My birthday...and cruisin down the ´Zon.

Attn readers: Watch over the next couple of days as we get caught up with our amazon adventure!

After a night of freezing our butts off we awoke bright and early...yet again. I had the air conditioner set to 18 degrees celcius because it is sooo muggy and sticky outside in Iquitos. But regardless of how cold it was, we still woke up feeling gross in the room. We packed our bags with only our essentials and locked up our big suitcases so we could leave them at the explorama offices.

We went downstairs for breakfast and were greeted by our guide. His name is Segundo and he has worked for Explorama for 39 years (keep in mind the company has only been around 44, talk about seniority). We ate some breakfast and then boarded the bus. We were off!

Our adventure began with an hour and a half boat ride up the Amazon river. We floated up the river on a three story boat, the Amazon Queen. We sat on the top deck and took in the passing landscape. We passed small villages with huts, kids playing in the river and women washing landry on its banks. As we passed the place where the Ninay river and the Amazon river meet we spotted several dolphins jumping around and playing. It seemed to be a good omen for the trip.

The banks of the Amazon

We continued our adventure when we arrived at Cieba Tops. Cieba Tops is the luxury lodge of the Explorama chain. It features actual rooms with air conditioning and even a pool with a water slide. We disembarked here to find that we were the only passengers continuing on deeper into the jungle. From there we took a small, motorized boat back down river for about 10 minutes and pulled up to a little village. In the village we caught a motortaxi that cut across the island to meet up with the Napo river. We boarded a speedboat with Segundo and several other Explorama workers and took off for our lodge. 45 minutes later, up the Sucsayri tributary we got our first glipse of our lodge.

Our lodge, the ExplorNapo

The ExplorNapo

ExplorNapo lodge is located 100 miles into the Amazon. It is the 2nd farthest of all the Explorama lodges. The bathrooms are pit toilets, latrine style, there is no running water, no electricity...no windows even. The rooms are smalls rooms with an open window (no screen), thatched roofing and mosquito nets to sleep under. It was rustic to say the least. They provide kerosene lamps and fresh drinking water to use.

Welcome to Fantasy Island...

Room 31, home sweet home

We walked up the steps and into the dining hall where Segundo gave us the lay of the land. We would be staying in room 31 at the explornapo lodge. After dropping our bags off in our room we explored a bit. We headed to the front where we saw the trumpet birds that live at the lodge. Here we met Charlie, the pet capybarra of the lodge. The capybarra is the world´s largest rodent and he makes a sound that sounds like some sort of laser gun. For being a rodent, he´s pretty cute. We made our way to the hammock room where we waited for lunch to be served.

Charlie.....

Outside of our room....I´m cowering in the corner.

Lunch was a spread, with fish, rice, beans and fruit. It was some of the best food we had eaten the entire trip. After letting our food digest, we headed out to the nearby botanical gardens. Here we saw different demonstrations of plants that are grown in the garden and the way that the native people use them to cure their illnesses. The shaman, Guillermo even let us try some dragon´s blood, which is supposed to cure insect bites. After the garden, we headed out on a hike through the rainforest. Segundo took off at a breakneck pace and we followed behind, taking in the sights and sounds of the Amazon rainforest. We visited the pet macaws for the ACTS research center nearby. A trail of leaf cutter ants crossed our path and we watched their work for a while, taking pictures. We made our way to the nearby canopy walkway. The canopy walkway is made up of netted walkways suspended between 14 trees. The highest point is 118 ft above the rainforest floor. Essentially it consists of aluminum ladders with wooden placnks wired on, all suspended in a netted walkway between two trees. It was terrifying but beautiful at the same time. We were up around sunset and the view was breathtaking; we were up above all of the trees of the forest.

Macaw at ACTS.

Leaf Cutter Ants crossing the path

The Canopy Walkway

Between trees 5 & 6...fearing for my life.

22 years old...and thats Dragon´s blood on my arm...not some crazy Amazonian disease.

