Jungle Animals

Mike and I have been very busy hiking in the Andes, but I'm not going to tell you about that until a later date. For now, it's just my excuse for the time between posts. I still have a lot to catch you up on from our Amazon jungle visit, so we'll just have to take things one step at a time.

Lucky for you, this post is going to be very photo heavy. To start off with, however, I'll give you the answer to the last trivia question: we were not bombarded with monkey poo, thank God. Unfortunately, this means that Mike lost a few whiskers, and that I celebrated Spring Break properly by flashing a few people. A monkey decided to climb right up me, and when he grabbed hold of my top he damn near pulled it off. I have no photo evidence of this (good!), but Mike did snap a bunch of photos of the monkeys riding the dog.



The monkeys and the dog were among the many animals we saw at a small animal sanctuary outside of Iquitos. As you can see, the monkeys were free to run about as they pleased.



He looks so comfortable.



Maria, the three-toed sloth was another boarder at the sanctuary, but she had a cage...



...not that her cage kept us from visiting her. Her fur was very coarse, but she was completely chill (as I suppose one would imagine a sloth to be). The whole time I held her she kept her feet and arms sticking out to the sides; she felt so stiff she could have been a plastic doll.



Next we met Anna, a 4 year-old anaconda. She was only about 9 feet long, but a full-grown anaconda can be 45 feet long and as thick as a tree trunk.



What a pretty snake!



I held it too, but it was kind of creepy. Ana was quite heavy and squirmy (unlike Maria), but her scaley skin felt really cool.



This is a pretty weird turtle, huh? So pre-historic looking...



Here's a gorgeous butterfly shot.



This bird was wandering around the sanctuary. Although I don't know what it's called, I thought it made a nice photo.



This bird was in a cage, but I don't remember what it was called either. It's fierce though. Our guide pissed it off and it hissed very loudly. Also, all the feathers on its neck stood up so that it looked like it had a mane.



This is one big jungle rodent (a capabara)!



We took a boat out to the animal sanctuary and passed a boat repair yard on the way.



We had so much fun at the animal sanctuary that the next day we took a boat to another sanctuary and butterfly farm. This is the gorgeous Blue Morpho butterfly. They are about as big as my hands and look absolutely stunning when flying through the jungle.



Here's a different butterfly species, close-up.



The caterpillars were kind of cool, too.



All of the monkeys at the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm and Animal Sanctuary were free to roam about.



Unfortunately this Uakari monkey is an endangered species found only in the Amazon. It's pretty ugly though, so maybe that's why it's endangered. Who would want to mate with such an ugly beast?



Tony, the white-faced capuchin monkey was a mischeivious little bastard. Our guide told us to watch our things closely because he robs people.



He liked to ride on my shoulders. We caught him trying to get a drink from my water bottle that was attached to the backpack at one point. He ended up biting a hole in the top and now it leaks a little. Also, it's quite obvious how strong a monkey's tail is when it is wrapped around your neck and he's hanging by it.



Tony must have been thirsty that day because he later went digging through a garbage can to come up with this straw. He brought it over to a puddle and tried his best to get it to work right.



Tony wasn't the only thirsty monkey. His friend found a bottled water in the garbage, unscrewed the cap, and drank some of the water that was left.



We weren't allowed in the jaguar cage, but that was probably a good thing because he looked hungry!



The tapir was interesting, though not as fun as the monkeys. Tapirs are rather large animals (kind of like really big pigs).



The giant anteater was cool, although we were told that they get much larger than this.



She was enjoying her breakfast when we saw her. Apparently anteater tongues are up to 180 centimeters long!



The farm had beautiful Macaws too.



The howler monkeys were fun to see (and hear) up close.



Mike said this photo reminds him of the Michelangelo painting of God and Adam.



Such harmony! This picture features three different kinds of monkey (howler, capuchin, and spider).



Here's that cute little spider monkey on his own.

Okay, that's it for now, but the next blog will feature photos from our 3-day Amazon jungle expedition. Eventually I may even get caught up to present time, but don't count on that happening anytime soon. Our only big news lately is that Mike's parents are going to be joining us for the second half of April. We're looking forward to their visit!

Alright, I'm done. Don't miss the new trivia question!

The Venice of Peru

The day after our arrival in Iquitos brought us to the neighborhood/"suburb" of Belen. This entire area consists of houses on stilts, mere inches above the water that laps at their front doors. Although some of the houses are connected by rickety plank walkways, there are no roads or sidewalks. Instead, locals paddle the waterways in order to get to church, or school, or the store. Nearly every family has at least one canoe.



The rickety plank walkways go a few blocks into Belen, but after that it's all up to the canoes.



Welcome to the neighborhood: this is Belen at its best.



While most of the houses in Belen are made out of very plain wood planks, this one is quite colorfully decorated.



Here's another of my favorites.

