Iquitos, Peru

I made it to the jungle! Iquitos is only accessible by boat or air, so it is pretty isolated up there in northern Peru, but it was amazing. Iquitos is a little town, right on the Amazon River. The main industry I think is now lumber, but it used to be rubber. It was hot, humid, and just completely different than any other place I have seen.

I arrived on Tuesday afternoon and stayed at this place called Mad Mick's. It was basically a room with 8 beds in the back of this guys trading post. It was simple, cheap and perfect, and Mike, the guy who owned it, was pretty funny. I walked around and decided to try and book a tour or something for the local area. I went to this agency that was owned by some gringos and they said since it was just me, they didn't have any individual tours but they could call this kid that was fluent in English. Jino, the kid, showed up, he was about 19, seemed nice enough, so we decided to meet they next day at 8:30.

He came and got me and we walked to the local area of town known as Belen, where they market was CRAZY! You could buy anything, turtles, crocidiles, eggs of all kinds of animals, and the fish were so fresh, they were still breathing. Next to the market is the floating city, which they call the Venice of the South... but that is a little of an overstatement... just because its floating... but whatever, it was really cool.

View of Belen

Hearts of Palm!!! Fresh!!

Turtles

Belen

More Belen

The sidewalk in Belen

After Belen, we went to a little village nearby to check it out and have a bite to eat, which, I had to pay for. The kid was nice and all, but what a freaking rip off! I paid for freaking everything and then had to pay him an obscene amount for a kid... I dont even want to admit how much he "charged" me. I feel like a schmuck. Anyway, lunch was fish that was the best fish I have ever had. The fish was called Maparati and it was served with green plantains that were grilled, mashed and mixed in delicious oil called Tacacho. It was so good, I had the same thing for lunch the next day.

Best fish ever

After lunch, we went to this park that you could swim in a lake and see some animals. We relaxed, swam, and then headed back into town.

The next day I decided to go to this town where they had a butterfly farm. You take a boat about 10 minutes down the river to the town, then walk to the farm. It was a little wet out, so not all the butterflys were out, but it was still amazing. There were all different kinds of really beautiful butterflys and catepillars. They also had some monkeys, a jaguar, a traipu or whatever they are called and an anteater! I saw an anteater!

Butterfly

Before they get pretty

The guy who took this was terrible at

taking pictures, but that thing was so cute!

Anteater!!!

That night I went out with some guys from my hostel, tried to rip it up in Iquitos but the night life isn't all that happening. I woke up at 4:30 the next morning to catch my boat to Colombia. It took about 8 hours and was really pretty. I got to the border and as I was waiting for my departure stamp from Peru, the border control notified me that I had overstayed my Visa in Peru. Excuse me? I had a visa? Apparently, I only had 30 days in Peru, but I stayed 35. I was so afraid that they were going to make me pay an arm and a leg, or go back to Iquitos and extend the visa, but fortunately, they charged me $1 for each day I had overstayed. Whew, they isn't so bad. After I paid, I crossed the river into Colombia into the town of Leticia. I wanted to get out as soon as I got in, but unfortunately I had to wait a few days before there was a flight. I literally cried about that one.

View from boat to Colombia, the Amazon was HUGE

I met some people, we hung out, it wasn't so bad, but I flew out Sunday afternoon for Bogota, which is where I am now. Just trying to plan the rest of Colombia.

I loved Peru. I am going to miss it.