Amazon – 2011
Arrival in the Amazon
We flew from Lima to Iquitos. It’s the largest city in the Peruvian Rainforest, only 348′ above sea level, although it’s more than 2,300 miles from the mouth of the river on the Atlantic Ocean. The city can only be reached by airplane or boat up the Amazon.
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Most of the travel within this city of nearly a half million people is via bus, motorcycle and the auto-rickshaw which is essentially a modified motorcycle with a cabin behind supported by two wheels, seating three. Here we are at the airport in Iquitos.
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Driving is absolutely crazy! the traffic horrendous! Our driver took us directly from the airport to the dock. The trip took about an hour and during this time we were given a box lunch and bottled water. The windows were open as air conditioning wasn’t an option.
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Our destination on the river was the Ceiba Top Lodge down river about 25 miles. In this photo you can see how low the river is, in May all those steps would be under water and the docks would be floating to the level where I took this photo. It was awesome to first view the river, even at it’s lowest level.
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Off we went. the Amazon river has 2,000 species of fish, more than those in the Atlantic Ocean, 4,000 species of birds (including 120 hummingbirds, much larger than the species in NM), 60 species of reptiles such as the caiman and anaconda, the world´s largest non-poisonous snake, mammals like the marmoset, anteater, tapir, capybara and pink dolphin. We actually saw two species of fresh water dolphins, the pink and the gray.
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This is the view of the Amazon from the front door of our room at Ceiba Tops. There were monkeys in the trees all around us.
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The first morning on the way to breakfast we passed the hammock house. That is sort of like a platform 3-4′ off the ground and shaded by a thatched roof, many hammocks available to guests. There amid the hammocks was a little tapir. You can tell he was young by the spots. Just like deer, the tapirs lose their spots as they age. He was a curious little guy, wanting to check out the people. No fear, that was the amazing part.
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Petr with tapir
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We left the lodge for a day on the river, including taking tributaries deeper into the jungle. That’s were we stopped to fish for piranhas. The first instructions were to stir up the water with our stick poles, making it appear like a thrashing animal. The bait, chunks of beef about 1/2″ were attacked by the piranha’s immediately. We threw the little ones back in and saved the larger ones for dinner. Thankfully Pete removed my fish, being careful to avoid the teeth.
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We later hiked into the jungle to find a pond with the Victoria Regis water lilies. The pads are up to 6′ in diameter. Over the week we spent on the Amazon se saw several lily areas but only two blooms. They only bloom for two days. Day one the flowers are pink, a beetle climbs in to fertilize it, the flower closes for the night. The next day the flower opens, the beetle leaves, and the flower is now pink. The flower dies after the second day, the reproductive process moving to the next stage. I used binoculars to see close ups of the pads and flowers. On the way back to the boat our guide came across a red tailed boa constrictor. He was only a little guy compared to ones we would see later.
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The next stop was the Isle De Los Monos, were 8 species of Monkeys are known to live. They are curious, bold and even intimidating at times. Here are a few of the photos. Regarding the stairs….these would all be flooded in the rainy season.
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My walking cane was a curiosity.
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One came out of a tree to check out Petr’s cane too.
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Both macaws and toucans were flying about. Our guide reminded us that these guys can crack open a Brazil nut with very little effort. Think of what they could do to fingers and be respectful of their space.
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This was the list of monkeys that showed up on this date.
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Arriving back at the lodge, part of our dinner were the pan fried piranhas. Tasted like the blue gills my brother caught when I was a kid.
The Canopy Walk
The Canopy walk is 115′ above the jungle floor, about 1/3 mile in length. The walkways between the trees/platforms were made using metal ladders with 2″ x 10″ planks on top. It’s all strung together like macramé with steel cables and nylon netting for the side railings.
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Pete took this photo to show where they recorded the high water marks over the years. Believe me it was quite a hike back up those stairs coming back after a day of hiking in the jungle and the heat/humidity factor.
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Most of the days were overcast like this. Once I decided that long sleeves weren’t really necessary and I got sunburned. Lesson learned, between the sun and insects, long sleeves were a must, regardless of the heat and sweat.
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Arrived at a primitive camp with pit toilets, and were stunned to see this sign.
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After the use of the pit toilets, this was the hand washing station. The water was not safe enough to drink, gargle or to get in your eyes.
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I have no idea what these are but they were quite beautiful. Our guide was named Armando. The sky was overcast, the trail wet, muddy and slick tree roots required constant attention. Armando said it’s a good thing we aren’t sweating yet, due to the overcast. Well, it’s 95 F and 95% humidity and we are all drinking water and sweating profusely. It was such a bizarre comment that we laughed all day about “not sweating…yet!” One more comment on the weather. The evening before Armando warned us to bring jackets because of how cold it would be on the boat at 5:30 am to start the day. It was 85F and 85% humidity….not exactly chilly jacket weather.
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After a two mile hike in to the jungle we came across the Canopy Walk. It took engineers and work crews 2 months to build each platform, there are 16 all together. The crews worked from 5 am to 11 am and then stopped when the insects got too bad.
