April 9: The Amazon-Iquitos-Lima

ZACHERY:  Hello, we spent our last day in the Amazon. It was bittersweet for us. We went to the monkey island and saw different monkeys. We also saw a huge snake then we took the boat back to Iquitos. Going down the Amazon took us three hours. Going back to Iquitos, we went against the current and it took us five hours. All of our butts were really sore and we were happy to get back into town. We went to the airport and after some delays, we finally arrived in Lima. Whoa, it was a really long day. It is now past midnight now. All of us are crashing and we are going to sleep now. Good night.

This is a boat filled with bananas and papayas en route Iquitos for the market



Caldonia enjoying the monkey island with monkeys around us.

Amberley with a spider monkey

Michael holding an Anaconda. It is the world's largest snake.



April 8: The Amazon

CALDONIA:  Hello, this is our dinner. Rice and fried catfish. What did we do? We had a mini Easter then we went boating to see the pink dolphins. We saw many dolphins and some were gray, others were pink. Some of us jumped in the water and went swimming. We enjoyed ourselves. We saw a sloth in a tree and it was hard to get down- very relaxed. We could pet it. We returned to the lodge to eat lunch and then went to a village called Palmeras. They have lots of cows, chickens and children. They were playing. There’s a hill by the river. We were finally able to walk on land then we went back to eat dinner and we are content.

This is the village of Palmeras, home to the Yagua Indians. (Jen’s note: See Gary’s boots J) Gary also says to make a note of the soccer field that’s submerged in water.

Rosenda petting a three toed sloth.

We saw pink dolphins around us.

We went swimming hoping to catch the pink dolphins.

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!