day 1 and 2 in peru

So far this trip on the Amazon has surpassed all expectations. The basic itinerary is working our way down the Amazon River starting from the city of Iquitos. Each night we stay at a lodge on the riverside, places with no electricity, built in the traditional style for the area. We use kerosene lamps for light, the roofs are palm tree fronds woven together, and the rooms all open to the forest. There aren't any roads to these places so all travle is by foot or boat. During the days we've been exploring the surrounding area. We went on a nature walk during which we saw tons of different species of plant, insect, and bird. We even saw a poisonous dart frog! It's tiny, only about the size of a fingernail, and is really brightly colored. The ones we saw were bright red with black spot. They secrete a poison that is deadly if injested, so the locals of the area use it to coat poison darts for hunting (or I guess war). We also went on a boat ride during which we saw a pink dolphin, and a soth and an iguana in the trees! There are two types of river dolphin in the Amazon, and we saw the pink kind. It really is pink, actually kind of a coral color. It was circling our boat and would kind of jump up every now and then. The sloth was probably 2 feet long, climbing slowly down the tree to go to sleep. Sloths apparently live alone, and for about 20 years. We got to see one up close later that day because we visited a local village who had a baby sloth as a pet. It was adorable but really funny looking. They look at you blinking like they are in a sleepy daze, and smile. I held out my hand and it latched on, drooled on it a bit while it sniffed it, and then tried to eat it.

Though it's kind of hard to choose, one of the most interesting parts so far was a fishing trip for piranas. We fished with long branches with fishing line tied to it and raw beef as bait. I technically caught two but the second one got away because I pulled it out too slowly. Maybe it was my subconscious telling me to let it go. Though I did way more feeding of the fish that catching, so it was pretty fair. Those piranas are tricky bastards. I really wanted to be a part of the whole process, so I helped clean them back at the lodge. This was totally disgusting but oddly fun at the same time. The worst part was I had to stick my pinkie finger into its eye to stabilize the body. But since I did everything myself, I didn't feel hypocritical about eating it, which I did. Pirana is delicious, though I couldn't quite believe I could stomach it after tearing out its insides.

dinner.

tula the baby sloth

our room at the lodge. notice the parrot hanging out above my bed.