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The Canopy walk is 115′ above the jungle floor, about 1/3 mile in length. The walkways between the trees/platforms were made using metal ladders with 2″X10″s planks on top. It’s all strung together like macramé with steel cables and nylon netting for the side railings.
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There are rules as to how many people can be on the walkways at one time. the number is three.
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Petr and Armando
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This was great fun! I really ranked the canopy walk as one of the most exciting adventures of the whole trip. With the binoculars I could see birds that would have been hidden from view otherwise.
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Above the tree tops
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We were on a higher platform looking down on other members of our group.
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At one point a tree towered over us, amass with purple blooms. This jacaranda must have been 150′ tall. It was magnificent. I was so proud of myself for making this hike and climb. It was like walking on a muddy “stairmaster” in a 95F sauna. This day tested my personal endurance. It was a great day!
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Petr in his Tarzan swinging through the jungle pose.
Jungle & Lodge
Armando, our guide, was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna, told us much more than we remembered to write down at the end of the day. Here are some other jungle scenes.
Amazon – Jungle – 01
This was the vine of the split leafed philodendron, just like the house plant, only a giant when not grown in a pot. The root covering is peeled off in strips and used to bind things. The Philodendron genus has 200 species, all parts are toxic.
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Considering how wet it is, moss grows on everything.
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What a strange tree trunk, but I don’t know what caused the stripes of the sticker bans.
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The next stop was a visit to a native Indian medicine man. The table in the background was piled high with herbs and plants used for medicinal purposes. This photo shows him chanting over some of our tour-mates. He wrapped the bark-cloth on their foreheads to concentrate on the spirits of the mind. We were impressed by the Shaman’s knowledge. He talked about herbs, bark, leaves and making potions for everything from snakebite, headache, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, cholesterol. One unusual part was in boiling a concoction for 12 hours to produce a hallucinogenic. The Shaman and the parents of the ill person drink it….and in their “heightened state” they would then know how to treat the patient. He passed around some leaves used for tooth ache. We all got some and when chewed it rendered the mouth numb. If you accidentally swallow it, your stomach won’t want food for the rest of the day. Our mouths were numb immediately, lasted about a half hour for the little bit we tried.
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This is the ceiling of the Shaman’s presentation area.
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He was a remarkable man, having one foot in the ancient healing arts and one foot in the computer age. He also mentioned aloe vera for sunburn and skin aliments. That was the only one I knew.
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Parrot
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Back at Ceiba Tops Lodge, the lounge was screened in, also with ceiling fans.
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This was the dining area. The food was all very good, to give you an example, this is what we had for lunch this day…. palm hear strips that looked like wide noodles, served with tomatoes. Fish, lima beans, rice, and for dessert, fruit and cashews. The pineapple and watermelon were my favorite fruits.
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The outside of Ceiba Top Lodge
Medical Clinic in the Amazon
This clinic is sponsored by several Rotary Clubs in the US. It has one doctor, one pharmacist and one nurse, although the day we were there only the pharmacist was on duty and there were no patients. There was a waiting room, 2 exam rooms, a pharmacy and lab. Here are the photos of those areas. Pictures speak 1000 words.
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The fee to come to the clinic is 1 or 2 Soles, about 35 cents to a Sole. If you don’t have the money, then it’s free. Before entering the building we took off our shoes, entered wearing our stocking feet.
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We asked what was the worst case in the last few years and the answer was a child stung by a sting ray, taken immediately to the hospital in Iquitos, by speed boat. I think he lived.
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Interesting the eye chart with the hands for people who didn’t know the alphabet. Never saw anyone in the jungle with glasses, although they would be free from the government, just not part of the culture.
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They get about 200 cases a month, mostly snakebite and infections. I asked about life expectancy, no real answer. There are some old people but in reality they don’t keep track of ages, birthdays or what year someone was born in.
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Outside by the clinic was this little lizard.
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Lunch was in another camp along the river. Here is Armando with the drums used to pass information in the days before WiFi. Seriously the natives don’t have electricity or computers/phones and still use the drums.
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After lunch there was some free time for hammocks.
The Native Village
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On our walk to the native village we passed a tree with the fruit used mostly as a cosmetic but also for protection against mosquitoes.
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Pete with his newly painted face.
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Close up on the fruit, sorry I don’t remember the name. I also don’t know if it’s edible.
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The people are quite small, 4-5′ tall and thin.
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The native tribe performed a dance for us and told us about their festival. Basically they make a fermented drink, get drunk, dance while walking around in a circle and then collapse into a stupor. This is repeated for a week at a time. The men wear the grass skirts and grass wigs. From a distance they looked like women to the Spanish conquistadors, who then named them after the ancient Greek warrior women, Amazonas. The reddish markings are the same as that used to paint Petr’s face.
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The women are in the red skirts, the grass tops are for the tourist shows, I assume because in the village the women were bare-chested. Petr joined the dance.
