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Jonny's South American Adventure!
Thankfully, the flight from Lima to Iquitos on Wednesday went pretty much as smoothly as possible and so we touched down in the middle of the jungle with no dramas at all. Iquitos is actually the largest city in the world without any road links - the only way to reach here is either by plane or boat, and everything has to be "imported" like this also!
Whilst we have experienced a lot of different types of hassle during our trip, nothing was quite like what greeted us as we came out of the airport. After the security guard had escorted us to the car park, literally dozens of taxi drivers converged on us and started shouting at us and grabbing our arms, trying to make us go with them. One of them even shouted "Shalom" at me, thinking I was Israeli - what an insult! I know my hair is a bit longer than it should be and that I needed a shave - but I hardly looked Israeli! So there was no way that cheeky sod was getting our business! At the back of the group was someone a bit more civilised who sad he would take us into town for free, and whilst slightly suspicious to say the least, we went with him in his comical motor taxis that everyone has, but only after he had introduced us to his brother Andreas! Raul then insisted on waiting for us as we unpacked at the hotel, and taking us to his office where we got the whole big sale for their jungle trip. To be honest, we were too tired to properly care (as proved later that evening when as we were paying for dinner I dropped the Lonely Planet in a fish tank, for some reason thinking there was a glass top on it - apparently there wasn`t!) at that time and so we said we would come back the following day. So, sure enough, when we left our hotel room early the next day (with every intention to be honourable and go back to the office) Raul was sat there waiting for us in the foyer! Karl just rolled his eyes at me and Raul laughed - to be fair he wasn`t in any way aggressive, just keen I think! After a bit a haggling, and lying, we actually got an offer of a really good price for a trip into the jungle and so went with them, after making a quick character judgement and trusting Andreas when he said he would look after out big bags at his house!
After paying up, Raul took us on a tour or the local market thats sells almost everything, including the most fish I have ever seen in one place! It certainly once an eye opener waling through seeing all the locals going about preparing whatever it was the were selling, and the only time it seemed every pair of eyes weren't following these two gringos was where there was a bit of a crowd watching a snake getting skinned; still wriggling despite being beheaded! Then we had a tour on a canoe of the floating village of Belen, which rises and falls with the level of the river, which was good, after which we set of to our jungle lodge - which took quite a while to get there!
After a surprisingly good nites sleep encaged in a mosquito net at the lodge, we decided that we would camp out for day 1, and so soon after breakfast set of on a hike that at times seemed in quite aimless and random directions, but Juan (our guide) proved that we should trust his sense of direction and got us there no problems. Well, no problems except for Karl, who was the only one out of the 6 of us to fall in the river as we were crossing it by waling along a tree trunk! It really was back to basics as we cooked lunch over a wood fire and then set up our "beds" for the night - a hammock surrounded by a mosquito net! For dinner, we all shared this big fish that Juan had gone out and caught and then cooked over the fire, and it was without doubt the tastiest fish I have ever had! Then, after a disappointing night walk that only yielded a hole in my wellies so that I came back with one sock piss wet through, the night of hell began. Some people find the sounds of the jungle relaxing, but I'm afraid I am not one of them! Especially when there is a tree frog that just didn`t shut up all night. But the worst part was the fact that the mosquitos actually bite throught the underneath of your hammock, and so come morning time my back was like a brialle board (sorry if that is not very PC). After not much sleep, I was then the first one to wake up properly after I decided I had no choice but to take a dump as I was in agony trying to keep it in. So, up against this tree, I then had to cope with dozens of more mozzys buzzing round me whilst I`m trying to have a private moment, and then I got back to my hammock to realise that in my hast I hadn`t properly done my mosquito net back up and so there were now loads inside! So there was gonna be no more sleep for me!
Needless to say I wasn`t quite feeling the jungle adventure spirit at this point, and the walk back being bitten even more and falling random holes in the ground didn`t do much for my mood. As it happened though, the rest of day 2 wasn`t too bad as we went out piranha fishing on the canoe (although turns out fishing isn`t one of my fortes!) and then went out on the lake again in the evening and caught a baby white crocodile and a caiman! Day 3 was an early start as we went bird watching and then visited a local village situated right where the Amazon actually starts (in terms of its name anyway), seeing pink dolphins along the way. It was a shame that our view from the top of a viewing tower was spoilt slighly as a downpour came, but then again we were in the middle of a RAINforest! As we got back to the shore, we realised that the boat we had come in was no longer there! Just as visions of having to swim across the width of the Amazon River were going through my head, Juan comes trundling down with a motor and just attaches it to another boat, and off we go! Brilliant! In the evening we did another night walk into the forest around our lodge, with much better results - particularly the big daddy tarantular (is that how you spell it?)!
Our final day was nice and relaxed in the morning, playing with the lodges' animals (no sniggers please), and then we went back into the jungle in search of anacondas. After walking around for a good couple of hours with not much joy, we 'conveniently' stumbled across one right at the end, literally only 20m or so from camp! It was a big one too, probably 4m and flippin heavy. Despite it hissing wildly and throwing out loads of yellow liquid pooh as a defense mechanism, I helped carry it through the trees to camp, holding its head as if my life depended on it (video to prove it if nobody believes me!) - there was no way I was letting go! After getting the sloth out of the tree and having photos with that, we had lunch of spaghetti, rice and potatoes all on the same plate (how does that work?!?) and then set off on the mission back to Iquitos. But the adventure wasn't quite over yet. About half way through the speedboat ride, we reached a junction in the river where loads of locals were fishing. Now, I don`t know much Spanish, but it was quite clear that they were saying that the water beyond them wasn`t deep enough for the speedboat. However, not to be dettered, Juan pressed on regardless until the pint at which the inevitable happened and we got stuck. So Juan strips off down to his undies, jumps into the river that was less than knee high, grabs the rope out the front on the boat and starts pulling us up the rest of the river! What a legend! I haven`t laughed so much in ages! There was just something quite surreal about being pulled through a tribuatory of the mighty Amazon River by a man dressed only in his underpants! And that was pretty much the end of our jungle adventure!
Jonny
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