Saturday, February 8, 2014

The Amazon

The trip to Iquitos was amazing!  The days were super packed and very tiring, but we definitely got our money's worth.  We did so much in only 3 days.  Our fearless tour guide, Neil, showed us around the city of Iquitos and the Amazon.  Our first stop when we arrived to Iquitos was a market where we tried some new foods.  First up...a grub.  In a moment of weakness, I ate half of one.  It actually didn't taste too bad, but I kinda wanted to puke at the thought of it.  Then we tried a nut natural to the area and a blue, slimy fruit.  The nut was awesome!  The fruit tasted good but the texture was a little freaky...like alien brains.

After all that, we hopped on a boat and went to our lodge, which was right on the Amazon River.  It was luxurious.  Definitely more resort-like that I was imagining.  All the food was fantastic.  Everything we ate was all natural and organic.  The fish was especially good!  We also had fresh fruit juices with each meal.  Delicious!

Our first outing was to go piranha fishing.  I caught a fish!  It was a tetra instead of a piranha but still. We also saw some pink dolphins!  It was crazy to see.  We saw glimpse of a pair of them right by where we were fishing.  That night, we did a night hike though the jungle.  I'd rather not remember it...way to many tarantulas.

The next day, we hiked again through the jungle.  It was way more enjoyable in the daytime.  Neil and his machete kept us safe!  My favorite part was seeing some monkeys!  We saw a small troop (12-15) jumping through the trees ahead of us.  It was awesome seeing monkeys in their natural habitat.  We also saw a bunch of different trees and plant species.  Next, we went to a village near the lodge.  We were greeted by 4 children holding a sloth, monkey, turtle, and little bird.  Holding a sloth is part of the reason I came to Peru, so this was the moment I had been waiting for!  Luis the sloth was a dream come true...  Then some of the villagers dressed up in their old, traditional dress and danced and played music for us.  It was really cool!

The third day was also our last.  We went to Neil's parent's house and saw how they made rum and molasses out of sugar cane.  There was also a pond full of gigantic lily pads.  After those 3 packed days, I was happy to return to Lima for a bit before flying out to Cuzco!


No comments:

Post a Comment