Amazon Rainforest

From Chiclayo, we took the 13 hour overnight bus back to Lima and then a flight from Lima to Iquitos. We discovered there had been an air traffic controllers' strike whilst we had been up north, but it finished the day before our flight. Two weeks before we are due to come home and they finally get their transport-related act together!

Iquitos

Iquitos is billed as the largest city in the world that you can't get to by road, which is interesting if a little contrived. Everything comes here by plane or boat. Put that together with the fact that it is a mecca for Amazon tourists (often American) and the place is pretty pricey. It is also pretty warm. We arrived to find the temperature a balmy 32°C and the humidity somewhere approaching 100%. We have splashed out on air conditioning for our few days here. Testament to the number of tourists is the fact that quite a number of locals speak some kind of English. There are many touts trying to sell trips into the jungle. It has to be said though that they are not pushy and we often just ended up chatting to them even when they knew they would not be able to sell us anything.

One concerned reader warned us that you can easily get run over in Iquitos. Actually, it is very easy to get run over anywhere in this country, but it is true that the absolutely massive number of mototaxis (three wheeled, half-motorbike, half rickshaw) does present a particular road crossing challenge.

Being in the jungle, naturally there is a lot of wood to be found and it plays a large part in local life and the economy. The buses are made out of wood and they have managed to come up with a liquor made out of tree roots [foul, in case you were wondering]. Rather amusingly though, one of the notable buildings in Iquitos was designed by Gustave Eiffel and imported from Paris. Naturally, given the abundance of natural local material, he made it out of metal! It sits gleaming in the corner of the main plaza looking completely out of place.

There is a manatee rescue centre here and [inevitably] Megan wanted to go and feed leaves to them. So we did. It is about 15km from the town and we managed to find a mototaxi with a square wheel to take us there. We didn't like to say anything to the driver for fear of offending him by criticising his pride and joy but, as we paid up and left, he could be seen peering in a puzzled fashion at the back wheel. Perhaps the large and heavy gringos broke it.

Muyuna Lodge

500 thousand people live in Iquitos so, other than a lazy, tropical sort of lifestyle, it is not actually very jungle-ish and is not the real reason we came all the way up here. 140km up river from Iquitos, however, is the Muyuna Lodge, which we had come to visit. The lodge is located up a small backwater off the Amazon and is surrounded by primary rain-forest. The only method of access is by small boat. The lodge shuttle boat may be small, but it is certainly fast; it got us there in about 2½ hours. The trip was a little hazardous as large logs float down the river partially submerged. Hard to dodge at nearly 50 knots! There were a few ominous bangs, but we made it without sinking even once. On the way, we passed numerous riverside communities. It was amazing to see people living out here and to wonder what their life is like. They exist on fishing and subsistence farming with a bit of trading of surplus produce. There were about a dozen guests staying when we arrived and about 20 staff. We hooked up with a couple from Germany who wanted an English guide and the four of us spent six days with a very knowledgeable local chap, Christtian Resilva. Rather amusingly, Christtian's other job was as a translator for Catholic missionaries when they visit the local tribes - we wonder if they picked him for his name. Everything out here is made out of wood and mosquito netting, but we were still bitten to pieces after 24 hours. DEET is no match for these monsters. We had only cold water showers and kerosene lanterns at night. Oh, and the accompaniment of a million living things making wildlife type noises.

Each day at the lodge included a number of trips either by boat or walking. We went out bird-watching, caiman spotting, and piranha fishing on the first day. Megan caught a bunch of fish, Steve didn't. We went on an extended walk through the rainforest looking for animals. We spotted iguana-like things, a bunch of monkeys and some sloth(s). The walk was extended as the guide managed to get us lost and we spent an hour going round in circles in the heat - getting bitten of course - before we regained the path. On a night walk, we found frogs the size of footballs which could be picked up although we don't think they enjoyed it very much. Tarantulas were very much in evidence too.

It turns out that the Amazon rainforest is just that; rainforest. We had kind of expected something a bit more like the jungles of Asia. Since the land is flooded for six months every year, there are few mammals in evidence - mainly things that can climb trees like monkeys and sloths. They clear off when it gets really wet and, it seems, most of them don't come back. What there are here are birds, fish and insects, particularly the latter! We spent quite a lot of time on the river and we kept expecting to see animals coming down to drink, but there simply aren't any.

Famous around here are the Pink Amazon River Dolphins and we spent a morning trying to see them. They are pretty illusive so, whilst we did get to spot them, there are no photos. They do seem to be pink, but it's a bit of a dolphin scam since it's only a pigment picked up through their diet. If they ate different food, they would not be pink. There was the option to swim with them but no one seemed to want to. Probably due to the dirty brown colour of the Amazon, the ripping current and our success at catching piranha in these waters. What we did see is erosion in action as a large part of the river bank collapsed as we watched. A few minutes later, a wave washed up on the opposite shore. Our own miniature tsunami demonstration.

On the subject of missed opportunities, we had the option to spend a night under canvas out in the forest. At first, we had been quite keen on this but, after three days and discussions with our fellow guests, our interest began to wane. Mainly this was due to the constant need for a [cold] shower to remove the ever present sweat and insect repellent and to cool the bites. Sitting around a camp fire swatting insects and then trying to sleep in a stifling tent became less attractive as the days went by. In the end, we quizzed the guide who admitted it was unlikely we would see anything we hadn't already seen so we elected to do more fishing instead.

The second fishing trip we even less successful than the first as we demonstrated our skill at feeding bait to the piranhas. One morning, we got up at 4:30 and set off hiking through the forest to see the Wattledd Curassow bird. This bird can only be seen here and only occasionally. This was not one of those occasions! We did find more mosquitoes though.

In all, we spent six days and five nights at the Muyuna Lodge. Given that we didn't take them up on the offer of camping, that was plenty of time to see what the Amazon has to offer. The staff at the lodge looked after us and fed us very well. When you consider that everything has to be brought to the lodge by boat and that this is the only method of communication with the outside world, then they have the logistics pretty well organised.

We returned to Iquitos to await our return flight to Lima and checked in to the rather splendid Casa Morey on the riverside. We wanted a couple of days of comfort after six days of sweat and insects. A rubber boom kicked off here in around 1870 and unimaginable wealth was generated for the owners (and poverty and death for the workers - plus ça change). Casa Morey was built by the rubber baron Luis Morey in 1910 and it has great views of the river from the enormous rooms. For the first time on this trip, our hotel actually had a swimming pool! We didn't use it though as the entire town had turned into a swimming pool due to the incessant tropical deluge that had engulfed it. We discovered that, when the heavens open here, the internet (and often the phone system) stops working. A lot of the people seem to do the same!

Some Pictures