Peru 2016: The Jungle Book: Amazon Style

The Amazon. One of the most incredible parts of the world in my opinion. Filled with trees, plants, animals, and unfortunately bugs. Wednesday evening after class some of us girls got on a plane to Iquitos, which is a city in the Amazon. We got to the airport about 40 minutes before our flight left so we ran to check in, and then I ran to order us all cheeseburgers at McDonald's. I got the food 20 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave so I ran through the airport with a bag of cheeseburgers in hand and went through security as fast as possible. I'm sure I got a lot of stares but I was too busy freaking out to notice. When we got to our gate we found that our plane was running late as usual in Lima. I don't know why we ever stressed out that we would miss it, you'd think that we would learn by now that nothing is ever on time here. We stood around for 30 minutes and finally boarded. It took an hour and a half to get there. When we stepped off the plane I could feel the humidity and heat envelop my body. It felt so heavy and claustrophobic and made me wonder how the next 3 days would play out.

We had a taxi waiting for us and they took us to our hostel. The lady who owned it hadn't reserved our rooms for us, so she helped us find another hostel to stay in (which was good because it was after midnight and we were getting angry and sleepy). It was a very nice place with AIR CONDITIONING!!!! Needless to say Abby and I blasted our AC all night. But it got too cold in our room and I kept waking up because I was freezing. But I was too lazy to get up and turn it off so I slept with my arms in my T-shirt and cuddled against Abby without shame. I did not sleep well.

The next morning we went to breakfast and then got picked up by our tour guide. This is where I officially went off the grid for 3 days with no wifi and very questionable cellphone service. We drove about 20 minutes to the Amazon river. We saw big grubs that were fried and for sale. I wanted to throw up just thinking about trying to eat one. We walked across some sketchy bridges made of planks laid on top of each other to our little boat, which took us down the Amazon river for a little over an hour. We stopped at one place and saw giant Lilly pads, Cayman, and paiche fish. It was an incredible start to our journey.

We arrived at our Lodge which consisted of a big cabin with leaves for the roof. There was a wall that divided it in half with three beds and a bathroom on each side. There was no mirror, toilet seat, door lock, or fan. The outside walls were made of screen to allow the humidity to try to fit through and attack us while we slept. I took a nice hour long nap and then we had lunch, which was served buffet style. We had chicken, rice, veggies, potatoes, and even got to try some parana, which didn't taste very fishy but was hard to eat because it looked exactly like a parana. We then hung out in the hammock room until the tour began.

We started out by going to Monkey Island by boat. Right when we got there a monkey jumped on board and sat in our tour guide's lap, unscrewed the lid of his water, and started drinking it. We all piled off and walked into my dreamland. I never thought that I would get to hold wild monkeys in my entire life. There were about 5 monkeys that would run and jump into your arms or jump onto your back from the trees. The monkeys are wild and allowed to go wherever they want, but they always come back for food and companionship. It was seriously amazing. Monkeys are better than kids because it is almost impossible to hurt them, even if you drop them. They ran around like crazy and climbed up our arms and jumped from girl to girl. I put sugar in my hand and let one of them lick it off, which was adorable. They got dirt and sugar all over me, and one of them bit my neck really hard but I didn't care at all. I also got to hold a parrot, a toucan, and an anaconda!! It was crazy to watch the tour guides wrangle the huge snake from his water hole and grab his neck so he couldn't bite us. He was super heavy and it was awesome to get to hold that beast. Before we left, I got to hold one of the monkeys like a baby for about 10 minutes and tickled his belly while he wiggled around and laughed his little monkey giggles. He was so playful and kept biting my hand and grabbing it with his hands. Two little monkeys also jumped out of the tree while playing and fell right into my arms.

After tearing ourselves away from the monkeys, we rode in our boat and got to watch pink dolphins swimming in the Amazon river. We tutted around looking for sloths in the trees but never found one. It was really gorgeous and not so hot on the boat, and it was a great way to see the nature surrounding us. We came back to our lodge and put on some boots and ponchos and went out for a night time walk. We used headlamps to walk through the jungle and saw frogs, huge ants, rats, giant spiders, butterflies, and the most beautiful plants and trees that you can imagine. We took ice cold showers afterwards and then ate some dinner. We only had power from 6-9 PM every day so we used that time to charge our phones and shower while we had light. We asked for mosquito nets to be put up around our beds, which made me feel sooooo much better. At 8:55 the lights went out and we knew it was time to sleep. (It's not like we had anything else to do without light, electricity, or wifi.)

Beore the tears began.