Does this look stable/safe to you??

We made our way back to the Explornapo lodge only to find that the trail we were supposed to take was completely submerged in water. We backtracked a bit and made our way onto a new trail. We made it back to the lodge in time to take a quick shower before dinner. The showers were cold but incredibly refreshing. No matter what you do, you cannot recover from the heat and humidity of the rainforest. You are constantly sticky and sweaty. There is no relief. We grabbed a quick beer (purchased from Dennis at the bar) and headed out to swing in the hammocks. There also happened to be a large group of teenagers staying at the lodge so the hammock room was jumpin and swaying! We made our way back to the dining hall to have dinner with Segundo. Dinner was beef with a wine sauce, lentils, rice and vegetables. After dinner, Segundo told us to grab our flashlights because we would be headed out on a night cruise to look for animals.

After lathering up with bug repellant and grabbing our flashlights, we headed out to a small canoe...just us, Segundo and 2 assistants to help steer the canoe. We headed out in the pitch black night under a blanket of stars. There were more stars then I had ever seen in my life, and we were even lucky enough to spot the southern cross. We made our way through the pitch black, totally in awe of the way the driver was able to navigate without any light, when we turned up a small channel off the river. Segundo told us to turn on our flashlights and just start looking around. We crept deeper and deeper into the channel, passing through vines and listening to the amazing sounds of the jungle around us. Segundo spotted a couple of sleeping hummingbirds, frogs, spiders and even an owl butterfly. He had eyes like a hawk and seemed to spot animals without any sort of trouble.

An Owl Butterfly...side 1.

Whoa! Owl butterfly Side 2. Its´ defense mechanism...

We made our way back to the lodge where we stayed up, talking to Segundo. Segundo was born and raised in the jungle and is the most knowledgable guide at Explorama. He told us that he had taught himself English by listening to the tourists and guides he drove around. His first job at Explorama was filling the boats with gas and eventually moving up to be a guide. After drinking our fill of Iquiteña beer, we headed for bed.

We changed quickly and jumped under the safety of our mosquito nets. Amongst the sounds of the rainforest, we fell asleep. Dad forgot to go to the bathroom before bed and stayed up debating what we the best thing to do. His flashlight had burned out in the night and the 6 beers were catching up with him. He eventually resigned to walking all the way to the latrines, borrowed my flashlight and took off. I´m glad to say he made it back without a problem.

It was a great way to spend my birthday and a great start to our Amazon adventure! We tried to get a good night sleep before our big morning of Pirhana fishing!!!

Adios!

Grubs: Slimy yet Satisfying

This morning we woke before the sun. We got ready and walked across the street to the Lima airport. Our flight to Iquitos left at 4:55 am. We sat in the waiting area with the rest of the travelers, jungle junkies. The plane took off and we were able to watch the sunrise over the jungle. It was beautiful. We touched down in Iquitos to a landing strip that looked straight out of a movie; old junky planes covered in vines and jungle around us. The whole airport seems to be contained in one room.

This was not our plane...thankfully

As our bags came out, we met a rep. from our hotel who drove us through Iquitos. The saying here is that the motorcars are the mosquitos of the city. They are everywhere. Our guide later went on to tell us that there are 20,000 motorcars in Iquitos alone.

Iquitos lies on the edge of the Amazon river and is only accesible by plane of boat. It is a bustling little town that was thrown into expansion by the Rubber Boom back in the early 20th century. It lies 8-9 hours by speedboat from the border of Brazil. Our driver offered us the name of his friend to call if we wanted a tour of the city. As we pulled up to our hotel his friend happened to be waiting in the lobby for us. He only spoke Spanish so it was the beginning of a fun day.

Belin and the Amazon River

The weather here is hot and humid. With 5 or 10 minutes our hair turned soft (or in my case huge) with the humidity. The rest of our trip we have been trying to cope with high altitude and the dryness that accompanies it; it is strange to experience the exact opposite while still being in the same country.

