Into the Jungle I go

Turns out things to work out if you only have patience. I wanted to do a jungle tour and was waiting to hear if any other tourists were going so i could join there group. i was talking to one guide in the joining hostel to the one im staying in. He hadnt had an groups yet, so i just had to wait.

On saturday, i went out with the peruvians that are living in my hostel. They are from Chiclayo and are working at the eye store?, not exactly sure but they said somehting about optical...So i went out for a discotec first, but then left there and went to what was like a huge barn dance. It was amazing. A huge openroofed building with a stage and a 6 or so male singing group with the whole band behind them. The place was packed with people. i never would have known about this if it wasnt for them. it was amazingly fun. And we danced all night.

On sunday morning, my guide came to see me and told me he had one girl from Italia that wanted to go for 4 days. Alright! lets go. I wnet and met with them at 8am Monday morning and the three of us were off. First we took a bus to a small village 2 hours away where we met up with the guides family. There his friend and his wife picked us up in a boat and we rode for another 2 hours to a little village on one of the rivers that runs off of the amazon. On the way, we saw grey and pink dolphins swimming in the rivers.

For the first night we were going to stay at this families house. AS soon as we stepped off the boat, we were attacked by the number one animal of the jungle. the mosquito! sweet! All the houses in this village are open, they dont have walls, or if they do they are only half size. It was up on stilts, because when the river is high, the water will be up right under the house. This house had two main platforms, the first one you enter is a large open space with a table, and to the right, a more closed off section where the family of 6 sleep in hammocks and makeshift beds on the floor. Right in the middle of that room, they hung 2 hammocks from the ceiling for Italia and me. Thats where we were to sleep. Then next platform was connected by some wooden planks on the floor, is where the kitchen was and the family usually ate at that table.

When we got there, we waited around while they prepared the lunch, then we went out on another boat ride to see around the river. We stopped along some netting where they pulled out some bait fish and we went fishing. We all had a few nibbles, but no one caught anything. After a few hours, we went back, put up our mosquito nets over out hammocks, and was ready to climb into my bed for the night. An hour later, i was told, vamos, lets go. Now where? we got back into the boat, and paddled across the river to the other side where we did a night walk through the jungle to look for animals. Cool, anything but a snake!

Tuesday we got up early to go see if we could find the sloth up in the tree that we saw the night before. But he wasnt there anymore, we kept going down the river to a lake. It was a beautfiul lake, where we saw monkeys jumping around in the trees. Our guide banged the paddle against the side of the boat to attract them, and one big one came flying across to check us out. He was so cute. We went back for breakfast, and layed back in the hammock for a few hours until lunch was ready. This was a very tranquillo jungle tour.

After a nap, and lunch, we packed everything up and headed back onto the river to where we would camp for the night. It was only going to be an hour or so ride, but after 4 hours, we finally arrived at our new campsite. Casa de Mosquito!!! We floated slowly along, looking at the beautiful trees on each side of the river, watched an amazing amount of colorful birds, and every once in a while saw another dolphin. WE got to a section where we had to push through some weeds. Well, it was only about a 10 foot section, but it took us an hour to get through. We had to machetty and chop away the weed and push ourselves through. At the same time, 2 other boats coming form the other direction came, got stuck, and left us sitting there. The second boat at least gave us their stick to help push off. I thought maybe they could push us though, but i guess they dont do that here!...haha

AFter we got out, we didnt get far until the motorboat guy turned us around because he saw another Sloth up in the trees. WE came up to shore and he went searching into the jungle for him. He climbed up the huge tree, grabbed him, and dropped him down into the water, as our guide waded into the water and grabbed him. They came walking out of the water with this wet, scared looking sloth holding onto a branch for dear life. Ahh, it was so cute. We walked out of the woods, into the clearing, where we could get a picture holding the sloth. His slow little head moving around looking at us. The boatman, finally brought him over to a tree and held him against it until he clung on with his claws. As slow as he is, i think he quickly climbed up as far as he could out of reaching distance from us. Its ok little guy, then he sat there and kept looking atus.

Back in the boat, for a few more minutes until we came to our offical campsite. It was a nice open area and we quickly put up our hammocks and tarps since it was already 6pm and the rain was coming. They then built a fire and cooked us avena for dinner, quick and easy since now the rain was falling nicely while Italia and i sat under the tipitarp with all the mosquitos swarming around us.

