I had written a blog entry for everyone last night, but these internet cafe computers apparently can't take my high-level surfing, and it froze. Either way, I am back with some stories; today was fun.
Iquitos is beautiful. Because it rains so much here, the curbs are a foot high, at least! It's maddeningly hot and humid, and this is winter! It's quite a change from Lima. There are almost no cars here, everybody rides motorcycles. I saw a family of four riding on one motorcycle; a little boy in the front, mom and dad in the middle, and another little boy in the back!
The lanes on the road seem to be for decoration, really. I thought that people broke driving laws in Lima; here there don't even seem to be any! I like it though, it makes it more.. interesting. :)
Instead of taxi cars, taxis here are mototaxis, like three-wheeled vehicles that are like a motorcycle in the front where the driver is but a sort of rickshaw in the back. We rode around in those for awhile today down some dirt roads and saw some beautiful plant life; and also made friends with the drivers. I have videos of the drive but I don't think they'll do it any justice. It was totally exhilirating.
We visited Beher market today, which we read was a really cool floating market. We failed to realize that it only floats during wet season, and wound up trudging around in some dirt and mud through a totaly crowded marketplace that smelled like.. well.
Cody put it best when he said it smelled like everything.
It wasn't a teriffic smell.
People at stands sold meat, plucked chickens and pig legs with hooves attached. Apparently in wet season the market is way less filthy and you have to make your way around by canoe. The way we saw it, flies sampled the meat and children would play in the olives after chasing mangy dogs.
One sad thing about Iquitos is the amount of stray animals here. We named a cat Fernando, he was begging outside of our restaurant and was actually very cute. I saw a great big dog at the market, hair all matted, just laying by the side of the road, barely alive. It was awful. There are a lot of starving strays here. Some just sit in the middle of the busy sidewalk and stare into nowhere, like they wonder what kind of life they have. You can tell which dogs are the smarter ones because they just look depressed. I saw a dog on the way here who was just sitting on the sidewalk staring up at the sky.
Aside from that, it is beautiful here. The trees are very very green, and tomorrow we will be going to a jungle lodge for 4 days and 3 nights in the Amazon. Afterwards, we will catch the next boat to Yurimaguas and head to Puerto America to do some volunteering :)
I will upload photos when I am back from the jungle lodge, as I am sure I will have a lot to show you all.
