Sunrise in the Amazon - this is how this picture turned out I didn't edit it at all I swear
Friday:
We had to be at the ISA office at 4am...keep in mind our host family's house is 5 minutes by car to the office. They wanted us to leave by 3:30am to go pick the two other ISA students from down the street. Our host mom turned into a drill sergeant at 3:25, she's tiny but she is very persistent. We were definitely the first to arrive, even before our director showed up. So our flight was suppose to leave at 6:30ish and we didn't leave until close to 8 because of weather. It was awesome flying out of Lima and clearing the thick clouds that cover the city and seeing the sun for pretty much the first time in 2 weeks!! The plane ride was only an hour but we flew over the Andes! (I have some amazing pictures from this trip, 200+ to be exact) Once we got to Iquitos our tour guides Ray and Rudy met us at the airport. The weather is hot and humid but I LOVED it! One of the ISA students has been really sick so our director went with him to the hospital to get a shot to make him feel better. While they were doing that Rudy took the rest of us in the bus to tour the city of Iquitos. It's crazy the dramatic difference between Lima and the northern city of Iquitos. Hardly any cars are in Iquitos, it's all motorbikes and motorbike taxis. And some of the people in Iquitos are very pushy when it comes to selling novelty items to tourists, they are very persistent. And the buildings have two extremes in Iquitos, they were either built during the time when the economy was good because of the rubber factories or they are shacks. In the central part of the city the buildings are very nice, this is where the Casa de Fierro (Iron House) is located..it was built by the same man you designed the Eiffel Tour. Right next to this building was a restaurant we walked through and I noticed random longhorns and burnt orange colors and I finally realized it was completely decked out in UT and state of Texas things, it's called The Yellow Rose of Texas! I was beyond excited to see that, they told me a man from Texas (and I guess a UT alum) married a Peruvian and moved to Iquitos and opened the restaurant, it's won a lot of awards too. I might not go to UT but it sure made me feel like I was at home seeing that!
After we picked up our director and the other student we took our two hour bus ride to Nauta where we would get on a boat for 45 minutes to the Pacaya Samiria Lodge. We stayed in 2 story bungalows! The entire trip was beautiful, it definitely looks like all the pictures from National Geographic! Our lodge was very pretty and they were so nice. We ate lunch then immediately went on a hike in the jungle, we had to wait for 3o minutes though so the downpour of rain would stop some. It was a definitely a workout walking in the humidity and up and down muddy hills but it was very interesting.
*Just a side note if you ever go to the Amazon bring old jeans..I didn't bring my jeans for fear of having none when I got back to Lima because I didn't know when our laundry would be done. I just had some like sweatpants and I definitely got hot.
After that we had a small break and at night we took a boat into the reserve to see what kind of creatures we could find. We saw 2 baby caiman alligators and Ray actually caught them both and lets us hold them. And we also saw a couple of birds. Then we went back to the lodge for dinner and everyone was worn out and went to bed by 10 or 10:30.
*Side note 2: the lodge only turns on the power from 6pm until 10pm and for like an hour in the morning. And there is no such thing as hot water there, not that you would want a hot shower after sweating all day but extreme cold isn't fun either.
Saturday:We heard some crazy noises all night! We think at one point a monkey ran across our roof! We were spoiled throughout this trip with amazing food. We left by 9am by boat to go back in the the reserve. The sun was gorgeous and I definitely got a sunburn on my shoulders and forehead..oops! Let me say if you ever go to the Amazon I'll give you Ray's contact information because he was awesome. We would be going 20+ mph in the boat and he would spot a sloth or iguana in a tree on the bank of the rive so easily! We saw two sloths, some iguanas and a lot of birds that morning. We stopped at the checkpoint entering the reserve and it's where two rivers meet, Ray told us the river dolphins like to stay in river joints so we saw a lot of dolphins! I couldn't get a picture of a pink dolphin though, they were to fast for me. They are very big and not that cute. We eventually stopped at a small village and we rented some canoes; those long, hollowed out trees that sit extreme close to the water. It was so much fun and a couple of the students got stuck on the water when it started to rain! We left there and went to a lagoon where dolphins normally are but they weren't there. We ended up going to where a little sandbar was and there were tons of dolphins there so we got to swim with the dolphins and the sun was out and it felt so good to be in the water! It was so cool. Then we had lunch that the lodge boated out to us, we had to be at least 30+ minutes by boat away -- I said we were spoiled this weekend right?
