Festina Lente

My trip to the jungle was incredible. The highlight, by far, was Monkey Island a.k.a. the happiest place on earth. The monkeys are there to welcome you when you step off the boat. They climb up onto your back as you head up to the main clearing to accompany you with song and cheer. Up above, more monkeys await you to take your sunglasses off of your face and scurry up the tree leaving you shades-less but entertained. My family and I went on a week long jungle tour with a company called Explorama which was started by a Peace Corps volunteer (!) who was in Peru back in the 60s. We spent six nights at four different lodges situated along the Amazon and Napo rivers north and east of Iquitos. The accommodations range from sleeping on a wooden platform under a lean-to out in the middle of the jungle with a latrine to a luxury lodge with enclosed rooms, air conditioning, hot showers, a pool, jacuzzi, and water slide. For the entire week we were paired up with a guide and activities included mostly jungle hikes and boat trips. Our guide was born and raised in the jungle and spoke at least 5 languages. He knew every plant, every bird, every bug we saw, and had lots of good stories about jaguars and poisonous snakes that were fun to hear, but weren’t really something I would want to experience first hand. The food was delicious and well prepared. Aside from the monkeys, we saw giant iguanas, tons of different spiders and insects, tarantulas, pink river dolphins, a capybara, a taiper, anteaters, sloths, turtles, alligators, and piranas (caught when we went pirana fishing and eaten later that night for dinner!).

We visited a couple of different villages along the river, and got to meet and greet some locals. The people, as I’ve found in most small towns in Peru, were incredibly friendly and welcoming. Some years ago Explorama build a canopy walkway which consists of hanging bridges placed between trees. The walkway is 1/3 of a mile long, and is a great opportunity to see the jungle from the unique vantage point of up above. It was build for biologists but was recently opened to the general public. That was definitely another highlight of the trip. We also visited a local shaman who is contracted by Explorama to share some of the history and traditions of curaduismo with the tourists. The potential for healing and medicinal usage of the plant life in the Amazon is really incredible. I wish there was some way to bring more research and development into the area without exploiting the local resources and the local know-how, though from my understanding, the resources there are not very tightly regulated. I spent a great 26th birthday with a serenade of ‘Feliz Cumpleaños’ with my four favorite people in the world. There were so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences we had over the course of the week – I wouldn’t change a thing about the trip.