last days in peru

The last three days of the trip weren´t quite as exciting as the first four, so I don´t think there´s much more to tell. We saw more river dolphins, this time a mother and two young dolphins. We followed them for a long time; they would come to the surface every minute or so. First the mother would surface and then a couple of seconds later, the two babies would come up a few feet behind, right next to each other, like they were attached.
We also saw gigantic water lilies, each about 4 feet in diameter. Apparently they can support the weight of a human baby, but I don´t know who would try that.
I met another pet baby sloth, this one a bit younger than the first. I got to hold her for awhile and I´m totally in love.
We went on a night hunt for tarantulas, that was really cool. Once they are out of their holes, they stay really still, so you can get really close to them. We saw two varieties: arboreal and ground-dwelling. The arboreal tarantulas are a dark gray and hide out under the ivy leaves growing on the trunks of trees. The ground tarantulas dig holes, each has its own, and hunt on the ground. They are really cool-looking, and only a little scary.
Other than that, we´ve seen tons of birds and bugs, more monkeys, and some other creatures. We went back to Lima today and right now I´m waiting in the airport for our flight back to the states! I´m sad about leaving, because I´ve had such a great time, but I am sofuckingsick of mosquitoes that winter actually sounds appealing. Yesterday Sarah counted 11 bites on my right elbow alone.









It´s hard to see, but that´s the mother dolphin surfacing to breath.












giant water lilies















lydia the sloth climbing on my shoulder.

















try and find the tarantula, it´s in the middle of the picture!

peru: day 3 and 4

The third day of the trip we moved to the second lodge, a lot further down the river. This one had a bunch of trumpet birds, an anteater, and the largest roden in the world as pets. Charlie (the rodent) is about 2 feet long, with hippopotamus-like ears (that he wiggles) and webbed feet (he´s semi-aquatic. They also have some parrots around. One day we came back from a walk and found a parrot exploring in our room, trying to eat the dirty socks. At this second lodge we went on a long boat trip in search of the black waters and prehistoric hoatzin birds. The waters are literally jet-black, because of tanic acid. They are pretty creepy, like something evil out of lord of the rings or something. It also makes for a perfect mirror. We ended up finding the hoatzin too, even though it is really elusive. It´s probably the ugliest bird in the world, looking like a turkey (same size) but even weirder, with a bright yellow spiked mohawk. There´s nothing obviously prehistoric about them, except the babies have a single claw on each wing (think teridactyl), used for climbing out of the water.

We also got to go on a great walk through the jungle nearby, to a rope bridge in the canopy. This went from platform to platform at the very tops of the trees. It was really cool to look out across the jungle. It´s not often that you get a distant view that´s totally free of human influence. The best part though, was a flock of toucans that were hanging out around us. They had orange, yellow, and red striped chests, beaks half the size of their bodies, and looked totally awkward while flying.

One of the most interesting activities was a trip to the local shaman´s medicinal garden. It seems like a huge portion of the health needs for the people of the Amazon are taken care of by the village shamans, or traditional healers, because the closest hospital is in Iquitos (hours and hours away) and a lot of clinics aren´t well-equipped at all or don´t exist. This shaman, Julio showed us a bunch of plants he uses for all sorts of purposes. He´s got one tree used for snake bites that has the same pattern on it´s bark as a poisonous snake´s skin! Nature is cool. He also said lemon grass tea is great for insomnia (good to know). He showed us this one plant sued for opical pain relief, and when we chewed it, it numbed our tongues! It seemed to me that alot of these remedies really work. For instance, Julio said that if a person takes a combination of the herbs used to treat diabetes, their diabetes will disappear! But even so, there´s almost no research being done on the plants´ chemical properties becasue the Peruvian government is so strict about exports of anything here. Too bad, I bet you could find a ton of medicines from this guy.

