Hostal El Colibri Iquitos

... and playing cards, stopping in little river towns along the way to drop off and pick up cargo. After beautiful sunsets, we slept on the top deck, swinging in hammocks. Pink freshwater dolphins swam along side the boat. When we arrived in Iquitos, we were greeted with open arms by the Cuevas. Their hospitality and warmth (and the fact that they call me willee) has made me feel like nothing short of family. They cook us delicious ...

... like for its original inhabitants, this is the place to go. You have a choice of many several-day tours to this region, accompanied by experienced, bi-lingual jungle guides. <br><br>An excursion into the rainforest can be an overwhelming experience, during which you meet the native inhabitants of the jungle and see a large variety of animals. The rivers and swamps in this region belong to the caiman, the anaconda, the piraña, the giant river turtle, the river dolphin ...

... Andy. By then it was 9 and 80 degrees had become 85. I had only run an hour and a half since I waited at the dump market, and spent some time checking out of our hotel. Andy came back at that point and told me that Eric had left five minutes ago for the golf course. I got directions from Mick and, as it was 20km away from town, I debated whether or not I actually wanted to run there in the heat. I decided to do it, and headed out. This still continued to be a miserable run. People ...

... After getting entirely frustrated with getting eaten while eating, Eric and I ran to our hammocks and Falcon and Gedrani showed us how to work the mosquito nets and zipped us in. Everyone else enjoyed the mosquites as much as we did, and they also ran for their mosquito nets. It was like a little orchestra outside. In the dark, the only thing we could hear was the high pitched buzzing sound of all the mosquitoes in the area, all flying around, relentlessly trying to find a ...

... a sticky hot and tropical place and when I went for a drink down by the river on the first night, there was a bit of an edge to the place that I hadn't felt anywhere else in Peru. Its a very laid back city, quite hippy in many ways, but the tropics also tends to bring out the slightly seedier element and I almost felt like I was in Bangkok instead. <br><br> The thing to do when in Iquitos is to get into the jungle. Its a nice place to visit for itself but really the ...

... not connected by a road system. It lies deep in the amazon, the sights are beautiful and surprisingly the women are also. That night we took care of some short business, and josh discovers a family emergency and decides to fly back the following day. Well, last night of the 3 amigos. That night was the san juan festival, a giant party over the city, we join. We head to a district where a party of thousands of people is taking place. We walk around and i eat ...

... on the boat was relaxed and comfortable. The Nanay meanders back and forth and from time to time we passed a cocha - an oxbow lake created by the rivers meanderings. Because it is high water season, the entrances to the cochas are flooded. But at other times of the year they are only accessible on foot. From the photos the river looks like the banks are heavily treed - and they are. However ...

... by and the high up in order to see them. We kept it and ate it for dinner plus all the ones Falcon caught. Great fun although very hard to catch, the fishes in this area are actually quite expensive and you see many locals children out catching fish to sell in Iquitos. After a long lazy lunch we went out again to see the dolphins which live in the amazom, both pink and blue ones, irrawady dolpins have very flat noses and look very strange but the river is full of them and they ...

... thirty medium-sized bats, which had been taking a nap hanging from the bark, all of a sudden took off and started circling around our heads, before disappearing into the jungle. But they soon returned, to see if those rude intruders were still there.<br><br> Another fabulous sunset and dito sunrise later, we were travelling further up the Nanay, when the vessel's chef Judith, herself not foreign to jungle life, spotted a slight movement up in a ...