April 7: The Amazon

AMBERLEY: We got up early in the morning and went bird watching. We saw many different colorful birds, yellow, blue, and other colors. We saw bird nests hanging from trees. In the United States, the bird nests are small and sit on top of the trees. Here, they hang out of the trees and look very different. We returned to the lodge to eat breakfast then went fishing for piranhas. Those are fish with sharp teeth. Jorge explained that if they bite the tip of your finger, you could lose that tip. He said to be careful and not to touch the fish. We enjoyed ourselves and know that the fish are edible. We went back and ate lunch then.. what? I don’t remember… Oh yes! We went to a sugar factory. Jorge’s uncle owns one and they make delicious sugar. They also had cylinders of something that tastes really strong. Those are medicine that helps stomachache, throat pain, arthritis, and all that. After we finished the tour, we went to see different types of animals. We saw four turtles, capybara, and many different colors of parrots- they keep them then send them to zoos. (we petted them, they were cute and small). We went to eat dinner then when it got dark, we looked for alligators (caymans) and found a small one that we petted. That’s it.

Zachery caught the first Piranha!

Rosina holding a baby Capybara. Capybaras are the largest rodent in the world.

 Tree with bird nests during our bird watching trek. Jorge calls them Christmas ornaments.

Jorge caught a baby white caiman (alligator). 

Piranhas: Joi won with four catches!

April 6: Iquitos-The Amazon

ROSINA: Hello, we got into a small boat in the morning and went on a very long ride (3 hours). The Amazon River is really big. We are very excited to see everything. We finally arrived and the lodge was interesting.  It has mosquito netting, a cool roof and all that. We entered the lodge and sat down to eat. We ate fish- strange weird looking fish and it still had eyes on it complete with its tail. I ate it and had to pick the bones from my teeth. We went up the jungle, walked a lot and saw many bugs and beautiful flowers and plants. We returned to the lodge and were excited to see our rooms. They were interesting- had a wood floor and my bathroom was flooded with water.  The flush didn’t work. We went back to the gathering room and chatted until it got dark. We were by candlelight for a while then the electricity went on. We thought “Great!” but then the electricity shut off again. Luckily we had flashlights and we chatted by flashlights. The candles were lit and then the light went on again and we ate. The electricity went off again. Michael decided to tell us a really scary story and we were fascinated. It was an Amazon folktale “Colorado Boafo” (Jen: It’s  El Bufeo Colorado: http://www.peruvianamazon.com/folklore.htm). This is a dangerous story for 15-18 year old girls J.  We hoped we could sleep that night. At 8 pm, we all fell asleep!

 Group picture of us after our jungle hike. Jorge was our personal tour guide for four days.

Jorge found a tiny frog and put it on Zacherys arm. See how small it is.

The lodge from the back.

April 5: Iquitos and Belen

Michael: Hello! This is the city of Iquitos. Rosina and I were together and explained the history of Iquitos. While walking, we entered a museum and "bumped into" a man named George. He gave us a tour. We were surprised to also bump into the mayor of Iquitos! Jorge said he would give us a tour of a nearby town, Belen on a boat. This is a floating city. He said he would meet us at two 'o clock. It is a FASCINATING town! Most of the homes are floating in the river!! Others are more set. People who live there have left. Why? The water rose 8 meters! That equals to 26 feet because it is the wet season. There's still more rain and the water is still rising. People living in homes that don't float had to evacuate. What do the people of the floating city's lives look like? When they go to the bathroom, it's set outside. There's no pipes or plumbing! They bathe in the river, swim and all that. We were fascinated and rode the boat then got on a hill (land) and went to the Belen market. There was a lot of food. In one specific area, you can't eat that food or you will become sick. George led us to the other side of the market where there's good food that you can eat. There's a fruit called Juanes You see that? (pointing to food). The food is in the banana leaf. What's inside? Rice, olives, eggs, and other things. (See http://perufood.blogspot.com/2006/09/photo-juanes-quintessential-amazonian.html). Also, we bought nuts and oranges. You know how our oranges are orange, right? Here, they are green! They're still delicious. We walked and ate and relaxed at our hotel. Tomorrow we will leave to the Amazon Rain Forest with Manti people. We will be gone for four days and three nights. We'll see what happens!

Note from Gary: Got in Iquitos yesterday after three hours of delay. We think it was the typical tropical thunderstorm that held us in Lima.

The kids were in awe with what they saw when we got on the main road. The traffic mostly consists of motocarros (motorcycle with a two passenger buggy-looks a bit like a tricycle). The Amazon river is a block away from us. We saw the river last night and it looks huge but will see everything better in the daytime. We are eating breakfast and there are two cute small green parrots that behave like dogs begging for food. They even climbed on our hands.

Tomorrow morning we will depart for the rainforest and may have NO access to Internet. We will return Lima late Monday night so do not expect any news from us until the 9th.

The floating town of Belen.

A cool group picture of us. We had time to get it framed! :)

The Belen Market.

Fishes from the Amazon sold at the Belen Market.

The floating town of Belen.