Uncategorized | The Escapades of Pookie and Allan

September 5 Thursday

Accommodations: CIEBA TOPS LODGE

First of all… did you all run out and look for that Masato beer I mentioned yesterday? I know you were all “salivating”( pun intended) to try it! 😂

Anyway, this morning after breakfast we got in our boat to cruise the Amazon in search of pink dolphins.

Freshwater Pink dolphins swim all through out the Amazon and we had a great time trying to spot them as they surfaced. They stay under the water for about 3-5 minutes and then they surface to breathe.

It is thought that the dolphins turn pink whenever they get excited. Since their blood vessels are visible thought their skin, it is very easy to see the pink color, almost like they are blushing. When they are very active, they get even pinker.

The baby dolphins are born tail first and the father (or another assisting dolphin) waits until the head is born and then they take the baby up to the surface to breathe. If the baby came out head first, since it can take a few hours for the baby to be born, the baby would drown since by the time the rest of the body emerged, the baby would not have gotten the breath needed to survive. After a baby is born, it suckles a thick milk from its mother until it is able to get fish on its own.

It was very difficult to photograph the dolphins because you never knew where they were going to pop up. I was happy that I actually did get a pretty good shot of one. Caesar sent us a photo he took last year of the head of a dolphin as it surfaced and you can see it below.

Dolphins are mammals and these dolphins have a bulge on the top of their heads and a long thin snout. We really only saw their backs in the water.

Caesar said some of the local tribes are very superstitious about dolphins. Some people believe that a male and female dolphin can come out of the water and take a young child living on land away from its family and keep it for their own. Others believe that touching a dolphin will bring very bad luck. However, on the Internet, I found this information: “In the Amazon region, the pink dolphin is seen as a symbol of fertility and is believed to bring good luck to those who encounter it. In some indigenous cultures, the pink dolphin is seen as a protector of the water and is revered for its wisdom and power.”

I’m not sure which folk lore to believe, but the pink dolphins we saw were beautiful creatures and I’d like to believe they will bring good luck to all who encounter them.

We passed many rice fields that the natives plant along the Amazon, which provides much of their carbohydrate needs. They eat a lot of bananas and vegetables as well as the fish they catch from the river. Just about everything they need to live can be found right outside their door.

After a few hours on the boat, we came back to the lodge and had lunch. Our appetizer was a Peruvian dish called causa. Causa is a cold layered dish of lime, potatoes, mayo, avocado, tomato, black olives, and hard boiled eggs. It was delicious!! I also had dorado fish wrapped in a leaf and steamed. Very tasty!

And then it was off to meet the Yaguas tribe, an indigenous jungle-dwelling tribe who shared their life in the jungle with us. There is social pressure for the tribe to learn Spanish to assimilate into Peruvian culture. If this continues, the culture and language of the tribe will one day be lost for good.

The members of the tribe did a traditional dance for us and then they grabbed our hands and had us all participate in the dancing.

They also showed us how to use a blow gun. The gun itself is made from two pieces of wood that are hollowed out and then glued together with sap. The gun is quite long with a mouthpiece on the end. There is a site on the gun that helps the hunter zero in on the prey. They use long dart-like arrows that are sharpened to a point with the teeth of a piranha. They put a cotton like substance on the arrow so it becomes similar to an arrow with a feather.

You have to seal your mouth around the end of the blow gun and take a deep breath through your nose and then blow. All the men on our tour gave it a try and I’m proud to say, my “hunting” man was the ONLY one to hit the target! So proud of him! (You Tarzan…me Irene !!! 🤗)

The tribe had a lot of items for sale that they make and I bought a few things.

We bid our goodbyes (the tribe only speaks their own language) and we cruised back to the lodge for drinks and then dinner.

After dinner Caesar took us on a night nature walk through the jungle which was amazing. We had to put on insect spray and bring a flash light for the walk. Allan and I had our mosquito hat nets with us, that we had used when visiting Alice Springs in Australia, so we were really prepared for the walk.

