After my lovely rejuvination period in the desert I got a bus back to Lima and planned to do absolutely nothing but read, sleep and cuddle with the hostel cat but the universe had other plans for me. :) I stayed in the 4-bed girl's dorm for the third time and met 2 girls from Hawaii and a girl from Scotland. We ended up hitting it off and hanging out. We went to the water circuit, a park with loads of very impressive fountains, that lights up at night. And we toured some ruins in the middle of the neighborhood we were staying in. Nothing seems as impressive after Machu Pichu, but it was still cool that they were in the middle of Lima. And I did manage to get some cuddles in with the cat here and there so all in all it was a successful last stay in Lima.
I got a flight to Iquitos and we all parted ways in different directions on the same day. When I got to Iquitos I was greeted by an overly friendly cab driver who insisted on telling me every word in Spanish to describe how beautiful I am...flattering I suppose but mostly just really creepy. He proceeded to tell me that he lives right next door to the hostel which made me even more creeped out. But I arrived and was met outside by the hostel owner and luckily never saw the creep again. However, riots broke out in the streets over the next two days. The people thought that the government was corrupt and pocketing money that should go to the people and they were protesting about overthrowing the president. Basically, the streets were trashed and I hid out in the hostel for most of the time this was going on. I did manage to go on a tour of the floating houses with some people at the hostel which was really interesting.
Eventually, things went back to normal, the streets were cleaned overnight as if nothing had happened and I booked myself into the hostel tour to a jungle lodge. It was two Dutch girls, a bro-sis pair from Canada and me. We set out at 5:30am and got on a teeny-tiney boat at around 7am after a lot of waiting around. And we were off down the Amazon River! 11ish hours later we arrived, with very sore bums, in the dark, at the lodge. We ate dinner, had a short briefing about the next day and passed out in our hammocks.
Next day we got up and set out on our jungle walk just before sunrise. What we all thought would be a 2-4 hour walk turned into 7 hours of hell. Apparently I'm not jungle Jane. We were all dripping in sweat, covered in thick layers of DEET and still had swarms of mosquitos on every inch of our bodies. We trudged through water up to our thighs, where possible Camens and snakes were residing. We ducked under branches and got caught on thorns and in 7 hours all we saw were some birds. And I pulled a muscle in my groin from getting stuck in the mud. When we got back to the lodge for lunch we were all in somewhat sullen moods, but on our boat ride after lunch we managed to spot a sloth which made the incredibly long day seem worth it.
The next day we went out on the boat again and saw many more birds, and the magical pink dolfins. Then we took a short walk and I spotted an anaconda that jumped out of a tree and swam through the water! Those things are huge! Then everyone but me fished for Piranhas and after lunch we finally spotted three different types of monkeys as well as the biggest frog in the world (it was a baby but it was still massive). So we got back to the lodge feeling more satisfied.
The last day we set out early and got back to Iquitos in 6 hours since we were going with the currents. The Dutch girls left to catch their flight and in the evening I went out for dinner and drinks with the Canadians. Good times, of course.
I ended my time in the Amazon by taking a 10 hour boat ride down the Amazon to Leticia, Colombia. Bought a flight to Bogota, set foot on Brasilian soil in Tabatinga (right next to Leticia) for dinner and beer, and the next morning flew to Bogota, and was reunited with Jen for a night before she parted. The Amazon is pretty incredible but perhaps not for everyone. I am glad I went and I did enjoy it overall, but I'm not sad to be out of mosquito land. Now for my last stop - Colombia!