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Following the dancing, we went outside for a demonstration on how to make and use a blowgun. The wood is cut in half, a channel carved and philodendron vine used to bind it up again. They were about 6′ long and the dart was 1′. The dart also had a bit of cotton on the end where you blow to make a tighter seal. We did see the frogs used for the poison tips but as we practiced the darts were plain.
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This was the pole used as a target
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Petr practicing
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The village killed an anteater and when they discovered the baby, they adopted it. Apparently this lady was nursing it.
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A macaw showed up where we had lunch. Just amazed me on how unafraid much of the wildlife was. One word on ants…..they were plentiful, everywhere. They also used our trails as ant highways. When we stopped to look at butterflies, plants, birds, etc, we remembered to look at our feet. You wanted to stand aside from the main ant highway. One lady on our tour suffered from ant bites on her feet.
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Getting into the spirit of the drums
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Petr and the kissing plant.
Rum Distillery
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We walked along a muddy path through the jungle, along the side of the river, to a rum distillery. Also spotted our first horse in the Amazon, along with these water buffalos. In the barn was a sugar cane press which came from England in 1880.
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The rum distillery green storage vat
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Since the little beef we did have was so tough and since we never saw any cattle, we joked that it was probably water buffalo served up for dinner.
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The cords of firewood were used to heat up the chamber under the still.
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Normally the horse is tied to the pole and walks in circles, but since the horse was out to pasture this day, they asked for volunteers for the demonstration. Petr volunteered.
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The men walked around about six times and during those cycles four pieces of sugar cane approximately 3′ long went through the crushing process, rendering a quart of liquid. The liquid sits in a vat for about a week to ferment, then heated in the still. The rum was not all that strong, only 18% alcohol.
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On the way to the rum shop/tavern to sample the finished rum, we passed this remarkable spot with magenta colored flower petals carpeting the ground. It was gorgeous!
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Wish I knew the name of the tree, but the locals were more interested in heading up the stairs to the rum shop.
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We sampled four different types of rum, different due to herbs added to the alcohol. I didn’t think it tasted like Jamaican rum at all. Petr said it was more like Sherry strength.
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The room was divided in half and glasses were passed around to see which side could drink the most. There was another group there, so approximately 20 on each team. Our team lost, but not for Petr not trying.
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After everyone had their fill of the four types of rum the owner gave a little talk on the differences and was persuasive to sell some bottles. One was called Jungle Viagra. We bought two bottles of the rum and one bottle of molasses.
Trip on the River
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Back on the river , passed this thatched roofed boat. The most surprising to me was a child we saw, about age 6 or 7, in a small boat, all by himself, on the Amazon, fishing.
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It certainly wasn’t easy to catch a photo of the pink nosed dolphins. The camera took time to focus and by then the mammals were back underwater.
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This is the only sloth we saw, the 2 toed type, sleeping in a tree. I thought his back coloration was really pretty.
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I have a new friend.
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There were several toucans in this grove of trees, not at all frightened of people.
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A handsome fellow.
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Almost didn’t see this snake blending into the foliage.
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Hissing red-tailed boa constrictor was on a branch about 3′ over my head.
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This anaconda was resting when we came upon him. Shortly afterwards he stretched out about 15′ long and headed back into the thicker jungle.
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These are coatimundis (commonly called coatis) from the raccoon family, about the size of a large house cat with very large canine teeth. The coati snout is long and somewhat pig-like and extremely flexible and can be rotated up to 60° in any direction, the former being part of the reason for its nickname the hog-nosed raccoon. Coatis have raccoon-like paws and have nonretractable claws. Coatis also are double-jointed and their ankles can rotate beyond 180°; they are therefore able to descend trees head first. They are active both day and night.
Village School
Amazon – Village School – 01
The plan for today was to visit a village school on the Amazon, but when we arrived the teacher wasn’t there. She is suppose to come in on a boat, but for some reason hadn’t arrived yet. Therefore we never made it inside the school.
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These kids were waiting in the courtyard. The school compound had a soccer field, or some area with mowed weeds and wooded stakes for goals. It struck us that other than a soccer ball the children had no toys by our standards. The children were very shy.
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This is our guide, Armando telling us about the local houses. This is a family home, a blue tarp tucked under where the thatch leaked. Armando asked the woman where she gets her drinking water. She answered, “from the heavens and from the river.”
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Not sure the significance of this shield on the house post.
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Another home we visited. I would guess there were 50 people in this village.
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This is the school, the only block construction, the photo of the children was taken by this building.
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Another type of construction in the village. Wish I knew the story about the roosters cancelled out with the black Xs. Following the visit to the village, we returned to the boat, went back upriver to Iquitos, about a 2 hour ride. The bus took us from the dock to the airport, and somehow our luggage made it too. Then we said goodbye to the Amazon and headed back to Lima. What an adventuresome week!
(505) 672-9562
Petr Jandacek
Louise Jandacek
Mailing Address
127 La Senda Road
Los Alamos, New Mexico
USA
87544
