Peru: Iquitos and the Amazon

Iquitos was our jumping off point for our five day, four night Amazon adventure.  We arrived in Iquitos late and went straight to bed.  In the morning, we woke to a downpour, but were lucky (or maybe not so lucky since the humidity just kept rising) in that this was the only rain we had throughout our Amazon trip.  We were picked up by our tour company, met our guide, Jorge, and after some initial admin, like renting the very important rubber boots for jungle walks, we boarded the "Muyuna Lodge I" boat and began the three hour ride to our "jungle lodge".  After just a few minutes we were cruising up the Amazon River.  We had one stop on the way to the lodge at a small Amazonian village where the driver had to use the phone to check in with the office.  We stood on the dock for a few minutes and a pod of grey dolphins swam by.  We watched the dolphins jump and splash before boarding the boat again and continuing our journey.  The Muyuna Lodge is located on the Yanayacu River, a tributary to the Amazon.  When we reached the Yanayacu, we had to switch to a smaller boat.  During the dry season, the Yanayacu is only a few feet deep in some places so the larger speed boat used on the Amazon could not make it all the way.

Simon at our stop on the way to the lodge, showing off the sweet life jacket

The trusty speedboat

Making the final stretch of the journey on the shallow Yanayacu River

We had our own bungalow with a private bathroom.  Mosquito netting surrounds the bungalow instead of solid walls to let the breeze in and keep the critters out.  There was a small rip in our door, but surprisingly we didn't have mosquito trouble because of it.  We just had to deal with one bullet ant before he got to us.  There was no electricity at the lodge and at night the staff brought small gas lamps to each room.  We did have running hot water and flushing toilets, which we thought was pretty luxurious considering we were in the middle of the rainforest.

Muyuna Lodge (we stayed in the bungalow that is second in from the walkway)

View from our bungalow

Every day of our trip was filled with activities.  We went out in the morning, sometimes before and after breakfast, after lunch and had a night activity after dinner.  Until the afternoon on our second day, it was just Simon and I in our group.  On the second day, two more couples of about the same age, joined us.  The activities included "jungle walks," piranha fishing, caiman "hunting," canoeing, a tour of the local village, and swimming in the Amazon River with pink dolphins.  Sometimes we would just load up in the small boat and cruise up and down the river watching the different birds fly by while the fish jumped alongside (and sometimes into) the boat.

A sloth hanging in a tree by the river

San Juan de Yanayacu Village

Piranha fishing was definitely our favorite activity.  We anchored the small boat in the shade and using traditional fishing poles and raw meat as bait, started pulling in the piranhas.  In addition to piranhas, we caught dogfish and oscar fish.  One of the dogfish was dropped under the boat floorboards when it was being taken off the hook.  Once we ran out of bait for the piranhas, Simon asked if we could use the dogfish and see how long it took the piranhas to strip it down.  After about 15 minutes, nothing was left but the head.  The only drawback of the fishing was that I had not yet learned about the damage the biting flies can do.  I wore sandals (our guide said they would be fine) and the biting flies had a feast on my feet.  Insect repellent did not deter them.  I had more than 25 bites on my feet that all swelled up and hurt worse than any mosquito bite I have ever experienced.  Almost 4 weeks later, some of the bites are still flaring up and itching.  Needless to say, after the piranha fishing outing, I always wore shoes.  

My big catch

One of many catches

Razor sharp teeth

Caiman "hunting" was part of the night boat rides when we'd quietly cruise down the river, guides holding spotlights and searching for the nocturnal wildlife.  When a small caiman was spotted, a guide would jump out and grab it so we could all observe it up close.  One evening, the guide crawled through the branches of a fallen tree, cutting himself up, just to get to the caiman.  On his way in, he grabbed a few frogs to keep us entertained.

Carefully touching the caiman

Baby caiman

Saying hello to the caiman

We went on multiple "jungle walks" during our stay.  In an effort to find as many different animals as we could, we went out in the early morning, on a long day hike, and at night.  Since it was the dry season, most of the animals had moved away from the river banks, and our animal sightings were few and far between.  It was excruciatingly hot and humid in the rainforest and no matter what time of day it was the mosquitoes came at us in hoards.  We learned quickly, and on our second walk we were covered head to toe with clothing.  The other members of our group laughed that we were wearing glove liners and even had our faces covered, but it did not take them long to understand why.  We were still bitten through the clothes, but considering the number of mosquitoes buzzing about, we did pretty well.  It's probably easy to guess that the jungle walks were not our favorite activities, though we did see a few monkeys, some massive termite nests, a tarantula, a scorpion spider, and a lot of unusual plants and insects.  It was also fun to watch our guide blazing a trail with his giant machete.

Learning about the trees.  Note the guide's machete being used as a pointer

Walking through the rain forest

Simon on a leaf cutter ant hill

Five days flew by and before we knew it, it was our final day of our Amazon adventure.  In the morning, before taking the boat back to Iquitos, we took the small excursion boat all the way out to the Amazon and cruised around until we found some pink dolphins.  We followed them around for a while, watching for them to surface before cutting the engine and jumping out for a swim.  Since we actually saw pink dolphins while we were in the water, we all decided we were entitled to say that we did swim with pink dolphins.

Swimming in the Amazon River

We had a few more days in Iquitos before our flight back to Lima.  We stayed at a decent hotel with a pool, which we thought was essential given the heat and humidity.  The only real problem with the place we stayed was that our room faced the street and the constant roar of the mototaxis going by was quite loud.  Since there are no roads into Iquitos, and it can only be reached by plane or boat, very few people own cars.  Almost everyone gets around by motorcycle or mototaxi and the traffic never stopped.

For the most part, we just relaxed at the pool, hoping the insect bites would stop itching.  We did venture out one day to the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm and animal orphanage.  It was a twenty minute boat ride there and back.  Once we arrived at the port, it was not difficult to find a boat willing to take us.  We felt swarmed by people offering tours and rides.  When we got to our destination down river, we had to take a mototaxi a bit further to the Pilpintuwasi entrance.  We had a guided tour of the facilities and were given information about all of the different animals.  Most of the animals have ended up there because of illegal hunting in the rainforest.  The adults are hunted, leaving the babies to fend for themselves.  Sometimes the hunters will keep the babies and try to sell them in the markets.  One of the monkeys was brought to the sanctuary by the police because it had been trained as a pick-pocket.  The animals living at the sanctuary (in addition to the many different butterfly species that are bred there) included coatis, sloths, various types of monkeys, capybaras (biggest rodent in the world), macaws, parakeets, an ocelot, and a jaguar.  Some of the animals are free to roam around, but others that are dangerous to people have to be kept in enclosures.  Unfortunately, many of the animals will not be able to be returned to the wild because they have become too used to humans.

Sloth

A monkey holding my hand with his foot

Crazy caterpillars

Simon and some roaming monkeys

We had a lot of fun during our stay in the Amazonian region of Peru, despite the heat and constantly fending off insects.  Iquitos was a unique city and the people we interacted with were all quite friendly.  We were also fortunate to have a knowledgeable and engaging guide during our stay in the rainforest.  I would highly recommend a trip to the Amazon to anyone making the journey to Peru.