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Iquitos and the Amazon Jungle

Our early morning flight to Iquitos was cold and offered a great view of the snowy peak of Huascaran (the highest mountain in Peru ) poking up through the clouds. When we got off the plane, however, we were immediately hit by humid warmth. We had a couple of free hours in Iquitos before our boat ride to Sinchicuy Lodge, so we walked around the streets a bit. The first immediately noticeable thing about Iquitos is the roar of its permanent motorcycle race. There are few cars, but many, many motorcycles, motorbikes, and mo-totaxis (colorful motorized rickshaws). Every time the light turns green a whole flock of them start racing towards the next intersection, creating a permanent screen of noise and smell in the streets. The other interesting thing about Iquitos is that despite its large size (600,000) it feels like a small town. There are a few 4-story buildings at the Plaza de Armas (every city has a main square by this name), but otherwise all houses only have two floors.

It was interesting to watch the street life, but otherwise we didn't really like the city all that much and were glad to leave for the jungle. A wooden motorboat with woven leaf covering awaited us at one of the city's four main docks, just big enough for the 9 passengers and 3 employees that accompanied us to the lodge. First we went up the river a few minutes to see the Puerto de Productores, which is a dock that supplies the Belen Market, an Iquitos market offering everything from fresh tropical fruits to live or dead chickens to turtles (endangered ones, we later found out). We had walked through the market earlier and found it a bit sickening. The interesting part about this river dock was the river life: a floating house community without potable water or electricity, numerous water taxis and buses, and fishermen in long wooden canoes.

From here we went back down the stream and entered the main body of the Amazon. This was lower water season so the river was still wide (maybe twice the width of the Charles River by MIT), but not huge. We were told by someone that during the rainy season the level rises by 4 meters, then someone else said 10 meters, but really it seems even more than that in many places, judging from the banks. The muddy banks seem ready to crumble into the river. Beyond them, it's all lush green: grassy areas close to Iquitos and jungle further away from the city. The forest along the river reminded us of the forest along the Peace River in Florida when we took the boat up to the Nav-i-Gator restaurant with David's dad. Very pretty.

Thirty minutes later we unloaded in Santa Maria de Ojeal, which is a jungle village that hosts the Sinchicuy Lodge (so named after a local creek). We climbed the muddy bank and walked through the village on the way to the lodge. David noted that every town and village in Peru seems to have a soccer field - and it is usually in use, too. We passed the health center, small blue school, teacher's house and a disco bar that was up for sale. All but these few buildings are essentially one-room wooden cabins elevated on poles so as not get flooded during the rainy season.

The lodge was a primitive lodge - it had no electricity, but did have cold water pumped directly from the Amazon. It was scenic, clean and reasonably remote - pretty much exactly what we were looking for. Two resident macaws hopped on the grass roofs.

We took a long walk around the the jungle and local village with our group and guide. We visited a "native" Yagua tribe where we had the opportunity to try a pecuna (blowgun). The blowgun was shockingly effective and easy to use (for all but Iva). With no experience, we were able to propel a dart tens of meters across the jungle and strike a target tree with a high degree of accuracy and force (the dart stuck in the tree). We later found out at the airport that even the small souvenier blowgun that David purchased was considered a weapon by the Peruvian airport authorities and was promptly confiscated (and not returned).

The rest of our experience with the "native" tribe was quite awkward. They performed a native dance, compelled our group to join them, and then gave us the "opportunity" to buy souveniers. The guide said we met them in the middle of the woods because the bridge to their native encampment was torn down and that they always wear their traditional cloths (red rags around the hips and some straw ornaments). However, we saw the same individuals wearing t-shirts in the main village the next day, so they were not so native after all.

Later on this walk we also saw some wild saddleback tamarins hopping through the trees. They were pretty cute, with dark fur and white areas around their eyes. Some of the children in the village had wild animals for pets, such as a baby howler monkey or baby cuy (guinea pig - Peruvian delicacy). They admitted that although they love their pets very much, they expect to eat them when they get older. Unfortunately, the villagers in this area also tend to catch monkeys and export them for the black market in pets.

The next day we took the boat further along the river, and then hiked for 30 minutes across a land bridge to the Yanayacu River where a smaller wooden boat awaited us. During this short walk we passed through a village where one family had a tiny baby tamarin (so cute!) and another a sloth with its baby. When the man first came out to show us the baby, we could hear the high- pitched complaining whistles from the mother inside. So then he brought out both. They are not particularly good looking animals, but were cute anyway (they look a bit like E.T. in the face). The subsequent boat ride took us down the Yanayacu River to a different lodge, which was our starting point for another jungle walk. This one was about 2 hours long and took us deeper into the jungle in hope of seeing more wildlife. The only live things we saw were leaf-carrying ants and termite nests, but it was interesting and beautiful nonetheless. Plus it was quite fun to stomp around in the mud in our rubber boots - everything you ever wanted as a kid!

Apparently this whole area is under water during the rainy season, which means that the Amazon and Yanayacu spill pretty far from their banks then. Actually, instead of a system of several rivers, the area just becomes one giant water park. This makes farming in the jungle villages pretty difficult as they have to redo their fields and resow everything every year. Fortunately, banana trees produce fruits in just one season. On the boat trip back we tried native-style fishing for piranhas (with sticks, string and pieces of chicken), and somebody actually caught one. They are quite small, but they do have sharp teeth.

On the whole the jungle experience was interesting, although we would have liked to see more wildlife and have to use less repellent. The next day we were transferred by boat back to Iquitos where we had a whole day to kill before our flight. At first we were unhappy about that since we didn't like it the first time we passed through. But as we saw more of the city we actually came to enjoy it. It seems like a very commercial place although all commerce is done on a small local scale. Everybody is in a hurry to get somewhere in a mototaxi, everybody has tiny little stores selling one specialized thing or another, and it was fun to watch the life. The only exports (other than illegal monkeys) from here are mahogany wood and oil. We visited the local zoo to get a sense of what wildlife we missed out on. It was run-down and offensive to western sensibilities about the treatment of animals, but the animals inside were interesting. This was our first time seeing jabiru (a stork-like wading bird), kapibara (a pig-like animal) and toucan. We were escorted by a local boy, Luis, who had learned the names of the animals in English from other tour guides, and joined us as we walked through the zoo (tour guide in training). It was quite fun to have him along.

We finished the night at a restaurant in town. After the waiter assured us that the turtle dish was from farm turtles, we enjoyed a meal of turtle and large guinea pig. As it turns out, endangered turtles are regular sold in the local market. And, after seeing no turtle farms throughout the region, we became convinced that the turtles were probably pulled right from the jungle.