After lunch we went piranha fishing! We used cane poles and everything, you definitely have to be patient because piranhas don't actually bite the hooks. I caught one though! We went back to the lodge and played cards until dinner. After dinner some local children came and did a performance for us of local dances that tell a story, then it turned into a dance party. That was cool but I was so tired and my sunburn was killing me by then!
The piranha I caught, it's a big one but it's fin is curled up!
Woke up at 5:30 to go look for birds and go to a village where they have giant lily pads. The boat ride at dawn was so pretty! The hike through the village was a little rough because it was so early. We had a really good view of the river.(*Note: If you go to the Amazon make sure where ever you are staying has high knee rainboots, they will save your life!)They told us that part of the village had been washed away last time the water was really high. The water has stopped getting as high during the rainy season as it use to, I have pictures of the water marks from this past year and 2 years ago when the water would always be high. We went back to the lodge and had breakfast which felt like lunch because we had already been up for 4 hours.Afterward we went to a village close by to buy some crafts from them (I got my little cousin an authentic blowgun! minus the real darts though--family reading this no one tell him!) The village also brought out a baby sloth! A lot of us couldn't hold her though because we had just sprayed bug spray and the chemicals in the spray can kill the sloths. Some of the ISA students and our guides played soccer with the kids, it was a close game! We went back to the lodge and had lunch then immediately left. We took a 40 minute boat ride where the two rivers meet to make the Amazon, I believe they are called Maranon and the Ucayali but I might be wrong I don't have my map with me. From there we went to a village with an observation tower and saw the entire river...it's huge and pictures don't do it justice! We went back to Nauta and took the 2 hour bus ride back to the airport. We got back to Lima around 10pm and Emmi and I crashed by 11pm because we had class the next day :(
Me, Ray (our tour guide) and the sloth I couldn't hold :(
----I'm so glad I decided to go on this excursion, it was definitely worth the extra money. Not only was it a once in a lifetime experience but the ISA group that went was awesome, I love the ISA students and our director, I wish we all lived close in the States! Well Sarah Stone goes to A&M so I think we might plan to get together one weekend once we get back home. It's sad to know that because of global warming the Amazon is changing so much and the villages along the river banks are having to rebuild constantly. The area really does remind me of Texas in some ways, not the cities in Texas but the part of Texas that I grew up in. Going to Cow Creek, not have AC or other electronics for a weekend or a week, the simple life for sure. The people are very friendly there. I love the simplicity of their living and how they survive with such basic amenities and we freak out if we can't check our email or send a text after a few hours. I really want to try and think of a way of turning this trip, and my Lima trip in general, into a topic for a thesis. I'm not sure how yet and I haven't really had time to sit and think about everything that happened in the 3 days in Iquitos and 2 weeks in Lima. We are constantly going and if we aren't we are sleeping to rest before whatever is happening next. I would love to go back to Iquitos one day, especially now that I now what to expect.
Well I better go do my Spanish homework since that is what I'm here for. We only have 9 more days of classes left. I feel like I haven't put much effort into speaking the language, I can understand well enough but I can't converse back. I'm telling myself that this will be a good base to go back home with and take classes back home to continue to learn. (Some of the ISA students here have been taking Spanish classes for 7+ years). Our family is taking us to Bembos for dinner, it's suppose to be a really good hamburger place everyone tells the ISA students to try it out.
Wahoo!! Looks like fun, keeep it up!! :)
ReplyDeleteThe Eyes of Texas are ALWAYS Upon You! glad you are having such a grand experience! It is so great to get out of the box.
ReplyDeletelove,
Geralyn