After checking in, we grabbed our guide, Armando and he whizzed off in his motortaxi (a motorcycle like rickshaw, like we talked about before) toward the Belin market, a market known for its rare and bizarre finds. The market is not exactly tourist friendly, but with Armando there it was like packing a 357 cal. The market greeted us with new sounds and smells. Things we had never before seen. It´s hard to describe what I even saw at the market. It was the most amazing collection of things I´ve ever seen. We started walking through produce; pinapples, palm leaves, whole bunches of bananas and the fermented juice we had learned about. Natives chew on this root and spit it into a jar and they let it ferment to make a kind of alcoholic jungle juice.

The bustling marketplace

Fresh fish

From produce we moved onto fish. These fish were fresh, straight out of the river. There were piranna and other crazy looking fish with teeth. We saw alligator and armadillo. There were chicken, capyberra, huge snails (live!)...every kind of meat you could imagine. That is until we came upon the grubs. Armando pointed out a bowl of live moving grubs...like something off survivor. The woman also had some that were grilled on a fire. After Armando trying to convince us to eat the live ones, Dad asked the woman how much for a skewer of cooked ones. For 1 soles we got 3 grubs, probably the size of your index finger, around and long. We dipped them in salt and dug in. They actually weren´t that bad (except for when you had to chew their head which was crunchy, like chewing an egg and hitting a piece of shell). We left our grubs and continued on toward the potions we had heard so much about.

Every kind of meat you could imagine...

Me holding a live grub...

The next stalls were filled with potions all made of natural plants and things found in the amazon. There were pieces of Anaconda, boa, turtle; all for curing things we use modern medicine for. There were aphrodisiac juices and love potions. One lady even showed us some juice that she said cured cancer. It was an amazing sight to see. The sad part was that we saw skulls and body parts from all kinds of rare and beautiful animals. It´s difficult, but we had to remind ourselves that this is their way of life here and we cant pass judgement on their beliefs.

Armando shows us potions. with a snake head in his hand.

From the market, Armando took us into the Barrio of Belin. Dad had been looking foward to this the entire trip, so he was pretty much peeing himself on the way there. Belin is a floating town, the venice of south america. The water fluctuates 45 feet at some places in the river, during the rainy season. When the rains come, they all either move to their second story, or their house is contructed to float on top of the water. We got into a hand carved canoe and took of to observe the place around us. It was the most stark and bleak look into people´s lives that I have ever witnessed. Poverty is everywhere and the living conditions were horrible. The houses have no running water, or clean water or that matter. Their bathrooms float on the lake with them and the bathe and wash all of their clothes and utensils in the same water. The governmnt is no help because of the corruption. There are floating mini markets, where a guy pulls his boat up to your house and you can buy water or sugar or whatever you need. And right up dad´s alley, floating roach coaches. Its just a canoe with a lady with a bunch of pots of food to buy straight out of her canoe. Most people fish the river for their food. Armando says that at 13 or 14 kids arent kids anymore; its time for you to grow up and get a job.Prostitution is rampant in the cities at night.

Notice the second story

The left house has 2 floors, the right floats when the water rises.

on the river.

The floating roach coach

We stopped for a drink at a little shop overlooking the Plaza de Armas. It was nice to sit and rest; with the humidity (at least 85%) our shirts were soaked. From there Armando took us to a dock where we boarded a "tick tick", a little motorized canoe. It has the engine and then a ten foot shaft that goes to the propeller. We took off down the Ninay river, a tributary of the Amazon river, to go visit a local tribe. The trip down the river was peaceful and relaxing. I could hear the birds and creatures over the engine noise and it was like something out of a movie. There were fishing nets set out, with soda bottles for floats. We saw a floating clinic, a huge multileveled vessel that traveled between Iquitos and all the way to the border offering medical help. We docked about a half hour later and got off the boat to hike in about 10 minutes.

