At 2.30 in the morning we had to get up to jump on a motorbike to cross the border from Colombia to Brazil. (in Colombia it is against the law to boat before 5am which is not a problem at all in Brazil) At 3 we had to take a little motorboat into Peru to get on a big speedboat, which left at 4 am... How early, we where hoping to arrive 10 hours later but the trip can take up till 12 hours... of course we were lucky to be stuck on the boat for 12 hours. The scenery of the Amazon river is amazing and lots of little villages on the way.
James was lucky to see a few pink dolphins as well. They only live in the Amazon river and adopt themselves many years ago to the fresh water.
But after 12 hours we were really happy to see Equitos, although the harassment started straight away when we put one foot on shore. “taxi,tour, moneychange, drugs..” pfhoo full on! Our bags where in a taxi/motorbike before we knew and off we went to our guest house. Time to drop our bags and find a cold beer. In the centre of the square we found a nice spot. Not much after the first beer a refreshing cool breeze rolled in together with heavy rain and thunder and lightning very nice.. Till it all got a bit to excited when the lightning hit a pole a few meters away from us. Wow I've never seen anything like it. It gave a bit of firework followed by a power cut for a couple of hours.
But we are all safe and sound, and it was a good opportunity to have dinner by candlelight ;-) after dinner time for bed. Which was a bit unpleasant without a fan..
The next day we strolled a bit around town and decided to go into the jungle for a couple of days, plenty of tour operators around, and they are all very keen to take you out. But the first office we walked in seemed pretty alright and James was convinced straight away. I wanted to check out a few more. We had a suss over a 'mint beer' bleghh (that’s what you get now and then when you don't understand the language, but we are getting better)
We ended up with the Lemon tree lodge, a small company with only three bungalows. And even better we got 2 tour guides with us and the lodge to ourselves. It was soo nice to arrive in the jungle and get away from the horrible street noises in Iquitos. (there are about 50.000 motorbikes in this small jungle town)
The first day we went for a short walk to hear all about the flora and fauna.
In the afternoon we visited a place for orphaned animals. There were monkeys, a sloth (luiaard) couple of snakes a little caiman (type of crocodile) and we finished off with a few jungle rums really nice! We stumbled back and on our way we stopped by another village for a few beers.. Great to get tipsy with locals! Lucky we didn't have to paddle back in the canoe to the lodge. (the tipsy guides did, but really... Don't drink and paddle)
The next morning James was keen for a sleep in, but I wanted to go for the early morning bird watch. It is an amazing how great the diversity of the birds are. I could sum up all the names of them, but it would be to many. (Besides I pretty much forgot the names anyway!) Later we all went for a boat trip to do a bit of Amazon fishing and pink dolphin spotting. But it seemed they had the day off today. I caught 2 different Amazon fishes and that was it.
On the last day there was a 3 hour jungle trek planned, but it has been raining all night. And I wasn't to keen to do 'a slip sliding away' walk.. So instead another canoe trip in the hope to see some pink dolphins.
We went to a spot and tried to fish, and I was lucky to catch a piranha (of about 10 cm) and then all of a sudden, a few pink dolphins rocked up. I was stoked! Really happy to see them. After lunch and a rest in the really comfy beds it was time to head back to the noisy town.
Monday morning we went to visit the local market, where the sell everything you can think of; Fruit and veggies, chicken, beef but also turtles (to eat) cayman,monkey meat, and a armadillo (gordeldier) Yep in Peru they eat pretty much everything what moves. At the end of the market was the floating village. The poorest and dangerous area of Iquitos. You really can't go there without a guide. We jumped in a boat to have a look around. What a eye opener! So sad and disgusting, unreal how people can live and survive. Quite often people (because getting drunk) and young kids drown in the Amazon river.
We are very blessed in the countries were we live!!!!
In the afternoon I wanted to see the rescued dugong s (zee olifanten). I hopped on the local bus which is made out of wood. It gave me a bit of a laugh. Half way the bus needed to stop to top up the water and oil.
In the rescue centre there were a couple of baby dugong s sooo cute! And I could feed them and pat them... The dugongs are endangered, because the people hunt them. (Even it is against the law)
On the way back in another bus.. this time the bus needed to change a tyre.. And I wasn't to sure where I was going... I got off the bus a bit to far, but found my way back to the hostel. (good old scouting skills ;-) ) At night we had a delicious dinner at a pizza place. (The local food in Iquitos is not that good..) And tomorrow we hop on the plane to go to Lima. The original plan was to boat a bit more but we are 'over-boated' and chances to get robbed on the slow boat are quite high. So safety first!!!
Ciao
