Wow, what an amazing few days we've had. The Amazon river and rainforest lived up to my very high expectations that I've had since studying it at school.
We flew into Iquitos city on Sunday morning to a blanket of heat and humidity of the sort I have never encountered before. One of the maddest sites I imagine I will ever see was from the plane...... trees that seemed to go on forever, with nothing but a few rivers breaking them up, they looked a bit like brocolli from 30,000 feet!! Iquitos is only accessible by air (1.5 hrs) or boat (7 days), which was one of the reasons I wanted to come. Also, although you can get into the Amazon basin from various places in Peru, this is the only place with access to the mighty Amazon river. We stayed in Iquitos for a night just to see how a city like this works, thankfully we had an air conditioned hotel room which was needed! The city initially developed due to rubber and now there are nearly a million people whizzing around on moto taxis. My first sight of the Amazon was breathtaking, even thousands of kms from its mouth in Brazil, it is already a few kms wide and moving so fast. We tried to get used to the heat by taking it easy, walked around (melting), drank copious amounts of water and somehow managed to eat in the heat!!
The following morning we were picked up by Roberto, our lovely guide for the next 3 days, and headed out to our lodge - ceiba tops - which was an hour down the Amazon (when we got on the boat I was having a moment and felt pretty bleary eyed and incredibly lucky). We cannot fault Explorama, the company who owns the lodges, they made it all so easy. Now at this point, I must confess our "lodge" was as luxurious as you can get in the jungle! We are not pretending to be botanists or animal lovers so having walls open to the jungle did not appeal! Our bedrooms had aircon and hot water, there was even a pool (complete with mini water slide)! The dining room and bar were pretty rustic though, all with mosquito screens around them. We were to have two travelling/dining companions for the next three days, Nick and Jackie from New Mexico, who were great and we all got on really well. We all commented on how lucky we were to be there at the same time as everyone else in our place was over 60, there was even a Saga award on the wall!
For the first afternoon we had a ride on the river to spot dolphins, we got lucky and saw a mother and baby. Then we visited a tribal village where they got us dancing, G got involved with a few spins (he had no choice, she was pretty forceful) which was most amusing in the heat. The chief then showed us his skills with a blow pipe and, as if we weren't hot enough already, we all had a go. We all quickly hit the target which was good as we were all struggling with the humidity and had aircon to head back to, hurrah!!
The next morning started early with sunrise over the Amazon as we headed about 2 hours downriver and deeper into the rainforest for a canopy walkway. It was all just stunning. The walkway links 14 of the highest trees, the views as you can imagine are spectacular. The heat and the mosquitos however, were not - both just incessant! The walkway made up for them though. We then visited a Shaman who showed us various Amazonian herbal remedies. He then "blessed" us by blowing smoke on our heads and banging us with leaves, all whilst chanting - it was hard not to laugh as we had to sit there with our eyes shut. We're not sure how much of it was just for tourists but the plants were definitely real!!
We got to see one of the more rustic lodges for breakfast and lunch, the food and communal areas were similar to ours but the rooms and toilets couldnt have been more different. I don't reckon I would have got any sleep there at all, everything was open to the wildlife. Having been on a night walk and seen a tarantula, in addition to the sheer volume of the jungle, I would have just panicked all night!
We headed back from there via a small jungle town called Indiana. Roberto took us on a walk to show us the town (in 35degree heat). The locals were all staring at us in dis-belief, 4 stupid westerners walking up the "high street" in sweltering sunshine, melting! We stopped for a much needed cerveza in a local bar, where they were all watching football, G was referred to as Drogba, much to his disgust!
Our last morning was spent piranha fishing in the most beautiful black water arm of the river. I caught nothing but all the others did, tiny fish but teeth like needles, no one had any luck with anything big enough to eat though. Our rods were a stick of bamboo, marvellous, we felt like Huckleberry Finn!
Then we headed back to our lodge, not before stopping to see giant water lillies and a sloth (so cute)!
As you can probably tell we had an amazing time - food, lodge, company, guide, weather, tours and of course the Amazon itself were perfect. And.....even though it was the rainforest, we had no rain until we were sitting at the airport waiting to fly back to Lima, and my god did it rain!!
We also seem to have escaped relatively unscathed from the mosquitos, maybe only 3 bites each. So the permanent stinging of Deet and wearing "long pant" in the heat appears to have been worth it then!!
Just had the most convenient airport hotel ever in Lima, there is a walkway to it from the airport. Didn't hear any planes all night, just taxi horns- very odd.
Quick flight to Arequipa now...hasta luego!