I really can’t say we woke up early because it was like we
didn’t even go to bed on the previous night.
I think we actually did get to bed around midnight or so but we were up
by 3am to get ready for our flight to Iquitos.
I think we were out the door around 3:40 or so. The flight was at
5:40am. Because of the hour Daniela
ordered a taxi by phone rather than trying to catch one on the street. They are safer but of course more
expensive. We got to the airport and
checked in and were through security quickly enough then we found our gate
(oddly it was the same gate I departed Lima from last trip but this time it was
on the domestic side rather than the international side. They had closed some
doors and opened others to make this happen.
The flight was on an Airbus 320 through LAN. It was quick mostly because
we both fell asleep right away on it.
The flight takes about an hour and a half.
Iquitos airport is very small and we had to exit the plane
via a rolling staircase rather than into a terminal gate. We then waited a few minutes for the suitcase
and our transfer to the boat picked us up with a large bus meant for about 50
people. There were probably 8 of us being picked up. We took a trip to the
center of Iquitos to pick up some more passengers from a hotel then it was an
hour and forty five minutes to Nauta where we would take the boat. They had a brief orientation then we were
taken to the boat on a skiff where they issued us our life jackets. The skiff
ride took only a few minutes, maybe five or less. We got another brief orientation then were assigned
our cabins. After quickly settling in they asked us to go to the dining room
for another meeting where they explained more about the ship and the rules. We
were given a chance to take a quick tour of Nauta with one of the guides. Most everyone decided to do it from our group
but we missed the first skiff and had to wait for it to come back to bring
us. We took a short walk to a square
where we met the guide then he took us on tuc tucs (motocycle taxis) to a pond
where we fed fish, turtles and even a small caiman bread. That took a few miutes then we walked back to
the taxis and then took a ride around all of Nauta including a few rides over
some wooden bridges. Some were very
tight to the size of the vehicles and had pedestrians on them as well. After the ride it was back on the skiff and
back to the boat.
At the boat we got a couple minutes to freshen up then we
headed to lunch which is served buffet style.
I had rice, lentils, salad, mixed vegetables and pot roast beef with a
sweet potato in the middle. We had a local fruit juice to go along with
that. I also had coffee and Daniela had
tea and the passion fruit flan for dessert.
We had another meeting with the tour guides who explained our afternoon
and evening to us then it was finally into the room to relax for about two and
a half hours before the next excursion.
We used that time to sleep mainly and about half an hour before we were
supposed to go I took a shower. The water was very easy to make hot. I woke up Daniela and she got dressed and
ready just in time.
The excursion started with a visit to a local shaman who is
more of a natural medicine healer than a witch doctor. He learned about the
medicinal properties of the local plants from his grandfather starting when he
was 12 and now has been doing it for over 30 years. He is teaching his daughter
and his niece about the medicine as well. He serves a community of 500 or so
and does not ever go into the cities. He will send patients to the nurse if he
cannot help them. He took about 6 different
plants to show us about them and talked about what they did. The visit took
maybe about an hour or so and we met Bianca the cobalt winged parakeet as
well. He blessed everyone before we left
and they sold some local crafts as well at the end. It was interesting, especially because he was
not presenting himself as mystical or anything like that. He was dressed normal
and also works at a local lodge for tourists.
We had threats of rain but it fortunately went around us. On our way out
we saw a rainbow.
The next stop was to try to find a three toed sloth a bit
further up the river. We passed the boat and were able to find one in a matter
of minutes. The guide said we were very lucky. I wonder how they can be so
elusive when they don’t move fast. Still
I guess they move around enough that they are not always in the same place. We
even saw a second one before we left. The guide explained they move about 40
feet a day and defecate only 1 time per week which they do on the ground rather
than from the trees. They use dropping from the tree as a defense mechanism and
I guess are very resilient and won’t get hurt by the fall. Mothers teach the children how to survive and
stay in contact with them for a year after they set the child off on its own. The gestation period is 5 months. Since we got lucky and found one quickly we
didn’t have to stay the full time they had set for it and got back to the boat
a little bit early. We boarded and got
cleaned up for a happy hour to be presented at 6:30 with music before dinner.
We apparently took a couple minutes too long because the
ship’s crew was already playing a song when we got to the lecture room. They did a bunch of different songs, some
traditional, some written by the crew and some classic rock. They played a
Beatles medley and Zombie by the Cranberries.
They were very good and the bartender sang O Solo Mio and has a great
voice. After the music we ate dinner
which consisted of spaghetti which I did Bolognese and Daniela did ala
pesto. Also vegetables, rice and chicken
cordon bleu style. The food was really
good. The guides brought in some snakes
they found outside. One a poisonous one and the other was an emerald boa. Not that big fortunately. They brought the poisonous snake out
immediately but kept the boa to be dropped deeper into the wildlife preserve we
would visit on the next day.
After dinner we only had a short time to prepare for heading
out onto the skiff in the dark to look for caimans. We boarded the skiff and
were taken around to search for animals in the dark but really we didn’t have
any luck. I think we were out for about an hour and a half and mostly we
released the boa from dinner but otherwise we got to watch a lightning show off
in the distance. It was neat but lacking
in animals unfortunately. The guides
seemed disappointed but said we would go out again the next night too. They are not easily discouraged. We got back
to the boat and then pretty much got cleaned up and called it a night. I was
exhausted from the so little sleep of the night before.
The pictures from today are located here.
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