Dear Steemians
Since it's public that there are huge forest fires in the Amazon. I would love to tell you how it was for me to be there in Peru last year.
Pray for the Amazon
From Lima I flew into Iquitos to have a look at the Amazon.
Via Facebook I had already asked for recommendations for tours in the Amazon and reserved one that seemed very good to me, as I didn't want to waste much time in Iquitos to find something.
It was Friday the 13th, actually I am not superstitious. But today no luck seemed to be on my side.
My flight was over an hour late and my guide showed up drunk in my hostel. It was a strange guy, he even had photos of me on his mobile phone. After this meeting I clearly decided not to do the tour with him, especially as I would have spent 4 days alone in the middle of the jungle with him.
So I had almost no time to book a new tour for the next day. But the staff from my hostel supported me actively and so I was able to book another tour without knowing exactly what to expect.
The guide who visited me in my hostel was much friendlier and it turned out that his brother lives in Bern and is together with a old football colleague. So my next 4 days seemed to be secured.
The next day I was picked up at 8.30 a.m. and we drove by car for 2 hours to Nauta, from where the boats go to the Amazon. We were again 2 hours by boat on the way to the lodge.
Arrived there we already had lunch. I shared my room with two German girls.
After a short rest we went on a discovery tour. We drove with the small boat along the river to fish Pirañas. Unfortunately I had no luck and caught nothing at all. When it got dark, we looked for caimans and found one. But they are smaller than I thought. The head was hardly to be recognized in the water or to be distinguished from a stick.
Since the Amazon is currently in dryseason, the rivers aren't very deep and don't have much water. Therefore it is difficult to go by boat. Soon everything will be dried up and everything has to be done by foot. In the rainy season everything has to be done by canoe, which must be great. Anyway... we got stuck on the way back in the dark! It took about 10 minutes until we had the boat ready to moove again. There are also electric eels in the river, so it is not safe to stand in the water and of course there are pirañas. The fear was great.
After dinner, among other things there was the self-caught fish, we went to bed early. The sky was fantastic here, too, but you couldn't see the Milky Way. But what is great is that the trees are full of fireflies, which is just great to stare into the forest all the time.
On the 2nd day we had breakfast at 8am, and afterwards we wanted to visit the sloth Pablo Escobar in the nearby village.
Pablo was rescued from the river as a baby 11 years ago. Since then he has lived with a family in the house, where he can move around freely and sometimes spend weeks somewhere in the jungle, but always returns again.
There are 3 monkeys near our lodge. We also visited them. However, they were very shy.
In the afternoon we made a small walk to one or two old trees.
On the trip with the boat we even found two parrots, which are very hard to find
In the rivers of the Amazon there are also grey and pink dolphins. Of course we wanted to see them, and we did. Unfortunately it was very difficult to take photos, because they only come up for a short time.
After dinner I went on a short night walk to see some animals at night. After I had found a highly poisonous snake directly on the way, it was a bit queasy for me.
The frog was huge, by the way! Unfortunately it doesn't show up on the photo.
On the 3rd day we left at 5 o'clock for the sunrise. Unfortunately it was too cloudy and the sun was not so beautiful to see.
After breakfast we walked through the forest and learned a lot about any medicinal plants. There are over 150 plants and trees that have a medicinal effect such as: parasites are a natural antimoscito-agent, tree bark for stomach ulcers or any leaves for mosquito bites or headaches. Then there is the famous Ayuashca plant. Many tourists or locals do Ayuashca ceremonies which can cure diseases or purify the soul. However, it is a rather violent mixture and the stories we have heard about how people react to it are quite crazy.
At noon my team left me and I changed to another group for the last day. In the afternoon we made a short hike to see the big water lilies. As mentioned above it is dry season and therefore there is little water and only few water lilies.
On the way we found these cute little monkeys who watched us from their home.
At night we went again to find so caimans and were successful. Our guide pulled one out of the water to take a closer look.
On the last day, the others in my new group wanted to see the sloth again in the village. I'm not saying no to that. We could even see how his business was doing, which only happens about once a week.
And our last activity should be fishing again. Let's see if I should have more luck this time. And yes! Actually I pulled out one fish after the other. Unfortunately no Piraña.
Of course that was my lunch afterwards.
In the afternoon I went back to Iquitos happy and with 1000 mosquito bites. On the way to Nauta there was a storm with heavy rain so that we took the boat much longer than normal. After about 5 hours we were finally in Iquitos. After a short night I flew back to Lima very early the next morning.