Trip to Iquitos (Day 5)

March 9th, 2018

Lis, Helena, and I all woke up on time this morning to make it to the boats in time so that we could partake in the tour we had missed the previous morning. We were the first ones to be out there, and before we knew it the other exchange students were quickly joining us and we were clambering onto the boats.

The ride down the river was pretty successful, as we spotted and iguana, sloth, monkeys, and a whole lotta trees.

Iguana!

The sloth that I couldn't see without the guide

After we got back from the morning tour, we ate breakfast and boarded the boats once again and headed over to go to a local sugar cane brewery (not sure if thats the right word). Not sure if everyone knows, but a special liqueur can be made from fermented sugar cane juice. They derived the juice from the plant that was crushed by gears then boiled and cooled. We also learned how they made honey from sugar cane. We also got to taste test the products of the place (I personally thought it was a little early). After our tasting, we went back to the boats and headed to our water tower for the last time. = Today wasn't for work; however, but merely for a celebration :)

When we arrived, we were all pleasantly surprised to find out that everything had been decorated for us. There was a pole with food hanging from it and an arc of flowers over the doorway. We did the ceremony, which involved another bottle of beer being broken, we danced, and I sang. We cut down the wooden pole with all the food, and ate the food from our tree (it was a special version of a piñata).  Eventually we had to say our goodbyes, the one that hurt the most being the small little girl that had become my little bestie.

Our fully constructed water tower!

The snake was in the bottom left corner of this photo

The food tree

I forgot to mention that there was also a sloth present at the celebration (although he wasn't too happy to be there).

After we left, we scrambled around to eat and then leave the hotel for the final time. We then set out on the boats as quick as possible to go to what I had been looking forward to the most: La Isla de Monos (Monkey Island). I was not disappointed upon reaching the island, as the monkey were abundant and ready to play. Some were quite calm, and some quite crazy. The craziest monkey was named Martin. I thought Martin was a calm and collected monkey. I was wrong. Martin jumped on my head three times, which is kinda terrifying (try having an animal hurl itself and your face). He also bit quite a few of the exchange students.  Martin the crazy monkey also broke my BBW hand sanitizer off my backpack and ran away with it (the guides chased him down for me).

Holding hands!! :)

Martin the crazy monkey right before he jumped on Jared and bit him :)

Martin during the attack pt. 1

Pt. 2

Sadly we eventually had to leave monkey island and get to Iquitos. Once in the city, we were left to eat a little bit before heading to the airport.

Trip to Iquitos (Day 4)

March 8, 2018

My roommates and I woke up around 5:50 to quickly get around and get onto the boats that would be giving an early morning animal scouting tour. Well my roommates (Lis and Helena) and I all epically failed and missed the boats departure. So we all went back to bed and woke up around an hour later to go to breakfast. After a quiet consumption of food, we all got back around to keep up with the work at the sight. The morning was filled with painting. After the basics were done (painting things solid colors), we started to decorate and paint the outside. Because it was our last day to put on the final touches, we were all rushing around, and I somehow got to helping an artistic aspect (I know, not still sure how). We were painting a globe (wait for the picture). While I was so casually painting the continents, someone exclaimed quite loudly, which quite frankly scared the crapperoni out of me. Turns out, a snake had just been chilling about a foot away from my feet. Thankfully the snake was not poisonous and there was no real danger, but still it gave me quite the start. So snake now away from my feet (actually being held by exchange students), I continued work, a little on edge that I was now going to be eaten by a poisonous animal.

We got the painting done just in time (barely) before we headed out for our lunch back at the hotel. A full stomach and little break later we all left to go do something I found quite exciting, FISHING! That is, fishing for piranhas! If anyone thinks that fishing is boring, try fishing for piranhas on the Amazon River. Once in the boat, we went to an inlet of the river, where there was no current and some vegetation. Our guide parked the boat the first time, then had Macie stick her hand in the water (which is kinda terrifying when you know Piranhas are just chilling beneath the surface). Turns out, our first parking job was with water too warm, so we went to go park in a different area. Once we found better waters, our guid gave us all small chunks of meat which we attached to our hooks. This was the most exciting fishing experience of my life. As soon as the meat touched the water, smaller fish began attacking the meat, so by the time you got deep enough for the piranhas to even attempt hooking on, the majority of your meat was already gone. 

