After spending the week in Lima full of anticipation, we flew to Iquitos to meet up with Brett and Amri, the first members of Lee´s family that we´d seen in months. It was a delight to have somebody awaiting our arrival at an airport. We hung out with these now-Iquitos-Expats for the weekend before the rest of Lee´s family arrived..making 8 Forsheys in total.
Iquitos is larger than I expected, in fact it´s the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest. It´s big claim to fame is that it is considered the most populous city in the world that cannot be reached by road. But tourists are a plenty with it´s location on the Amazon river and rain forest tours. Brett booked such a 2-day trip for all 8 Forsheys (who arrived two days after us), but sadly, Lee and I didn´t make it cause I got sick again. I was a little worried it might be Dengue, considering my fever and the recent outbreak (they recently fumigated all apartments in the city), but luckily, it passed in 2 days. So, I was back on top when the Forsheys arrived back in town.
Thankfully, we were staying in a nice place, so being sick wasn´t so bad. We stayed at the pleasant Mansion at 504 Fitzcarrald (B+, good breakfast with friendly owners that will show you around, TV with HBO, but no hot showers).
Except for the rain forest tours, Iquitos is nice and cheap. It has a safe, small-town feeling with tuk-tuks dominating the road, and lots of cheap, good eats. Oddly, it has a dusty feel, even though it´s the rain forest and there are downpours almost everyday. Weird.
On Sunday, we took a boat ride down the river to a butterfly park, a laid-back reserve owned by a European expat. The park cares for both jungle animals and butterflies. It was raining when we arrived, so we we spent a good hour with the resident monkeys, taking shelter in a hut. One of the capuchins followed Amri and I in to the bathroom. A first for me! And no, I am still not a fan of monkeys.
When the rain let up, the owner gave us a detailed tour of her butterfly camp. It was interesting, much more so than the butterfly park in Kuala Lumpur that we hiked to. We also spent some time with her leopard, mom and baby sloth, tapir, and anteater. Note that she herself does not "rescue" animals, as in buy them, she is given them by local officials or tourists that buy them. Apparently, tourists feel compelled to "rescue" monkeys or sloths they see at the local market, oblivious to the fact that they are doing more damage by creating a trade for these animals. Sad.
Another morning we spent at the local market down the road in Belen. Not only did this have the usual menagerie of jungle town meat and veggies, but we also saw turtles and baseball-sized snails for sale, we cringed at a skinned monkey that we initially mistook for a young burn victim, and we tasted this awesome whipped meringue beer drink before picking our way down through the complex aphrodisiac alley. Thanks to Amri for being such a great tour guide.
For eats, we had ceviche, pollo a la brasa (delicious rotisserie chicken), salchipappas especial (fries with hot dogs, bacon, fried egg, red onion and about 3 more types of meat), paiche (amazon river fish), local fave aguaje with salt, humitas (a type of tamale), juanes (rice and chicken steamed in banana leaf), and chupetes (popsicles made with jungle fruits) to cool off. All of which, I loved. We ate the paiche at this fancy Disney-like restaurant on the water that has its own river taxi to get you to and from town (DisneyWorld really does haunt you for life). At night, in between "random" run-ins with Brett and Amri´s multitude of friends, we went to the local hot spot on the river, the Malecon, a sort of boardwalk area, for drinks. One night, having closed down the other bars, we went to the local slots parlor for family bonding. Oddly, casinos were everywhere in Lima, too.
After a river-view Ceviche lunch on Wednesday, we headed to the airport for our flight to Lima, with a morning connection to Cusco.
Iquitos is larger than I expected, in fact it´s the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest. It´s big claim to fame is that it is considered the most populous city in the world that cannot be reached by road. But tourists are a plenty with it´s location on the Amazon river and rain forest tours. Brett booked such a 2-day trip for all 8 Forsheys (who arrived two days after us), but sadly, Lee and I didn´t make it cause I got sick again. I was a little worried it might be Dengue, considering my fever and the recent outbreak (they recently fumigated all apartments in the city), but luckily, it passed in 2 days. So, I was back on top when the Forsheys arrived back in town.
Thankfully, we were staying in a nice place, so being sick wasn´t so bad. We stayed at the pleasant Mansion at 504 Fitzcarrald (B+, good breakfast with friendly owners that will show you around, TV with HBO, but no hot showers).
Except for the rain forest tours, Iquitos is nice and cheap. It has a safe, small-town feeling with tuk-tuks dominating the road, and lots of cheap, good eats. Oddly, it has a dusty feel, even though it´s the rain forest and there are downpours almost everyday. Weird.
On Sunday, we took a boat ride down the river to a butterfly park, a laid-back reserve owned by a European expat. The park cares for both jungle animals and butterflies. It was raining when we arrived, so we we spent a good hour with the resident monkeys, taking shelter in a hut. One of the capuchins followed Amri and I in to the bathroom. A first for me! And no, I am still not a fan of monkeys.
When the rain let up, the owner gave us a detailed tour of her butterfly camp. It was interesting, much more so than the butterfly park in Kuala Lumpur that we hiked to. We also spent some time with her leopard, mom and baby sloth, tapir, and anteater. Note that she herself does not "rescue" animals, as in buy them, she is given them by local officials or tourists that buy them. Apparently, tourists feel compelled to "rescue" monkeys or sloths they see at the local market, oblivious to the fact that they are doing more damage by creating a trade for these animals. Sad.
Another morning we spent at the local market down the road in Belen. Not only did this have the usual menagerie of jungle town meat and veggies, but we also saw turtles and baseball-sized snails for sale, we cringed at a skinned monkey that we initially mistook for a young burn victim, and we tasted this awesome whipped meringue beer drink before picking our way down through the complex aphrodisiac alley. Thanks to Amri for being such a great tour guide.
For eats, we had ceviche, pollo a la brasa (delicious rotisserie chicken), salchipappas especial (fries with hot dogs, bacon, fried egg, red onion and about 3 more types of meat), paiche (amazon river fish), local fave aguaje with salt, humitas (a type of tamale), juanes (rice and chicken steamed in banana leaf), and chupetes (popsicles made with jungle fruits) to cool off. All of which, I loved. We ate the paiche at this fancy Disney-like restaurant on the water that has its own river taxi to get you to and from town (DisneyWorld really does haunt you for life). At night, in between "random" run-ins with Brett and Amri´s multitude of friends, we went to the local hot spot on the river, the Malecon, a sort of boardwalk area, for drinks. One night, having closed down the other bars, we went to the local slots parlor for family bonding. Oddly, casinos were everywhere in Lima, too.
After a river-view Ceviche lunch on Wednesday, we headed to the airport for our flight to Lima, with a morning connection to Cusco.
4 comments:
Terrific!!!!
We were really looking forward to seeing these first pictures. Where's the picture of the skinned monkey?
Good Question. Unfortunately, I don´t think we got a picture of it.
I just read about all your exploits! I would be really skinny if I followed you guys around. Looks like lots of fun, although, some of the food would cause me to drink Amazon River Water. Really glad you all had such a great time together. Love to all of you. Be careful. See you soon.
Love,
all the Home Bound Forsheys
B+? a B+?
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