Amazing Amazon

On Wednesday afternoon, my plane touched down in the Amazon jungle of northeastern Peru. The steamy city of Iquitos, a remnant of the rubber boom and the largest city in the world not accessible by land, greeted us with palm trees, fresh air, and a beautiful sunset.

It was immediately evident that Iquitos moves to a tropical vibe contrasts loudly with the cold, cloudy, industrial atmosphere in Lima. Instead, of cars, the streets are filled with open-air motorcycles and mototaxis (motorcycles with wagons on the back). As the wind whipped through our hair, Oliver and I took a mototaxi to the hostel in the center of the city. Once Oliver and I had changed into our sandals and shorts, we met up with Melanie, Marie, and Jenny, who are also exchange students in our university. We booked a tour package for 4 days in the jungle, and then enjoyed banana splits and the local Iquitena beer on the patio of a restaurant called "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

The next morning, Melanie, Marie, Jenny, and I set off on our jungle adventure. (Oliver had an open wound that hadn't healed, so he opted to explore the city. He had a fantastic time.) In the sweaty morning heat, our guides Augusto and Wilder heaved 100 liters of water, two crates of food (including 2 live chickens to slaughter and eat on the last day!) and camping supplies onto the roof of the bus.

The majority of our trip would take place on the isolated Rio Ucayali, but getting there was an adventure in itself. From Iquitos, we took a crowded 2-hour bus ride to reach the port town of Nauta. In Nauta, we mounted a motorized boat with a palm-tree roof cover that took us down the Rio Maranon, past the intersection with the Amazon River, and then up the Rio Ucayali to remote the town of Puerto Miguel. From Puerto Miguel, we loaded all of our gear into two wooden canoes and paddled another three hours upstream to finally arrive at our campsite. Here, a computer and a cell phone have no value; a machete is the only tool you need.

We spent our days exploring the jungle by land and by boat. We saw tarantulas, monkeys, poisonous frogs, toucans, parrots, prehistoric birds, trees trunks the size of a small house, and lily pads four feet wide. We also fished for piranhas (I caught one!), drank water from a tree trunk, collected decorative seeds, climbed vines, and even ate worms!

My first impressions of the jungle were quite different from my final conclusions. Before the trip, I imagined that the growth would be so thick that it would be impossible to walk through it. However, when we arrived I was surprised at how much it resembled the forests in New England. I finally realized how magically wild the jungle is as I rocked in my hammock listening to the night. There were so many different sounds! I was overwhelmed by the amount of creatures and plants were sharing the same space.


Countdown of the AMAZING times in the AMAZON:

10: Number of millions of mosquito bites I got!

9: Number of hours we spent in canoes trying to find caymans or small alligators. We didn't have any luck in the wilderness, but we got to see one when we arrived in Puerto Miguel.

8: Number of river dolphins we saw.

7: Number of gold teeth that our guide Augusto had. Hard-core.

6: Number of tourists in the group. Four of us knew each other before in school, and two Israeli men also tagged along.

5: Hours of torrential down pour on Saturday morning, without letting up once. We're talking some SERIOUS rain.

4: Number of different forms of transportation it took to arrive at our camp in the jungle: mototaxi, bus, motor boat, canoe.

3: Number of times I woke up to the gawk of parrots. We slept in hammocks, which were wrapped in mosquito nets.

2: Number of times I refused the worm before I actually ate it. It was fried, and it tasted a bit like a rice cracker. Not bad!

1: Number of piranhas I caught.