Caesar has an eagle eye and spotted all kinds of jungle creatures and pointed them out to us. He spotted an owl on top of a pole, a beautiful butterfly which he was able to catch and unfurl its wings for us, and a katydid eating a caterpillar. He also found a hole where a HUGE tarantula lived. He got a stick and poked it, and then he said… okay… let’s go, which I was very happy to do. Fortunately the tarantula stayed in his hole.

We paused a few times and turned off our flash lights so we could hear the beautiful sounds of the rainforest. What a chorus it was and just so beautiful to hear.

We started to hear thunder and see lightning in the distance and the animals were calling out. Caesar said we have to leave because the wind would kick up quickly and it’s not a good time to be in the jungle when that happens. He was right! The wind did start to blow and we made it back to our cottages just as the heavens opened up.

We have to get up early in the morning for a long day. Unfortunately I won’t be participating in the canopy walk that is scheduled because of my fear of heights. I don’t think Allan will either. But we will be with the group afterwards for lunch and to go on a tour of the botanical gardens.

My photo of the pink dolphin and below is Caesar’s.

We climb this staircase twice a day to go on our boat excursions. 27 steps on the stairs and then you have to navigate the ramp!

Causa

Our lunch of dorado fish wrapped in a leaf.

The tribe uses this plant to mark their faces. It is also used for an insect repellent.

The tribe dancing for us

Sharpening the wood arrow with piranha teeth

Allan showing his prowess with the dart gun

Owl on our night walk

Butterfly

The butterfly, when threatened, can turn its wings to look like an owl. It was pretty amazing to see.

The under part of the same butterfly

These flowers grew all the way up the tree trunk. So delicate and beautiful.

Huge frog

The cotton like material. A small piece is wrapped onto the arrow.

Livin’ the life

September 3 Tuesday Amazon Rain Forest Riverboat down the Amazon

Accommodations: CEIBA TOPS LODGE, IQUITOS

We learned during our ruins tour a few days ago that Lima gets only 0.8 inches of rain per year!!! How do the flowers that are blooming all around survive? Apparently, twice a day, a truck comes by with water and sprays the beds throughout the town. This differs greatly from the Amazon where it rains 250 days a year, so I’m pretty sure while we’re here, we will experience rain.

Last night since we weren’t very hungry, we had a small burger with a small fry at McDonald’s (of course) and then went back to the hotel. Just as we came in, a huge tour group arrived with lots of luggage. The two elevators are small and can really comfortably only hold two people with luggage. Allan said…We’ll be here all night waiting for the elevator. So he went over to the desk and asked if we could use the freight elevator. They said yes… and a man accompanied us in the freight elevator and off we went to our floor.

We were up very early to leave the hotel by 6:00 am to board the bus which took us to the airport for our flight to Iquitos. They provided a nice breakfast in the restaurant and they took our large suitcase to hold for us until we return from the Amazon.

A local guide met us in the lobby and walked us to the bus that drove us to the airport. She accompanied and guided us through getting boarding passes and checking our small suitcases. The luggage had to weigh 15 lbs or less, and we all passed the weight limit and off we went. We bid goodbye to the guide and went to find our gate for departure.

The airport was very crowded but we boarded rather quickly. We flew Latam… and it was a very nice flight.

When we arrived in Iquitos, we picked up our luggage, and met another guide, Caesar, as well as a bus driver, who drove us through the towns to the boat that we would sail along the Amazon in. We will then arrived at Ceiba (pronounced SAY bah) Tops Lodge. Caesar is a naturalist and will be our guide throughout the Amazon.

We drove through the towns along the way, taking in the sites and then we boarded our boat and headed for the hour ride to the lodge, cruising down the iconic Amazon.

