Amazon - Blogabond

Hola from the Amazon,

Arriving into Iquitos, we were met by our guides and transferred to our little red boat for our 3 hour journey upstream on the Amazon River to Muyuna Lodge. Iquitos was a really interesting city. Only accesible by boat or plane it has developed over time through the production of rubber. A population of 600,000 surprised us. Not many cars about so the main form of transport on the roads were little motor bikes with carriages attached to the back - very noisy.

Early morning on the river

A day out on the boat

Journey to the markets

Wow - the humidity and heat were hard to cope with at first but then our minds were taken straight off of it when we saw the mighty river and were greeted with friendly hello's from the local village people. Chris and I couldn't quite believe we were actually here.

Front of lodge

We arrived at the lodge, had a lovely lunch of barbecued cat fish and local fruits. Very excited, we set off into the jungle for a hike to learn about the medicinal properties of the plants and in the hope of seeing some monkeys! Well, all was going great, we swung like Tarzan and Jane on massive vines, saw a tree rat (very cute) and Chris spotted a tarantula!

Hammocks at our Lodge

All of a sudden the wind picked up and it truly felt like the trees were roaring and then the heavens opened! Our guide started to run and we thought it sensible to high tail it too. Inexperienced and should we say foolish, we didn't take our wet weather gear out with us as the thought of putting on any more clothing scared me (I even told Chris not to bring his jacket - woops!!)

Juvenile Hawk

The jungle floor quickly started to resemble a creek and our gum boots were now full of water. Testing out the water proofness of our (all weather) camera bag failed miserably. First day in the jungle, we arrived back dripping wet and one of our camera lenses full of water. On the upside, the insect repellent Chris bought worked a treat and we didn't have any bites! Secretly we really enjoyed it.

Chris with Piranha

Over the next week we had 3 activities a day - including bird watching by boat before breakfast, various hikes, piranha fishing, swimming with the pink dolphins in the Amazon (major highlight), excursion to see the prehistoric birds and the giant water lilles and a trip to a local village.

Giant water lillies

Corinne with Anaconda!!

This was fascinating. We were welcomed by an anaconda that had been caught that morning. It was really cold round our necks and slightly slimy - very cool!! As you would imagine, the local people live in very simple huts and eat two meals a day, which consists of fish, locally grown vegetables and fruit, rice and berries from the jungle. To our surprise they had two little classrooms, pre-school and primary.

Corinne with local village school children

The children were just gorgeous and sung us a song. So Chris and I and 2 other Aussie girls sang 'Home among the Gum Trees' as the kids looked on with rather perplexed faces and then possibly out of politeness gave us a big clap! It was great fun. We then played soccer with the littlies and then had to stop as we were all absolutely dripping with sweat and exhausted.

Chris tired after a days exploring

In true Chris fashion he got really sick. Our guide brewed up some local medicine made from tree bark (can't remember the name)and Chris managed to force it down - only just! Not long after that he started to feel much better and is now on the mend. We are now slightly concerned about the strange rash that is now on both of his arms. I say off to the Doctor if it's not gone in a few days (even if I have to drag him there myself)!!! Don't worry - the rash appeared before the local medicine was ingested, so hopefully no strange jungle disease.

We are now in Lima airport waiting for our connection to Cusco.

Hasta Luego Amigos,

Lots of love,
Chris and Corinne xx