After we ran out of meat, we took the boat to a larger part of the inlet and...jumped in to start swimming. Was it crazy and slightly terrifying to be swimming in the waters that you now knew had fish with teeth. The swimming was cool and refreshing, but eventually we had to get back into the boat. This is when two things happened:

1. I asked Courtney to toss me my towel from the front of the boat, she accidentally threw it straight into the river. 

2. I attempted to walk to the front of the boat, slipped on a metal bench, head butted the person in front of me, and gave myself a black and blue bruise larger than a softball. 

After we finished our refreshing swim, we went back to the main river and sat in the boats. We were looking for dolphins, but as another heavy rain had occurred before our fishing, the search for pink dolphins was a fail. Later that evening though, the sunset made up for any lingering sadness of the dolphins. 

Wish the picture could do it justice :(

After we were in the hotel swimming and chilling, Tiia and I asked Dick (one of the guides) if he would be interested in telling ghost stories. So Dick, Tiia, Salome (Switzerland), and some other exchange students all went with Dick for him to tell us some stories. Dick was born in a community a little far away from where we were (a few hours in boat). While all the details are a little lost, my favorite story included water pumas that ate human heads.  

Trip to Iquitos (Day 3)

March 7th, 2018

After an early morning breakfast, we all once again boarded the boats and went to our construction sight. Having put in the small path of cement the day before, the project for the day was to prep the other surrounding area around the tour. The other agenda was to begin painting. Having already sacrificed my pants the day before, I was a little more keen to be painting, and was quite relieved when I scored myself a brush. Meanwhile, others were bringing over larger quantities of sand before spreading it flat. After a while, we ran out of things to paint so after a quick break, Dick (one of our guides) handed me what seemed to be one of the most exhausting tools and jobs. It was a log that had two longer sticks hammered into it (handles) that had to be lifted over and over again to flatten out the sand. This job definitely gave me a workout, and after a little time my arms were already feeling it. After a while I traded off this job (it was constantly being rotated). Not to soon after, the sky began to darken, and before we knew it, the sky had let loose with pouring rain. Now we all had two options, hide underneath a small shelter, or go dance and play in the rain. The majority of us chose the second option; we danced, hugged, ran, stood, and laid down in the jungle's storm. Before long some massive puddles had formed and the students started using them as a slip and slide. The slip in slide soon escalated into wrestling matches in the mud, and as the rain had tapered off at this point, a crowd of everyone soon gathered. It was quite comical (and sometimes alarming), but no one thankfully got hurt. After the rain, we all headed back to the hotel to shower and eat.

Back at the hotel, I got the great surprise that Elsbeth (my friend from the Netherlands) had arrived! She had missed her flight which bummed, but she eventually got herself there. So after refreshing and eating we all caught Elsbeth back up on what had happened in her absence, before we boated across the river and started on a walk that would take us to the school built by Rotary last year. The walk was about an hour, very muddy, and quite beautiful.

At work

The primary school (not built by Rotary)

The secondary school (built by the students last year)

After arriving, we went inside the school and listened to the local villagers tell us about the school. It had a lot more students than I imagined, as some students made a large commute everyday to be able to go to the school (it was one of the best around because Rotary has given so many school materials). For every classroom there was about 20-30 kids, which is quite a few considering how small some of the communities were.

Some exchange students ended up painting, while the majority (including myself) played games among ourselves and with the locals. Less than a minute later, the rain began, and much stronger than it had been before. Everyone opted to get two pairs of clothes wet this time around, so we all ended camping inside the school and talking until the rain subsided (which was quite a while). As soon as the rain tapered off, we went back to playing with the kids. Shortly after we started back on the walk; which, needless to say, was a bit wetter and muddier.