Of course, Julio also had a bunch of non-medicinal remedies in his garden, like love potions and such. Apparently the various forms of elephant ear (the plant) can be used to get a girl/boyfriend. He also showed us the male mimosa bush, whose leaves close as soon as you touch them. He said this can be used to stop a promiscuous spouse. I don´t disbelieve it, but I didn´t take any of it either.

Charlie

The canopy walkway

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.

last days in argentina

The last few days of our trip to Argentina have been a bit more eventful, I´m not sure why. Wednesday Laila and I got up "early" to go to the famous cemetary in Recoleta, leaving Sarah behind because she doesn´t like dead people, who knows why not. It was a really good thing she didn´t come because it was SUPER-creepy, though also really beautiful. The whole cemetary is made up of ornate marble mausoleums, mostly really old. Often there is a small door leading into a chamber with and alter and some personal items and a couple coffins. Then there is a small opening in the floor and a spiral staircase leading down to a vault with tons of coffins. A lot of the mausoleums are in pretty bad shape, so they have cracked glass, broken marble all over the floor, and spider webs all over the place. Basically, straight out of a horror movie, except in broad daylight (thank the lord). I thought it was awesome, apparently I have this whole dark side I never knew I had, or something.

That day we also hung out in the botanical gardens for awhile, which were basically a gorgeous haven for stray cats. The cats were literally everywhere, but were pretty accustomed to humans because they totally let us mess with them.

Thursday we were supposed to wake up early to explore more, but early turned into 12, and then we had to spend a lot of time rectifying a plane ticket situation that Laila was in, during which I got to argue with the agency in Spanish. It was fun. We tried to go biking in the nature preserve but it was a bit too late, so we ended up wandering around the central commercial/shopping area. The highlight of this was some little boy peed on Sarah outside of a McDonald´s we were blatantly using for their bathroom.

That night we ventured to this sweet bar that wasn´t very happening because it was still pretty early (2 am). It was in an old mansion with 4 floors and an outdoor garden. It felt like going to a really really fancy house party, and made me wish I lived here so I could make it my hangout spot.

Today (Friday) was our last day in BA and we mainly spent it doing business-type stuff unfortunately, plus another trip to the botanical gardens. Basically not much to tell. Tonight Sarah and I fly to Lima, then fly to Iquitos tomorrow morning to explore the Amazon!

creepy mausoleum for a famous Commodore

Also in the cemetary

the botanical gardens

a shy kitten of the gardens

First days of BA

So far Buenos Aires is super-exhausting, though I´m pretty sure that´s due to the fact that we came here on a severe deficit of sleep. We decided to save a bit of money and take an over-night bus to BA from Mar del Plata (so we wouldn´t spend money on a hostel that night), but that didn´t go over particularly great. The bus lasted from 2 am to about 7:30, and once we were able to check into the hostel at 12 we just slept for the rest of the afternoon. Not smart, but we didn´t have any other option, really.

But after a lame first day, I´d say we are making the most of the city! So far we´ve done a ton of walking around the different neighborhoods, mainly Palermo, San Telmo, and Recoleta. Palermo is described as ¨paradise for BA´s middle class¨. I don´t know about that, but it´s a really nice neigborhood with tons of shops, restaurants and bars, cute cobblestone streets, and luscious parks. San Telmo also has the cobblestone street/old feel to it, but it´s not as fancy as far as I can tell. And Recoleta seems way more urban to me, but I´m not really sure what to make of it.

As far activities go, we keep trying to do all these things, but they don´t work out! Monday we walked all the way down to San Telmo to go to the modern art museum and it was closed for construction. Same thing happened with Teatro Colon, the really famous theatre that has ballet, opera, tango, you name it. But we have been spending a lot of time in parks, and the city parks here are amazing. They´re everywhere in the city, and usually pretty humongous, maybe 3 to 4 city blocks squared. They´ve also got a really nice mixture of tropical trees and grassy spaces, perfect for playing soccer. Though the other day, I made friends with a 6 year old with a frisbee, and we had a great toss session in one of the parks. He was pretty cute, at first when I asked him if he wanted to toss with me he just didn´t answer and walked away, so I thought I was out of line or something. But really he was asking his mom if he could play with me, because he wasn´t allowed to talk to strangers.

