Explorama Lodges Iquitos

... amazon river boat for the next three days and therefore out of contact. Then I´ll be in Leticia watching dolphins and macaws or something and then in Puerto Narino. Then by the time I get more constant net access, I´ll already be heading to the states!<br><br>I´m excited to go back home to upload photos and finally be settling in a place for a few days and I miss the family as well. But at the same time, don´t want the trip to end as I´m just hitting the stride. <br>

... around town, because for the &#8216;rubber barons&#8217;, nothing was too outrageous. They imported shiploads of the best quality products from Europe. The façades of their stately homes were decorated with beautiful ceramic tiles, imported from Portugal and Italy, that can still be admired today.<br><br>Entire operas from Europe were brought to Iquitos to entertain the rich. They had to travel across the Atlantic and 5,000 kilometers up the Amazon River to perform ...

... I was within 15 ft of two wild pink grey dolphins in the Amazon river! They swam around me, surfaced, and sneezed their blowhole spray on me. I stopped whistling, but kept yelling back to the others, which maybe made the dolphins come even closer. Apparently, as I was yelling out to the group, they were also yelling out to me because Jen swam about half way and yelled for me to come back. I guess Falcon had been trying to yell out that the current was very strong in the ...

... highly terrified of. At any given moment you spot up to 20 spiders and millions of ants. Ants cover the amazon. From the trees to the ground flour ants flourish. It was very muddy in the area, where rubber boats were necessary. We put up our hammocks before sundown. My hammock was great, my hennessey outdoor hammock i have been carrying around worked wonders. Easy to set up, bug free, and no hassel. Everyone else was jealous. Sun sets and we build a fire to cook ...

... south of Iquitos at about 3 or 4 in the morning, and from there, I took a car ride for a couple hours to Iquitos. After enjoying a couple hours of American love songs and rock ballads dubbed in Spanish, I found myself in the city of Iquitos. About a half hour's walk north I found the main plaza. Nearby, you can't miss the 'Yellow Rose of Texas' expat restaurant -- the only place open that early in the morning. Outside, I met the owner, a native of ...

... Preserve , prime birding country, and I could go as well. Done! I stopped by the Dawn on the Amazon office and met Bill and he said there was good news and bad news. Turns out the bad news was only for him...the other couple were from Mexico and couldn't make it because of the swine flu quarantine! Who'd-a-thunk-it? So I would be the only guest on the boat along with a guide, captain, and cook. Wow. At ...

... flifthy clothes from the week on the boat and booked our tour. The rest of the day was spent preparing and visiting the Belem market. Belem area is only about 6 blocks away front the plaza de arms and is a part of the city which floats for half of the year due to the rain and in order to get around the locals need small canoes. We paid a guy to take us around the area which is habited by people and some areas have little wooden planks to cross areas. Unfortuanlty the water was ...

... are even stronger and more mysterious than during the day. All of us heard sounds coming from the deep jungle that resembled human voices, laughter even. It is no wonder that anyone would become convinced that spirits live in these remote places.<br> The next morning greeted us with a beautiful sunrise, along with the sound of monkeys at breakfast coming from across the river. But monkeys weren't the only creatures around for breakfast; during ...