so i had to walk right down to the end of the canoe. I was almost there when i lost my balance and fell, partly into the Amazon river. I was fine, sadly, my camera was not. The memory card survived (thank god) but the camera has not. Thankfully a kind girl at the lodge let me use her extra camera (which was compatible with my memory stick) for the rest of my adventures in Amazonia.

After a delicious lunch of avocado, beans, soup and fruit, i lay outside, overlooking the water and read and enjoyed a cigar.

Later that night, after dinner, we went on a late canoe ride. It was completely black and I could see an amazing array of stars and constellations. We saw caymans looking at us with their red eyes and saw bats fishing. Very cool.

That evening, as on every evening, we sat around in the common area and chatted. Most of the people there were quite delightful and the staff was excellent, including Pepe, the bartender, who made me some fruity cocktail. (I figured i should have at least one.)

It was this day that as I finished my shower I noticed the large gecko on the ceiling of my bathroom.

That night i slept fine. Earplugs make a huge difference. A number of women at the lodge though admitted that they took Zanax (i don´t know if that is how it is spelled) every night before bed. I was happy with ear plugs.

I will write about day three and catch up to the present day tomorrow morning.
Adios, amigos.

Ecuador South America

The Creature From the Black Lagoon

I have returned from the depths of the Amazon Jungle, where i was exploring from a base on a black water lagoon on a tributary of Rio Napo. There is so much to say, so I will not say it all now. I will start at the beginning and stop at the end of the first day.

I caught an early flight from Quito to Coca on Monday morning, where I took a bus to the River. On the River I caught a motorized canoe to a smaller part of the river where I switched to a dugout canoe, then hiked a bit to reach the the La Selva Lodge. The canoe ride was amazing! it was just like being on the jungle cruise ride at Disneyland, except a million times better.

It is a wonderful place, right on the lagoon and in the jungle. It has a main building with a dining room and social area and then it has a number of huts. All of the buildings are built entirely out of bamboo and roofed in palm fronds. No other materials, so they are pretty rustic accommodations, but they are so charming! All of the huts are on stilts and have little balconies with hammocks. They have a beds with mosquito nets and do have electricity and running water in the bathrooms, but only from 6am to about 10pm. Because of the way the huts are made, they have huge gaps in them and all sorts of creatures can come inside. I didn´t have any awful bugs that I am aware of, but I did have a large lizard living in my bathroom and a family of fruit bats that slept hanging from the ceiling at night.

Once at the lodge I was put into a group of 5 other people with whom i would be doing my jungle exploring. There was a mother-daughter duo from London, a Couple from Helsinki, a couple from Victoria, and a girl traveling solo from London. We all got on quite well, which was great.
We had some lunch and then we went on our first hike in the jungle. A few comments about the jungle:

-it is very hot and very humid. Think of a particularly humid day in Miami in August. Yeah, like that. I was sopping wet in minutes and stayed that way for the entire trip. It was pretty great though, once you accept it.

-it is very loud and alive. Everything is moving and strange sounds come from all sides, including underfoot and overhead. Frogs, insects, birds, monkeys and sound of trees moving and dropping leaves and fruit…it is quite overwhelming.
everything is enormous.

-So we walked and saw an incredible variety of plants and birds. We walked with an amazingly knowledgeable guide, Marco, and an indigenous guide, Bolivar. Bolivar did not speak English, but he was incredible. He could spot a monkey sitting still and camouflaged from 20 yards. We saw, amongst other things, a fascinating parade of leaf cutter ants, a group of black mantled tamarin monkeys, and two dusky titi monkeys. It was incredible.

-We had some down time after our walk and i retired to my hammock with a cigar. A word about hammocks–it is impossible to feel bad while lying in one. Try it. I defy you to try to remain angry or upset whilst in an hammock. What is better than lying in a hammock is doing so in the amazon jungle with a cigar. I was so relaxed and so in awe of my surroundings. It was perfect.

After dinner (the food was marvellous, by the way; something different at every meal and special vegetarian treats for me) we went on a night walk. For those of you who don´t know, i am afraid of only 2 things, bugs and the dark. The walk required me to summon all of my courage. You see, it gets dark in the jungle. Put out your flashlight and you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face. Also, the jungle is FAR louder at night.

We saw a myriad of creatures–vine snakes, a pink-footed tarantula, many red rumped tarantulas, scorpion spiders, armored millipedes, giant cockroaches and many types of frog. I liked the reptiles, but the bugs were creepy.

After that, I went to bed. The lights go out at 10pm, so you want to be in bed before that. I got into bed, securely tucked my mosquito net in around my mattress and tried to sleep. What ensured was a sleepless night of terror. I couldn´t see anything and I’m not sure I would have wanted to. A bat was flapping either in my room or just outside the window, the jungle sounds seemed to grow louder and closer, I could hear creatures walking under my hut and the humidity was oppressive. (There is a ceiling fan, but with no electricity, no fan). I probably slept for about 3 hours. It was terrible. On a positive note, however, my second two nights were fine. Once i knew what to expect, I wasn´t bothered by the sounds a bit and slept just fine.

So that, in a (coco)nut shell, is my first day in the jungle.
I will write more before I retire for the night.

Tag: Amazon