So, the first couple days I spent in Lima went well. I hung out with Arabella the first day and a guy named Eric that I met in the square the second day. I toured many museums (art, inquisition, gold, bank, local crafts, etc) and over a dozen churches. I saw the birthplace and burial place of St. Martin de Porres and St. Rose of Lima (and their skulls in a church.) Quite interesting. Friday I flew to Iquitos, which is in the Amazon. I can´t say that I like the city that much, but I´ve met some more nice people, in particular my jungle guide Jairo has become a good friend. I spent four days in the jungle, including camping for two nights. It was actually more fun camping than staying in the lodge. There´s more to see farther away from ¨buildings¨ and people.
I saw lots of monkeys and even got to pet and feed one of them that climbed on the canoe with us! I went fishing, and finally caught my first fish! I caught one related to the catfish and a few piranas! I even got to eat my catch. Pretty tasty, but very bony. The sabalo I caught was tastier than the pirana, but it was so cool seeing their teeth. Of course we went fishing the day after I went swimming in the river...in the same place! Jairo says that it wasn´t a pirana, but there was definitely a fish that bit my leg! haha...not hard though. I also helped cut down a palm tree with a machete so we could have the spagetti of the jungle for lunch. We saw so many birds and plants. The mosquitos weren´t too terrible, as long as you stayed in the mosquito net at night. We saw gray and pink dolphins, too. Oh! And Jairo caught two cayman while we were out there. It was so impressive, watching him practically dive from the canoe to make sure he grabbed it. I got some good pictures (once I find a computer that will let me upload them from my camera!). Today, I got to hold an anoconda. She was still a baby, but she stretched longer than fingertip to fingertip on me! I even got a kiss from the anaconda! Last night I went to the karaoke bar. It was great fun. I was the only one that sang in Engish, but that´s ok. I tried singing along with the Spanish songs, too...the ones I could figure out the tune for. I think it would be a good way to work on learning a foreign language.
That´s most of the adventures over the last few days. I´ve got a couple days left in Iquitos, and then I´m back to Lima. Hope yáll are doing well!
