Amazonia

So we left at around 9am the next morning - we usually have a hard time leaving on time for anything, mostly due to the Israelis and Dennis. But either way we went to the agency a few blocks from our hostel and they had rented cars to bring us to a town Nauta, two hours away.In Nauta we got in a thatched roof canoe with motor.Throughout the entire jungle experience there were various types of boats we went in.They were all made out of wood, and while I am not exactly positive about this, I will say that they all looked like some form of a canoe.This first one was pretty comfortable, with a thatched roof and room for all of our backpacks, cushioned seats, and a fast motor.It was also pretty large to fit the five of us and spare room. But after leaving Nauta, there was no more room for this type of luxury.
This first boat took us down stream along a fairly large river for over two hours. After this we docked in a pueblocito where we climbed some deathly stairs to walk across to a small little river.There we all got into a tiny little canoe, where we sat one to a seat so we could go to the "lodge." This canoe, with a much smaller motor, was the one we spent most of our time in.The first trip with all our luggage was pretty treacherous since the boat was so deep in the water, that it felt like we might sink if anyone leaned in one direction.Plus the wooded and flat seats, definitely wear on your ass after time. Oh my god, that first night out on the canoe, my ass was sore for days....
No worries though, after a half an hour, along the river, we reached our lodge in the middle of the jungle. The river is wide enough but it is completely flowered with fallen trees.Trees fall and you can see where they have fallen close to the embankments but sometimes, when the motorized canoe goes over an area where the tree is hiden underneath the muddied water, the boat gets stuck - also happens if we are just drifting...without the motor because we ran out of gasoline and/or we are rowing.This happened multiple times while we were out in the canoe. And sometimes it can be much worse at night, when we would drift along in the complete darkness, with two guides who have memorized the route - they KNOW the river by heart. One night we got stuck and the whole boat has to be rocked in order for us to be unstuck. We all lean left, right, left, right...and usually one of the guides gets in the water and eventually we start moving again. Either way, when you enter the jungle, you enter into the land of chance. Anything can happen and it is just dealt with. La Naturaleza.You put your life in the confidence of the two guides who take you out in the canoe or walking around in the jungle.I felt pretty confident, although I think Dennis was somewhat in a constant state of fear of capsizing.Hey - if I was 6´6 I probably would have felt a little out of my element too.
So we stayed in these lodges, that look like a wooded version of a small house in a beach community. The lodges are all on stilts because the river gets so high in the rainy season and they are completely covered in netting to block out the mosquitoes- the enemy! There are so many mosquitoes, you catch yourself slapping every part of your body.And we never did anything without reapplying our repellent. I was pretty lucky and didn´t get bitten that much, but I think Ory was covered in bug bites by the time we left.
That first day we put our stuff down in the lodge and took the canoe out to look at birds; white herring, falcon, black falcon, and also some bats and monkeys - I´m probably missing a bunch. So we drifted around until late so we could see the lighting of the moon, because if the moonlight was low, we could got out in small canoes, three at a time, and spot crocodiles. By the way - the sunsets in the jungle are unbelievable. The sun sets and the entire sky lights up in various shades of pink and purple until it gets to a blue and then dark blue. I have never seen anything like it. It was truly gorgeous. And when you hear the chirping of birds, the calls of monkey, crickets and frogs all rustling through the trees, the serenity of the jungle just completely overwhelms you.
The moon that night was too strong to see crocodiles, so we headed back to the lodge in the black of the night to eat some great dinner. At the lodge, two girls, both working for NGO´s (non profit) in Lima - one is Peruvian and one is Argentinian, were staying with at the lodge with us. We spent the night sitting around and playing cards.
The next morning we awoke to a great breakfast and to get ready for a jungle excursion.We crossed the river, to the other side, and led by two guides Ollie(a native from the one of jungle pueblos who gets paid 20 soles a day, the equivalent to 6 dollars a day, to lead around these jungle tours.He lives in the little town we went to with his wife. Hes 27 and supporting his wife and two kids. The company pays him so little to show tourists around the land he grew up in - this is a whole other story - the bad treatment and exploitation of the natives of the jungle) and Wilder(a manager of the tour company - the one who keeps all the money and lives in the city and just came along to help on our trip). Ollie led the way with his machete and we walked in various directions through the muggy and tree filled jungle.They showed us medicinal plants that natives use as cures or as supplements.We hacked down a palm tree (we all had our chance with the machete) to get the fruits so we could have hearts of palm in our salad at lunch. The boys swung on vines like Tarzan.And we trecked to find some cool insects - including the grub that Dennis ate. We put our hands on a termite nest because it is good repellent from mosquitoes and then you shake the termites off and rub your hands together and all over your body. After heading back and eating lunch, the five of us along with the two girls and the two guides headed upstream to fish.
Being my first experience fishing - I only started eating fish a few months back- I was somewhat, well, no I was terrible. Plus I somehow couldn`t get the whole taunting the poor fish with a tiny piece of meat and then pulling them out with our sticks of rods. So I let someone have my stick and watched the rest catch sardines, catfish, and piranhas. They told us we would eat what we caught but of course, things aren´t always exaclty as they seem. So while we ate catfish for dinner that night I am pretty sure that it was not what we caught.Oh well.
After fishing, all of us went to a pueblo nearby to go to a bar and drink some beers.The pueblo has somewhere ranging from 60 to 80 families.And this actually makes it seem bigger than it is because you have to realize that a lot of the time these families live 3 or 4 families to one house. So it is tiny. There is really no electricity, other than on the weekends and definitely no running water. If you have to go to the bathroom, it is aways away from the pueblo and it is just a bamboo covered hole - at night you bring a flighlight to find it or you just go outside.
So we had some warm beers in the bar and then headed back to the lodge to have dinner, play some cards, and chat.
Our final day, we woke and headed to a swamp area which is said to be guarded by a black boa since any chickens that are on the land nearby, end up disappearing. We took a bit of a walk in the hot sun and then got back in the canoe. While were going, we stopped in front of a ritzy "lodge" and some monkeys climbed aboard our boat looking for food - they are so used getting papayas or food from tourists, that they willingly climb aboard the boat and let you hold them and pet them.Quite the friendly kind of monkeys.Check out the pictures for these on Ryan's website.Very cute.
Eventually we packed our things and all nine of us piled into the bigger canoe to leave the green and tropic jungle. Whatever you imagine of the jungle - it is a thousand times wrong and a thousand times right. The tall trees jutting from any direction and the strange plants that brush against your leg...but there aren´t anacondas tracking your path to jump out at you or panthers waiting to eat you. The jungle is much more quiet than I thought it would be and also much louder. At night, you feel like you are right next to the speakers at a strange music concert.It`s crazy. The amazon. A huge part of it was surreal but that may be just because we spent too little time in the jungle. It was truly a unique experience.
Eventually though, our time ran out and we had to head back to Iquitos......