The next morning we got up at 5:45 and hopped on the boat at 6. We went out and fished for parana!!! We used beef as bait and long sticks for poles. I was lucky enough to catch one but Shelby was even luckier and caught 6. After fishing for an hour or so we took the boat through a small branch of the river and found a snake in a tree and a tarantula on a leaf. So of course our tour guide got the tarantula for us and had us hold it. I have an irrational fear of spiders so this was the scariest thing I've ever done. It crawled on my hand for a few seconds and then jumped down to my leg. I screamed like I was dying and shook it off and jumped into Danielle's lap. My legs started shaking and I had actual tears running down my face from fear. Our boat driver patted my back and smiled when he walked by, which was adorable. It was horrible but fun at the same time. I have grown to enjoy doing things that scare me while I've been here. Our guide then crawled up the tree where the snake was to catch it, but it managed to get away. I would have preferred to hold the snake rather than the tarantula. Maybe I wouldn't have cried then....

We took the boat a little farther to a little village and right when we landed a little boy casually gave me his sloth. The sloth was sooo cute and cuddled right into me. She dug those claws in too and probably drew blood from my side. I also got to hold a little baby alligator that his sister gave us. After holding the sloth for a long time, our guide finally started to make us breakfast. We were starving. We had parana, eggs, papaya, and bread, which was all delicious. After breakfast we trucked back to our lodge for 2 hours and then laid around in the hammock room until lunch. After lunch we went back to Monkey Island and held more monkeys and another sloth! I got a popsicle and all of the monkeys started climbing all over me trying to grab it out of my hand. I managed to keep it away from them, but I let them lick my fingers afterwards. We went out in the boat later and got to swim in the Amazon for a while and saw some pink dolphins nearby. It was scary knowing that there were paranas, sting rays, electric eels, and gigantic anacondas swimming in the same water. But we all made it out alive!!

We tried some Fire Water that our tour guide had made with our dinner. It is sugar cane rum, a splash of coke, and a splash of lemon juice. It was very strong and too sweet for my liking. After dinner we went on a night boat ride to try to see more wildlife. We saw lots of bats, a rat, and got to hold a tree frog we named Choncho (pig) on our backs and head the whole trip. It was very relaxing except for the constant swarm of mosquitoes.

The next morning we got up at 4:30 to go watch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see it but it was still nice to be floating on the river as it got lighter and lighter out. We came back and took the best nap I've ever taken. It was raining pretty hard so the white noise and lack of sleep allowed me to fall asleep immediately. We ate breakfast and then went to a little village where the locals dressed in traditional clothes and danced with us and let us try out a dart gun! We then came back, showered, rested, packed, ate lunch, and then headed back to Iquitos. The jungle was amazing but I was ready to be away from the bugs. I had even had some dreams about bugs so I knew it was time to get back to civilization before I went crazy from paranoia.

We left around 2 to go back to Iquitos. The boat ride was very relaxing and when we got there it was hard to say goodbye to the old man who had been driving our boat all week. He gave us all a kiss on the cheek and I almost teared up because he was the cutest and sweetest little old man. (My obsession with old people is the reason I will be going into geriatric PT when I get back to the States). We went to our hostel and dropped off our stuff before going and finding a Mexican restaurant. I ordered some camu camu juice and paiche fish, which is the largest fresh water fish in the world (and is the fish we saw on our first day). Everything was absolutely delicious. We all felt drunk the entire evening, I'm guessing from lack of sleep and being dehydrated. It was annoying because I couldn't concentrate on anything and I couldn't make the feeling stop! After dinner we walked back to our hostel and men kept telling us we were beautiful. At this point I hadn't seen myself in a mirror or applied makeup in 3 days. I guess it goes to show that someone thinks you're gorgeous, even on your ugliest days. I went to bed at 8 and slept like a baby when I finally fell asleep. 3 a.m. came around too fast and we had the pleasure of running through the down pouring rain. I was completely soaked by the time we we were checking in at the airport, but I was just happy to be leaving and going back to Lima where there aren't bugs or rain or so much humidity.

I am now safely back in Lima and it feels very good to be home!! It was an amazing trip to the Amazon, and definitely an experience I will never forget. With the start of a new week I am now that much closer to coming back to Nebraska. I have so many emotions that it is difficult to explain, but I am getting more and more excited to see all of you soon. My request for my first meal at home is cheeseburgers, dill pickles, beans, and Mike's hard lemonades. Preferable black cherry flavor. And strawberry cake with homemade ice cream. I hope mom and dad are getting the hint....

Thanks for reading this novel of a blog!

Sending love and kisses!!!