Welcome to the jungle
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2009
1
5
15
Trip End
Jun 30, 2009
Iquitos,
Peru
Sunday, February 1, 2009
We definitely found the fun not sure about the games, unless hunting mosquitos has to be considered a game!
It's been a beautiful 5 days we`spent deep in the amazonian forest or as they call it here "la Selva". After three three hours of speed boat along the Amazon river and a deviation on the Yanayacu river (an affluent of the Amazon) we reached our lodge, 140 Km far from the main town, Iquitos, the only city in the world you can only access either by plane or by boat (at least this is what they say and we trust them!).
The place is literally in the middle of the jungle, no electricity, wooden bungalows with mosquito nets instead of walls, kerosene lamps at night but still a luxury place. Clearly this wasn't aligned with the "backpackers attitude" we should be having, but sometimes we need to treat ourselves!
Nature here is not as welcoming as the one we found in Galapagos but not less amazing. During our first hike in the forest our guide was nearly bitten by a "lance-headed" snake, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world and the mosquitos gave us their "special welcome" leaving an unforgettable mark on us.
It's been an intensive 5 days, we really loved the experience. Each day started at 6 o'clock in the morning (even if we cheated and we woke up only once...because of the rain, obviously!) and finished with a night boat trip looking for nocturnal animals after dinner. Among the different animals that we've seen, we can list sloaths, tarantulas, parrots, monkeys, caimans, piranhas (which we actually fished and ate), dolphins and lots of others, including a so called "preistorical bird" which is is "endemic" (original) of this place but we are not sure we understood 100% why it is called "pre-historical"!
Among the various activities we've been doing, the ones we preferred were canoeing along the Yanayacu river (actually Massimo paddling and Melanie taking pictures) and the night boat trips, hunting for tarantulas and boa snakes (which by the way we didn't see!).
We've also visited a village here. Actually there a lot of them along the various rivers. It's amazing how people can have settle down in such an environment but still they live a simple but happy life, which is centered around the river, used as shower, washing machine, drinking water (yes it is potable once you get immune to the worm, that's why all the kids have a big belly before they expell it...) and personal pool.
It made us think that althoug their life is supposed to be easy, they still face problems that once better considered are a lot harder than the ones we were used to face at home. Above all: Survival.
Not only they have to make sure they fish or grow enough food to support their family but also they have to constantly watch where they put their feet because there could always be a snake or a tarantula hidden somewhere or a jaguar could decide to attack their kids. This is just to say that we felt a lot of respect for this people who spend their lives here and we clearly understood we wouldn't be able to do so!
We've been lucky again as we shared this experience with a very nice group of people (Peter, Lauren, Fernando and Julie, hi guys if you read!) which made the stay even better. At the end we were sad to leave this beautiful place but also happy to go back to "modern comfort".
Soon to come, M&M's and guest star "JGC" on the Gringo trail.
Comments
ciao ragazzi
quanta acqua!!! belle le foto, mi aspettavo di vedere piu' animali, ma, evidentemente , quando li avete visti non erano fotografabili. passati i bozzi delle zanza? mi piace seguirvi virtualmente, qui piove a dirotto , la neve si e' sciolta e la temperatura e' aumentata un po'. Aspetto le prossime foto e il prossimo commento. Sicuramente questa tappa vi ha ftto apprezzare ancora di piu' le comodita' che diamo er scontate.un bacio
Predator
Beh che dire... LA SELVA S'E' ANIMATA...
attenti agli alieni.