This should have been posted about a week ago, along with one or two other entries. Indeed, I wrote most of the entry then, but forgot to post it. In that way, it's similar to the large stack of postcards that I have been carying with me for weeks now, waiting to put stamps and addresses on them.
Coming to the jungle after spending a month in the sierra was shocking. My flight got in just as the sun was setting, and I was greeted by a wall of thick, moist air and a beautiful red sky over a wall of green vegetation. Caught a mototaxi (a motorcycle with a bench seat on the back) into town, then wandered around watching bits of a football game at each bar I passed. Iquitos is a loud city, but a friendly one. There are virtually no cars, but the streets are full of motorcycles and mototaxis. It's warm, and all the buildings are open to the outside, with music (usually something from Tropical 2004) pouring out of each store. My first interactions with the people here were incredibly positive -- very friendly, and interested in talking.
The next morning, I walked past the main plaza down to the river and took in my first glimpse of it during the daylight. It was pretty -- shimmering water reflecting the morning sun, lots of boats of all sizes coming and going, and little islands of floating green lilies and other vegetation. "Oh," I thought after a little while, "I'm looking at the Amazon. Wow!" Water -- the rivers -- are a major part of life here. Boats still seem novel to me, so I find it interesting to see them as such a basic part of life.
The jungle is so different from the mountains. The market is filled with fish and tropical fruit, along with the usual selection of beef, chicken, spices, and so on. There is a big aisle of traditional medicine -- different barks and plants from throughout the jungle, each with a different look and aroma, as well as bottles and jars of shamanic potions and other drinks. Fascinating. The food is different as well. Everything in the market seems to be packaged in a banana leaf and tied shut -- no telling what's inside.
The next day I met my mom at the airport. Wonderful to see her again after so long. She'd had a great trip up that point, visiting Cuzco, Machu Pichu and the sacred valley, and it was great to see her so excited. Spent the next day catching up and deciding what we were going to do, and decided to spend some time in the jungle around Iquitos.
We went to one of the jungle lodges a few hours upriver for a few days. Was great to get away from the city, into less-inhabited jungle. It was a good feeling just to be moving on the river, on the way up to the lodge. Everything in brown and green -- the water and the banks brown, merging into a wall of green vegetation in different shades on the side of the river. All along the river were cleared fields with thatched-roofed houses, fruit trees, and a large collection of children playing. The variety of boats that we saw -- from simple dugout canoe, to oil boats, to long, covered boats just packed with people -- was amazing.
The lodge itself was up one of the tributaries of the amazon, a smaller, black-water river. We saw a huge number of different birds on the trip, with names that I could never keep straight, as well a collection of different animals. Highlights for me were seeing one of the smaller communities on the river near the lodge, with about 100 residents, seeing a bunch of different frogs one night, and seeing the river dolphins the next morning. Pictures soon to follow, but net is slow here in Iquitos so it may be a little while.
Posted by vanwie at July 22, 2004 06:52 AM