We all sat under the tarp with candles stuck in the ground for light. The wind picked up and blew out the candles and for a moment we sat in the dark. It was nice. Then the guide turned on the red light on his head lamp and i noticed about 2 feet in front of me what looked like a stick on the tarp. Funny, i dont remember there being a stick on the tarp. And then it moved. I quickly turned on my headlamp, yelled snake, and moved my leggs. The guide told me not to move, which i hate becuase you just have to sit there watching it, then the boat man grabbed a stick and flicked the snake away. It was a skinny but long snake and it raced into the water, over towards our boat, and up the tree. Ick!!!! no me gusta! The guide couldnt believe that i noticed it. But i was on the look out because i really didnt want to come across one. At least he was little and not poisonous. This was the only snake, i saw. thank god! haha

Well, that and all the mosquitos were getting to me so when the rain slowed a bit, i quickly went and got into my hammock. We were going to wait until the rain stopped then go out and look for alligators. So i rested and read my book and enjoyed the sound of the rain. I finished my book and didnt even notice the rain had stopped before my guide told me, vamos. Alright, lets go find some gators. We rode around for about 2 hours looking for eyes in the water, we saw one, but he was keep within some swampy area and we didnt go inside before he disappear. So after an unsuccessful aligator search, we return back to camp, to go to bed.

Wednesday. I woke up the next morning to watch as the boat man made a fire with the wet wood. Using his machetty, he trimmed off the wet bark and built up a small pile of twigs. Then he through some liquid on it, gas. That started up fast....I laughed and he heard me so he also laughed. Cheater...made me think of my daddy!!!haha But it started smoking and after a while, we had a fire. We had some eggs for breakfast, cleaned up and took down the campsite, packed up the boat, and were off.

We rode for a while before stopping and trying our luck at fishing again. We used mashed up bread with water, rolled into little balls at bait. I was the only one to actually catch a fish and we used that for bait. We then floated around a few different areas trying to get something, and nothing. The fish were not hungry. The rain had started again, and we headed back for the casa. It then started to down pour and i huddled together under my rain coat. Still getting soaked. But it was a nice refreshing rain, so i didnt mind. Right before we made it back, it had cleared up and was looking around, when my guide in front of me turned and said Uvia (rain) I looked up and saw a huge wall of water and in seconds we were being poured on. I only had time to put up my hood haha. crazy.

Back at the house, we put on dry cloths, and hung up our hammocks again, and waited until lunch was ready. Then we went out and tried our luck at fishing agian...still no go. AFter dinner, i took a nap, lovely, and was then told again, Vamos. We were going to go look for more aligators. This time the boatmans, young daughter and son came with us. We rode for a while, and came through some swampy area, we had to push ourselves througha gain, and this time i didnt want to get stuck, because this time there might be gators in the water. But we made it through. We came across another fish netting and the boatman starting pulling out all the fish that were caught in it. Im pretty sure those werent his nets, but this was a much easier way of fishing. haha. There was one pirranah fish amonst all the others, the floor of the boat was filled with fish flapping around. ha. We came across one gator, and had no luck catching him. So another uneventful search. It was late, and we noticed in the back of the boat, the young boy had fallen asleep. Alright, time to go home.

Thursday...This morning we went for a walk through the jungle and our boatman showed us more things. He actually did more than our guide. We came across a tree that had red and black seeds that they make a lot of jewelry out of. They are said to be for protection. So we collected a few hand fulls. Then came across another tree, where you can drink fresh water from the root. He cut off a part of the root, and held it up for us to drink from. it was good. refreshing! Then we came to a huge tree house. 20 years ago someone built a huge tower attached to the tree that was about 70 or more feet high. Layer above layer you climbed up to the top. i wanted to climb it and see out of the jungle, but the base of the fort was missing a few ladders, steps, and didnt look too sturdy, so our guide wouldnt let us up. Would have been cool to see. We then came across another tree, that the boatman started to but down with this machetty. Apartently, this tree at the top has a heart, similar like an artichoke, where you can eat. he cut apart the whole tree for only a 2 foot section, and only about 2inches inside that whole section is an area that you can eat. They call it the jungle spagetty and tear apart the white strands and eat it for part of their salad. They drizzeled it will lemon, salt, and oil. interesting, and good. But what a waste of a tree. I looked at the tree, and it wasnt even wood, you couldnt use it for anything. But apartently there are alot of them, because they serve it up alot in the Belen area. Oh well.

After a fun jugnle walk, we came back for lunch. Packed up our stuff and headed back on the boat to the town. We were going to stop on the way to swim with the dolphins but it was overcast again, and we really didnt see any. Sad. it took 3 hours to get back, longer than we thought, we arrived around 5. Instead of waiting for a bus, we just got a collective taxi, and headed back for Iquitos.

It was a great, tranqillo, eventful jungle tour. Now i desperately needed a shower. I was welcomed back we hugs and smiles from my new hostel friends.