Hotel Amazon Garden Iquitos

... lush wildlife, unspoiled indigenous communities, and exotic foods. While such a paragon of travel destinations is easy to dissapoint inflated expectations, our time here has surpassed anything that we could have hope. Being able to consider ourselves at home as part of the worlds most diverse ecosystem is truely a blessing, and one that we will hold with us for the duration of our trip.<br><br>To avoid the week long boat ride ...

... 8216;Venice of Peru&#8217;. Belén is also famous for its regional market, where products from throughout the jungle are sold. In the harbor, where you can get a tour in a canoe for just a few dollars, you can see how the countless jungle products arrive from miles around. These products are sold at the market, at bargain prices.<br><br>The people of Belén are fiendly and hospitable, but it is wise to visit the market and the residential area with a local guide. The ...

... and a half. Amazing how ice cream can soothe a girl&#8217;s soul.<br> I got to the golf course and watched Eric as he finished up the course. We talked for a while and then he went out again for round two. I had had enough of being on my feet and in the sun, and relaxed in the stilted clubhouse and watched from there.<br> We jumped on to catch our 5pm boat. We opted for boat Gilmer IV as opposed to the recommended Henrry boat because we were told it was more powerful and would ...

... meat, but they know.&#8221;<br><br> We continued on and Falcon pointed out cotton from the Seibu tree which can be used like regular cotton and locals here use it to stuff pillows. We saw lots of butterflies, one snazzy huge blue butterfly, a large brown frog that was 4 inches long, and a tiny brown leaf frog. We were walking along and Andy, who was in back, stopped. &#8220;I think something got thrown at me.&#8221; We looked up to see a bunch of monkeys in the trees ...

... Gedrani grabbed him firmly by both tail and neck. The caiman calmed down, and Gedrani passed it to Andy. <br> Caimans are similar to alligators and can commonly be found in the Amazonian lakes, marshes, and small rivers, although they apparently don&#8217;t like the larger rivers such as the Amazon proper or the larger branches of the Ucayali or Maranon. They get up to 5 meters from head to tail, can be dangerous as adults though are generally afraid of people and boats ...

... the best - but what a mouthful). <br><br> One of the villages near our lodge was used in The Motorcycle Diaries movie and its a really odd place because its in the middle of nowhere, with wooden huts and lean-to shacks and all the rustic stuff that you expect in an Amazonian village - but running right through the middle of it is a perfectly laid concrete path. The film crew built it to move their equipment around during filming and left it behind afterwards. The villagers ...

... do some volunteer work. He and josh spent 2 weeks volunteering there, reconstructing Pisco, a town destroyed by an earthquake a few years back. I will spend probably a week or more there. And then i will head to......i dont know. We will see.<br><br>I named my monkey Iquitos, after the town i bought him in. I will travel with him as long as i can.<br><br>This week has been amazing. Unexplainable and Unimaginable.<br><br>My adventure continues.<br><br>-Dave<br><br>

... was at the back of the boat and consisted of a small space with a half wall (and shades that could be pulled down for privacy if needed), a toilet that was basically a seat on a hole into the water, and buckets for bathing in river water. Simple and all you really need. I am sure my river rafting friends in Colorado are shuddering at the thought of defecating directly into the river...And that's ...

... dinner which was much more easier then spear fishing. We caught a number or piranhas and catfish that were all large enough to eat. Proud of our sells for the amount of fish we caught we headed back to the lodge and prepared for the outing we were going to do that night through the jungle with canoe as there are many noctural animals that we wont see in the day plus try to find the caimens that come out at night. Dinner of fish was delicious although somewhat annoying with the ...

... soup, this little lady would find a home at Pilpintuwasi instead.<br>We came by the community center and found an artisan workshop in progress. Women were learning how to dye dried grass and weave it into baskets, handbags and lots of other useful things. We discovered that a foreign NGO (non-governmental organization) is sponsoring this activity and comes once a month to buy up all the newly woven products. It allows the community to support itself ...