The Amazon is two miles wide here and is said to be the longest river in the world… 2,010 miles. We saw many boats going up and down and some were carrying supplies for the town of Iquitos. A banana boat passed us and we could smell the sweet fragrance. Oil, logging, and tourism are the biggest industries at present in Iquitos.

We arrived at the lodge and went right away for lunch. I had the chicken and Allan had the dorado fish. A ceviche salad was served with mushrooms and palm hearts. Delicious! We had a juice made from purple corn – chicha morada – and we had a dessert like gelatin made from it as well. The chicha is highly nutritious and praised for its antioxidant properties.

After lunch we were able to go to our private lodge replete with a king bed, walk in shower, and a large bottle of water for drinking and to use for brushing our teeth. Caesar said we can fill our water bottles if need be at the restaurant where there is a huge cooler of fresh water. We also have WiFi in our cabin which is wonderful since WiFi is usually only at the restaurant. We brought electrolyte packets with us to add to our water bottles since we do expect to be sweating in the humidity quite a bit.

During lunch Caesar told us he lived as a child in a village on the Amazon and he had no electricity or running water. They actually drank from and bathed in the water from the Amazon River. Of course you have to be indoctrinated to that water from birth. If we took a drink, it would not bode well for us.

There are a few lodges throughout the Amazon, the brainchild of a man named Peter Jensen. He came one day to Caesar’s village and he met Caesar’s father who was a master carpenter. His father was hired by Peter to build the different lodges throughout the area. His father, however, did not build the lodge we are staying in.

After resting for a few hours, we met Caesar and he took us on a nature walk into the jungle. He said never go by ourselves, or try to follow any of the paths alone since the rainforest is very dangerous. There are many poisonous snakes. (Ummm… remember yesterday the guide said there haven’t been snakes in 20 years in the rainforest? Ha! Not true!) Caesar said there are many other dangerous creatures as well and we need to always be with him. He also said that the rainforest is their pharmacy as there are many medicinal plants around that are used to cure different ailments. Where he lived, there was a plant that was used to counteract the bite of a poisonous snake. If you got to it in time and drank the juice from the root and put a poultice made from the root onto the bite and changed the dressing and drank the juice every half hour, your chance of survival was excellent.

We saw beautiful flowers and listened to the parakeets that were in the trees. We didn’t see them however. But we did see some Tamarin monkeys high up in the treetops.

Then, once deep in the jungle, Caesar told us to keep walking but not to look up until he told us to because he has a big surprise for us. We walked into a clearing and he said look at me…now turn around… and open your eyes! WOW!!!!! We saw a HUGE Ceiba tree for which the lodge is actually named for. Ceiba trees are a unique natural wonder to behold. They grow up to 150 feet tall and can be hundreds of years old. The base was very huge with roots extending above ground. There were vines hanging down from the branches and all kinds of wildlife were tucked inside the foliage.
Caesar said people thought the tree, when touched, would bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. We took a photo op at the tree and then we each went over to touch the tree for luck.

While Allan was touching the tree, Caesar said excitedly.. oh wow… a poisonous red frog is crawling right where you are. I thought he was kidding and trying to scare Allan but no…. There really was a poisonous red dart frog. (And actually…we saw the same type frog when we were in the Baltimore aquarium. Yikes!!!) So I guess the tree did bring Allan luck since the frog didn’t bite him as it crawled past his hand.

No matter who we talk with, no one seems concerned about mosquitos. I’m not sure if they haven’t read that dengue fever is on the rise in Peru but no matter what, we’re still bathing ourselves in Sawyers. There is a pool here but we didn’t bring our suits to the Amazon. The thought of covering every inch of our bodies in insect spray is not that appealing to us.

We all met for a pre-dinner drink and then had a delicious dinner. It started off with a wonderful soup with dorado fish and pasta and I had chicken with spaghetti that was seasoned perfectly.

Early to bed since we are meeting at 5:55 am to take a boat along the Amazon for bird watching.
Buenos noches.