The other big activity we´ve managed so far was a trip to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which was a small but awesome museum. It was like a cliffnotes to art from Renaissance to Contemporary. Though what really made the trip for me was the museum had a life-sized version of the Rodin´s ¨the kiss¨, one of my all-time favorite pieces! I think it is one of the most romantic and passionate pieces of art that has ever been created, Rodin really knows how to convey emotion.

In other news, the food here is pretty awesome. Since Argentina has a ton of immigrants, the majority of the food is italian (or meat). So since none of us eat meat, we´ve been eating a bunch of pizza and pasta. I haven´t eaten meat in almost a year, but I decided that since I am in a country known for the quality of its meat, I should take the opportunity to eat a steak, which I did monday night. Now, I haven´t eaten a steak in almost 8 years, so this was huge. But I have to say, I´m not missing out on anything too special.

Marco throwing the disc

"the kiss"

Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata is awesome. We were planning on staying three nights here, but then we added two extra nights because we are having so much fun; that´s how awesome it is. Ít´s a town on the Atlantic coast, that´s kind of like a laid-back beach town that´s a bit bigger and has sky-scrapers. There isn´t much to do during the day but lounge around, but the night life is INSANE. Argentines are crazy. The clubs don´t even open until 12 am, but people don´t even start going out until 2:30 and it doesn´t get really packed until 4. I asked some Argentine friends why they wouldn´t just go out at 11, why it became a custom to party so late, and they didn´t really have an answer. Basically, the past four nights have been the latest I´ve stayed up, maybe ever. One morning we didn´t leave the dance club until 6 am, and it was still crazy inside. And last night we went out just to have a chill-out night at a bar, and we still didn't get back until 4:30 am. Just crazy. And I'm really impressed with myself for being so hard-core this week, but I'm really glad to take a break for a day or two, especially since I've been averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night.

Other than that there's not a whole lot to do here, besides lounge on the beach, which is a pretty crazy experience considering it's the most crowded beach I have ever seen by far. Just look at the picture below, it's like a "where's waldo" illustration. People watching is also great here, especially for the styles. There are some totally bizarre styles in Argentina, but what takes the cake are the various styles of mullet. So far my favorite was the mullet with braids in the back and buzzed sides, though the mullet of dreadlocks is a pretty close second.

Laila in front of a the beach...though you can't see it

braid mullet boy

Laila and Sarah biking in the park.

A stray cat sleeping in a shoe store.

Traveling mishaps

This morning Laila finally met up with us, but after such a ridiculous day that I really want to share it. She flew into BA from Belem, Brazil after spending the semester there, and since we were already here, we decided to meet at the BA bus station, then take a bus to Mar del Plata together, so that Laila wouldn´t have to make the trip alone. The problem was neither of us had phones or knew anything about the bus station, so we just said we´d meet at the "Andemar" office when she got there from the airport. Except there were 5 Andesmar offices in different areas of the GIGANTIC station. We knew she was going to come on the Manuel Tienda Leon shuttle from the airport, so we decided the best thing to do was wait where we thought the shuttle stopped. And then we waited for 2 hours, meanwhile only seeing one shuttle. We walked around the station seeing if we could see her, then finally bought tickets to Mar del Plata, since Laila knew where we were staying there. Our bus was delayed about an hour so we were sure she´d be at the hostel when we got there. But she wasn´t and didn´t show up at all that night. I don´t know about Sarah, but I was convinced her plane had crashed or something horrible like that.
What actually happened was Laila took the Manuel Tienda Leon shuttle to Rosario instead of Retiro (the bus station), which was actually 5 hours away. She was angry, thinking that I had told her the station was way-closer than it was, and then realized that she was actually in Rosario, not BA. So she took a bus back to BA and then to Mar del Plata, about 10 more hours of bus travel!
Hilarious