After the walk back, we all took it pretty easy and relaxed in the hotel.

Trip to Iquitos (Days 1 & 2)

March 5th, 2018

After a ridiculously early flight (and two hours of sleep) we arrived in Iquitos and took a boat ride to a community close to our hotel where the other exchange students from Arequipa and the other cities in Peru were. When we arrived, not all of the exchange students were there, as they had all left for a hike. We did however say our hellos to the ones that were present, and we waited for the rest to arrive.  I was so excited to see two of my closest friends, Gracie (USA) and Ana (Brazil). Once we were all happily reunited, we had a ceremony inside the school. We danced and had songs sang to us, before the ceremony was concluded and we all went to go break a beer bottle with a hammer (a tradition) before going to paint our names inside. Having done nothing to actually construct the tower (except for raising money) it felt a little odd to be painting my name on it, but we all wrote it on anyways.

After our names were written, we all once again boarded the boats and headed to the hotel. We ended up waiting around a little bit before we could finally get into our rooms. The Arequipenos all packed up there things and got ready for us to all say their goodbyes. I among a few others cried like a little baby (mostly for having to say goodbye to my Ana). After I pulled it together, we all settled into the hotel rooms and explored the hotel. We all went and got our boots from the hotel that we would be using for our duration at the hotel. After we got our boots we explored the hotel and went on a walk with a guide. My group was with an exceptional guide, who had also toured with National Geographic. The tour was quite hot (obviously) but we made it through without dying. After our walk through the jungle we returned back and showered. We later went out on a late night boat ride to see the stars. While we were out looking at the stars, a lighting storm started, causing flashes of lights to skirt around our boat. It was truly a magical moment to sit on a boat in the middle of the Amazon on a boat listening to the sounds of the jungle around you as the river continually was lit up by the sky. After our boat ride we headed back to the hotel and all collapsed in exhaustion.

March 6th, 2017

We woke up bright and early to eat breakfast before we headed out to go a see the cite of where our construction. Once we arrived, the work began. The people of the community had been working on the tour before our arrival, and some of the tour was visible.While we didn't get to  actually construct the tour, we definitely we were put to work. We started carrying bags of sand from a nearby dug hole over to the tour. The purpose of the sand was to make it into cement. Apparently, I was working a little too hard because as I bent down to get some sand, I heard a little rip. After depositing my sand closer to the tour, I look to evaluate the situation. While the hole wasn't too large, the situation continued to develop until the hole was larger than a basketball (good thing I wore a shirt that was REALLY large). Even with my pants having a situation, the work continued. At one point Macie (USA) and I went to go fetch water from a nearby ditch with Macie. Well, we ended up taking a shower in the water as we spilled a lot, but we got the water there. Before we left our day of work, we put our handprints in our carefully mixed cement.

Progress Day 1

Our handprints!

After our work of the day, we went back to the hotel to eat a quick lunch. We got a little time to recuperate. After the recuperation, we all headed back into the boats and sped off to go visit a native community. As soon as we got off the boats, we were greeted by some children who just happened to have some interesting pets, aka sloths and some birds. We all took some photos of course...

Sloths!

A few seconds later when I thought the sloth was gonna claw out my eye :)

After our photo session, we all went back to the tribe. We listened to the tribal leader explain the life and traditions, before we all watched and participated in some native dances. After the dances we attempted to shoot darts through a pipe of sorts. While I hit the target, my dart sadly didn't stick. 

Target Practice!

After our target practice, we left and returned back to the hotel. Here, we had some time to prepare for a night time walk through the jungle. We left before dinner and found a ton of tarantulas, some deathly ants, a frog, and a bunch of other crazy insects. After our nightly stroll we all returned back to the hotel for a dinner before we all rested up for the next day.

Little pic of the sunset :)

 

An itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout...