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Other entries in Iquitos

Iquitos, Peru 22 to 23 May 2007

Hola Chicos

Flew from Lima to Iquitos on Lan Peru airline.  Good flight and arrive at 5.30pm.  We were met at the airport by 3 of the staff of Yarapa River Lodge who took us to our hotel  The Victoria Regina.  Hotel was a very nice 3 star hotel with an indoor swimming pool that we used to cool of in.  Its very hot and steamy in Iquitos.   Our trip in from the airport was an experience.  Everyone in Iquitos seems to get around on a motor bike or a tuk tuk and there are no traffic rules - its manic, cars, bikes and tuk tuks everywhere and not one of them seems to have indicators.

 Walked down to the Plaza de Armas to look for a restaurant for dinner and ended up at the Amazon Cafe on a balcony overlooking the plaza.  The owner is an oil driller from Texas.  He sat down and talked to us for a while and has lived in  Iquitos for some time and has a Peruvian wife.

We were picked up from our hotel early the next morning and driven by car 100 km to Nauta,  over a new road that took 35 years to build,  as it went straight through the jungle and the soil was difficult to build on.  Besides these obstacles,  the funds for the project kept disappearing???? 

A Yarapa River Lodge  boat was waiting for us at the dock in Nauta and took us up river to the eco Lodge which took 40 minutes.   The Lodge is 130km from Iquitos on the Rio Yarapa.  It is well maintained and has impresive wood carvings in the restaurant and bar areas and bed heads.  The rooms are fully screened  (thank goodness)   and linked by  screened walkways.  Our room was very large  with our own bathroom.  Every day our room was made up and they arranged the towels in various ways  i.e.  one day a boat, next a flower etc.  We only had cold showers,  but it is so hot and humid that this didnt matter.  Safe drinking water was provided to all the rooms in water coolers at no extra cost.  The lodge is regularly used by US Cornell University for research and post graduate classes and also has a lab and a conference room.

Every day we did 2 excursions with 2 guides,  Willie,  who spoke English,  and Milton who drove the boat and spotted the wildlife.  Milton is a local native and can spot small wildlife that we couldnt even find with binoculars.  Some days we went out in a motor boat,  sometimes in a canoe., sometimes we trecked through the jungle in wellies as there was a lot of water in places that is easily trecked in the dry season.  It is still wet season in the Amazon Basin and the rivers are very high (the height varies by 27 feet in some places).  Because of the high water levels the jungle is more accessible by boat.  It was great fun just cruising around looking for animals and birds.  We saw, pink dolphins, grey dolphins,  woolley monkeys, spider monkeys, pygmy monkes (the smallest in the world and took some finding), squirrel monkeys,  priest monkeys,  sloths  (28 of them),  caiman (crocodiles), tarantulas as big as our hands, macaws, tucan and other parrots and birdlife.  Didnt see any snakes though we were told there are plenty around.  We didnt look too hard!!!

One day we borrowed a canoe and paddled off by ourselves to a nearby lake where were saw  pink dolphins and a tribe of squirrel monkeys feeding in the trees.   Willie,  our guide sent one of the boys over to see if we were OK as we were gone so long and it was starting to get dark, but the intrepid travellers were handling it OK.

Every day when we arrived back from our boat trips,  Louis the barman was waiting for us with ice cold towels to cool us down - very welcome as we were averaging about 3 showers a day and our clothes always felt damp.

The food here was great.  Mercedes,  the Chef, cook mostly Peruvian style food,  using local, fish, vegetables and fruits.  Willie told us that Mercedes liked us because we ate everything she cooked  (nothing has changed!!!!) and because we were not fussy eaters.  Even ate the Pirahna we caught (I caught the most fish that day - 3 pirahna and 3 catfish),

This place was unique.  We were in the Amazon Basin, surrounded by wildlife.  We used to sit on the observation deck, looking across the river.  Every day we could see monkeys in the trees,  pink dolphin in the river and all sorts of bird life and the local fisherman tending their nets.  At the moment there are a lot of fish in the rivers.  It was so easy to relax and enjoy the area,  especially with a drink in our hands.

The pink dolphins have no predators and the local people are afraid of them as they think they are evil spirits that sometimes change into humans and come into the villages at night to have sex with the young   women -a good excuse   for unwanted pregnancies????

Life is a struggle for the local people.  They live in wooden thatched houses, built on stilts for the wet season and mostly with no walls.  They wash and drink from the river and have no electricty or running water and sleep under mosquito netting in the open.  Most have a small plot of land that they farm with bananas, papaya, jukka (a potato like root vegetable) and lemongrass,  and use the local trees and plants for medicines etc.  They fish the river constantly and dry and salt the fish so that it will keep for when fish are not plentiful.  If they can sell their surplus crops and fish they are lucky to make $1,000 aussi per annum and most have no other form of income.

We visited a local village where the people were very friendly.  The kids climbed trees to pick fruit for us.  They could climb like monkeys and had no fear of the height.  The government provides schools but if the children live a long way away,  they cant get there unless they are prepared to travel 2 1-2 hours each way to school by boat.  The result being that most of the children only go to junior school and drop out at high school age.

One afternoon the staff had a soccer match after work.  Pete was elected the time keeper and filmed the match for them.  Some played in bare feet adn some in wellies, but they all played hard and had lots of fun. 

For several days we were the only guests at the lodge and got to know the staff quite well. At times we shared the place with a South African guy and later on some Americans,  but there was never many people staying.  On our last night for dinner, Mercedes made us a big cake with "Happy Travels to Pete and Sam" on top and the staff sang us the Yarapa River Lodge song about their lives and the environment.  They are great people and we really enjoyed our time with them.  Wille told us that the staff liked us because we were very easy going and relaxed and nothing seemed to bother us

Our week at Yarapa River Lodge was without doubt one of the highlights of our trip so far.  We will always remember our time there and the great people who live there.  It has been a unique experience in our lives.  We were sorry to leave and travel back to Iquitos,  where we flew back to Lima.

Todo lo mejor  (all the best)

Sam and Pete