The motor.

We hiked in and came upon a native drum. The drum signaled that we were coming to visit the Bora tribe. We walked in some more and were greeted by the tribe. They took us into a large hut where one of the tribesmen (head ball toucher) explained that they would show us one of their dances. About 6 other people came in and began dancing and singing. They pulled us up and made us dance with them. (take a second to imagine dad, petrified out of his mind with a camera around his neck, flocked by scantilly clad natives dancing. priceless). Dad says they were naked when we first came up, and i guess i believe him. Then we browsed their merchendise, bought a few things to show our appreciation, passed out all of our candy to young and old alike and then hiked back to the boat.

our new friends

From here, Armando stopped off at another dwelling along the river. As we got off the boat there was a monkey waiting on the dock. As we past the monkey he introduced us to the owner who took us around and showed us the animals. First up was a sloth. We took turns holding and petting the sloth. Its fur seems like it should be more course but it is actually very soft and his claws were about 2.5 inches long. Next up was an anaconda. It was probably between 8-10 feet long and we all took turns holding it around our necks. Apparently the Jennifer Lopez movie had no effect on us because we just threw it was no biggie and threw a snake around our shoulders. After we saw some huge turtles, a capybarra and a baby alligator. The end of the tour took us up in a tower, again because the water rises during the rainy season, where there were about 5 monkeys and a macaw, all running amuck. One of the monkeys jumped on a womans head, trying to get her glasses and earrings so I was about ready to leave as soon as I saw them. We stayed for a while, and they offered us this crazy jungle juice made out of 7 different flowers. Dad drank it all, I only had a sip...we´ll see what happens :)

Dad with slowpoke rodriguez.

Anaconda.

Jennifer Lopez. Suck it.

After that, Armando took us to the place where the Ninay river and the Amazon river meet up, to look for the pink dolphins that live there. Where the two waters meet is a distinct line; there is no blending at all. It was dark on one side and light on the other. But the water was too rough, so there were no dolphins. We returned back to land where Armando dropped us back at the hotel, telling us that it was the first time he had fun taking tourists around. Dad has a new bestie.

The meeting point

Just us and the Amazon river.

We walked around a bit, to the Plaza de Armas, looking for souvenirs. The heat was horrible and apparently there are no sort of souvenier shops here. This town is like a town out of a movie, maybe an indiana jones or something. There are a mix of crazy people all just hanging out by the Amazon. There are alligator heads and stuffed pirhannas hanging on the walls. Its kind of bizarre. We sat in a restaurant and people watched. The foreign people living here are all a little off. They seem kind of bizarre, our favorites being Mama Cass (ham sandwich) a crazy lady who wore a poncho and a gothic hoochie pushing her baby around. It seems that we are stuck in some sort of time warp. It´s just a town that cannot be described. It has to be experienced. And dad is loving it.

Tomorrow we take off into the jungle. We will ride the boat all day tomorrow and spend two nights 100 miles out in the Amazon. We have no idea what to expect. There will be no electricity and no unning waters. After our adventures today, only a half hour from town, who knows what will await us 100 miles into Amazonia. We wont be able to blog until we get back so stay tuned...

Adios!

P.S. Thanks to everyone for all of the Birthday wishes! It´s great to hear from you all and I really do appreciate it! Sad to say we´ll see you soon...but at least we´ll be able to celebrate ;)

Dad says goodbye to Titi and caca.

We woke up early again this morning after a night of good rest. We were a little worried since we started our Malaria pills last night. Travel Nurse Sandy told us that a few of the side effects of the pills include vivid nightmares and hallucinations. So when we both woke up and dad asked about any dreams we were relived to find that we were A-ok. We had breakfast and caught our cab to the airport.