The high water level is obviously not permanent, however. Some of the houses have first floors almost entirely submerged. The occasional top crossbar of a soccer goal rises above the water. Mike comments that the area "looks like New Orleans after Katrina, except these people aren't complaining." In fact, we're told that the rainy season is preferable. Apparently, when the waters recede for a few months out of the year Belen turns into a swampy, mosquito-infested garbage dump.



I'll bet these houses are flooded at least 8 months out of the year.



That's gotta be a bitch to clean up when the waters recede.



Gooooooal! (Soccer posts above the water...)

So anyway, Mike and I made our way to the edge of Belen where we found a couple of local girls willing to paddle us around in their canoe for a while. They guided us through the watery "streets," pointing out a few "landmarks." After a while we encountered a local man who wanted to show us some giant lily pads, so we caravaned over to check them out as well. He then brought us by to see his house and meet his wife and children. Finally, the two girls brought us back to our starting point. Belen is a very interesting community and we liked our impromptu tour very much.



Our charming guide was very smiley and quite amused with the amount of photos Mike took.



This 11 year-old girl was our other guide. She was in charge of the steering.



We found some rather large lily pads with the help of another guide who saw us with the girls.



Supposedly the spikes on the bottom are poisonous.



Several of the canoes were full of goods for sale. Belen is known for its floating market.



That's right, she's squatting down on her front porch to pee into the water. I'm afraid Belen isn't much for sanitation standards.



He's peeing too. Did I mention that everyone washes their clothes and takes their baths in this water? We've even seen people drink from it.

Ack! I'm out of time. Catch you later!

Arrival in Iquitos

Let's see...I left off just as we were arriving in Iquitos, right? Well, that turned out to be quite the ordeal. Mike went camera-happy, snapping photos of all the cargo being unloaded. I just wanted to find a hotel so that I could shower, but I let him have at it. My one concern was that we get off the boat before the cattle. That didn't happen. Just as we were heading downstairs to disembark they began unloading the cows. We managed to squeeze through between them, and then we stood on the dock watching what was one of the more interesting spectacles we've witnessed. Since the planks leading up to the dock are barely a foot wide and quite wobbly, I wasn't sure how they were going to get the cattle off the boat. It didn't take long before I had an answer, though. All of a sudden there was a giant splash and one of the cows was in the water. "Can cows swim? Was that an accident?" Mike and I were rather surprised. A moment later another cow was taking a dip. Upon closer inspection we realized that the cattle were being tugged over the edge of the boat by ropes tied around their horns. They were then half-dragged toward the shore. It was a very amusing sight since their entry into the water was anything but graceful. One cow seemed to get stuck under a neighboring boat and I thought it was going to drown for a minute before it surfaced. What an interesting introduction to the jungle city!



Iquitos has a busy, busy port!



First the regular good were unloaded...



...then the cattle were escorted from the boat.



"Off you go!"



So graceful!



After the initial plunge, the cattle were guided ashore.

Shortly after we checked into a simple hostal we took a walk around the central square in Iquitos. One interesting tid-bit of information is that one of the buildings in Iquitos was made by Eiffel (you know, the guy who made the Eiffel tower and the Statue of Liberty). His building in the middle of the jungle is known as the Iron House and is a hideous metal building that looks ridiculously out of place.



The charming Iron House of Iquitos was designed by Eiffel.



The Iron House really clashed with the tacky tiles that covered most buildings around the Plaza de Armas. The tiles are left over from the rubber boom days, when the rubber barons imported hand-made tiles to fancy-up their homes.

While walking in the Plaza de Armas we noticed a small film crew shooting what looked like a really low-budget music video. We stopped to watch, and before we knew it we were asked to appear in the video. We agreed; after all, it was just going to be a brief walk-on appearance, right? Wrong. I found myself on a park bench while the singer sat next to me belting out some love song I couldn't understand. I had a hard time trying not to laugh, and I'm quite certain I did not look smitten by this serenade. After he finished singing, they directed Mike to sit next to me on the bench and give me a kiss. I am fairly certain that this will be the worst music video in history. We did get a free CD for our troubles, though.



Don't I look thrilled?

The next morning we visited a local market for a bit. It was pretty typical, but interesting, nonetheless. We did see some alligator meat being chopped up by the butchers, which is not a common sight on the coast.



Mmmm, alligator steaks!

The rest of our day was busy as well. So busy, in fact, that Mike took about a thousand pictures. I'm running out of time though, so I guess you'll have to sit tight for the next installment! In the meantime, Mike and I will be reversing our journey to the jungle. We're hopping a boat back to Yurimaguas later today. This means that we'll be incommunicado for a few days, but hopefully I'll get a chance to do another blog shortly after we're on land again. Have a happy St. Patrick's Day and drink a green beer for me -- I don't think there are too many Irish-Peruvians.