The airport is about an hour away from Puno, the main town closest to Lake Titicaca. Of course my seatbelt didnt work so that made for a fun ride. We made our way into Juliaca to find that it was pretty much the sketchiest town on earth. Some roads are paved, some are not...the usual. The only reason it was chosen for an airport is because Puno is completely boxed in by mountains and major coruption on the governments part. That being said...it is also the smallest airport I have ever seen. It claims 2 gates. And by 2 gates they mean 2 doors...one on the left and one on the right. We paid our exit tax ($3.35 each) and boarded our plane.








The streets of Juliaca (one of the better ones)




does this look legal to you?


the airport



dad boarding the plane



The flight was pretty uneventful except for our death defying take off in Juliaca which invilved the entire plane rattling like it was about to fall apart. We landed in Lima and walked across the street to the good ole´ Ramada. Dad saw his friend, Manuel who didnt even recognize him, now that he resembles Tom Selleck.




The streets of Lima


We checked in and grabbed a cab to the Plaza de Armas here in Lima which is about a half hour from our hotel. The same deal here...no brakes just horns all the way there. We took right turns from the fast lane, crossing 2 lanes (if there were lanes) at a time. As we neared the Plaza de Armas the streets were blocked so we got out and walked. The changing of the guard was happening at the Palacio del Gobierno, where the President lives. We waited for a while, watching the huge armored vehicles and guns that the guards had before taking off.





The armored cars stay there all day....





Palacio del Gobierno



We headed down to the Convento y Museo de San Francisco. It is a Franciscan monastary from the 17th century. There were like 80 billion pigeons outside in the courtyard so I was already jazzed. We began out English tour just in time. Our guide took us around the monastary and church which is still used today. Then he led us to the place we were all waiting for: The catacombs. The catacombs were first dug in 1546 for priests and elite before the cemetary was built. The guide told us that there are around 25,000 human remains still in the catacombs. There were bones everywhere, which had been separated by archeologists working in the site. It was pretty unreal. There were mostly femurs and skulls because after decomposition, these were what remained. We continued on the tour but nothing topped the catacombs. Of course no camaras were allowed...and Jeffrey is learning to follow the rules.









Convento y Museo de San Francisco. The catacombs are beneath the church.


From there we went to lunch. We walked across the plaza and went into a little cafe, R.H. Atlantic. It was hopping with locals and Dad saw a steak and pasta plate and was already salivating so we sat down. Dad got a salad with avocados and I got soup with vegetables and beef. the steak was good and after eating we enjoyed the view, since we were on Peru time anyway. Before leaving dad got a churro from a stand for US$0.15. We hailed a cab back to our hotel and now we are just relaxing.





The plaza.




check out that dog...click it to make it bigger. Hannibal Lecter much?



We leave for Iquitos tomorrow at 4:55 so we have yet another early morning ahead of us. We plan on walking to the airport tonight for a little MickeyD´s since God knows what they will serve us in the jungle. It´s gonna be wild!





Adios!

Dad.

Just sit right back and I'll tell you the tale....

FYI: More pictures will be up tomorrow bc the internet connection here is WAYYYYYY to slow. So just check out this entry later tomorrow to see more pictures.

Today began bright and early (does anyone else see a pattern here?) and we got ready to head out to Lake Titicaca. We met out taxi driver and headed toward the dock where are boat tour began. We boarded the boat and took our seats and as fate should have it some people sat right across the aisle from us. We looked over and who could it be?? Why it was Jared and Marcy, the fine folks we met on the train the day before. Jared was feeling much better today, and we were glad to have familiar faces on our tour.

on one of the Uros. Check out Jared and Marcy behind us!

a reed boat...

We headed out and our tour guide Julio started explaining a little bit about Lake Titicaca. The lake lies on the border between Peru and Bolivia with 60% of the lake in Peru and the rest in Bolivia. It is 283 meters at its deepest (928.5 feet for us Americanos). It's 165 km long and 60 km wide (102.5 mi by 37.2 mi). 5 rivers drain into it and it drains into 1 lake in Bolivia. With the increase in global warming, evaporation is becoming a bigger problem.

so is Jeffrey Maillo...I had to frisk him for matches before we left.

cooking utensils on Uros.

We were scheduled for a full day tour, so we began by visiting the Uros floating islands. These islands and made entirely of tortorra, which is a reed that grows in the lake. Not only do the inhabitants use it but it acts and a natural cleanser of the lake. We made our way to a little island where we got off our boat and got to walk around the island. It was crazy!! You cant wrap your mind around the fact that you are floating on an entire island made of reeds. We sat through a little demonstration about how the islands are made and maintained. During the demonstration teh guide invited us all to eat some of the reeds but warned that they might make us sick. Marcy, being the brave soul she is and willing to overlook the pain Jared was in yesterday, stepped up to the plate and took a honkin bite. We salute you Marcy, for having more cahones (balls) than we do.

some floating islands...

From there some of the inhabitants invited us to look inside their huts. We made our way into Francisca's hut where 7 people lived! The government recently outfitted some of the islands with solar power and now they can use radios and TVs. After that we explored the island some more, Dad went into the watchtower (aka a giant fish made out of reeds) and we browsed the local merchendise. Afterwards, we got to take a ride in a reed boat that the locals use. We found out that now they recycle plastic bottles by putting them inside the boat and then covering them with reeds.

Me and Francisca. There are 7 people who live in this house!

notice the solar panels outside the homes.

Dad taking pictures from up in the watchtower.

We made our way to another island and then had to get back on our boat to head toward Taquile island, on of the larger islands on the lake, of the nonfloating variety. It took us 2 hours to get there. We passed the time by hanging out in the back of the boat (outside , sucking on fumes) and chatting with Marcy and Jared. The smell reminded me of the old ford truck and camping. huzzah.

from our perch on top of the boat

We finally made our way to Taquile and began our climb to the top of the island. This is the one place where the altitude affected us. We made our way up the hill slowly but still panting (in my case) and headed toward the main plaza. The view was awesome. We took in the sights of the snowcapped mountains of Bolivia and browsed the islanders handicrafts. Dad almost had to throw a bucket of cold water on me to revive me after the hike. I thought i was gonna puke. But we made our way to lunch anyways, passing out candy along the way (the candyman reared his head in Titicaca as well). For lunch we had quinoa soup (a soup made of broth and little grains, the best soup ever.), dad had trout and jen had an omellette and coca tea. We learned about local customs on the island. You can tell every man's marital status by what hat they wear; there is no police presence on the island and the life expectancy is around 95 years old! Thats what hard work and coca can do for you, says the addict twitching in the corner.

Bolivia in the distance.

We then made our way down over 500 steps. We handed out all the candy would could, probably leading a pied piper like procession of kids down the hill with us (just kidding). It led us to the dock and the view was gorgeous. We boarded our boat and immediately PASSED OUT. the whole boat did in fact. I blame the sun. Even the candy man crapped out. We woke about an hour later and decided to get some air, so we went out back to suck on fumes again. We even went on top of the boat to get one last view of the Uros. We pulled back into the dock and decided to shop around a bit.

run while you can...from the candyman.

The steps and path we climbed down.

We shopped for a while and came home with our wallets significantly lighter and our packs MUCH heavier. We came back to the hotel and had dinner. Now we have to prepare ourselves for tomorrow. We have to leave our hotel early (the airport is about an hour away) and catch a plane to Lima. We'll stay in Lima tomorrow night and then head to Iquitos, where our Amazon adventure will begin.

Stay tuned readers...because when we're in the Amazon we wont be able to blog. But you dont have to worry about that yet. We still have a few days. Savor it.

Adios!

P.S. SHOUT OUT TO MARCY AND JARED!! What up guys! You're famous, you made our blog yet again (this time with names). Have a safe trip and if you're ever in California look us up, that is if you survive the natural disasters. and we should have taken a picture together!!!! And hopefully Marcy, you're not sick by now from eating that reed banana :)