In the jungle, the mighty jungle

I would like to start off by saying that today, my handsome, charming boyfriend ate a worm out of a large nut amidst the Amazon jungle. If that isn’t badass, I’m not sure what is. It might also be idiotic, it’s too soon to tell.
We have had a wonderful three days in the Amazon Basin, staying in a hostel in Iquitos. It’s right on the riverfront street and our private room with bathroom is the equivalent of $30/night. No complaints there! It’s clean, includes breakfast (if you can call it that), and the staff are very pleasant.While we have certainly enjoyed it here, I am ready to get out of the jungle and over to somewhere colder!.
It’s been a really busy few days, but I will do my best to recap all of the happenings.
On Wednesday, our guide, Billy, met us at our hostel at 9am.  Since the big tourist season just ended, we were the only two people on our tour. Billy is a native of Iquitos, 21 years old, and one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever met. Our first stop was the Belen market. This is the primary market in Iquitos and consistent of about 2,000 stalls throughout several blocks of city. In the wet season, the roads flood and you have to canoe through the market. Just before entering, we were joined by Carlos. His sole job for the morning was walking closely behind Jeff and I to make sure no one picked our pockets. Jeff and I would never have been able to visit this market without a guide. The pathways are narrow, and  the merchants are peddling anything you can imagine. You have standard fruits and vegetables, and also a wide array of meat. Various parts of cow, some being cut up right in the market, whole pigs, chickens, turtle, armadillo, you know, the regular stuff. We ate fresh palm hearts (washed in purified water, of course), and the Cashew fruit, from which the nut is extracted. I didn’t even know that WAS a fruit. It was bitter and gross, but I learned something new. We also got to eat Camu Camu which is a newly named Superfood that grows in bushes on the banks of the Amazon. It’s high in Vitamin C and has been known to help with Diabetes. After we moved through the fruits/vegetables/meat departments, we ventured over to the Seafood.

Belen Market
 
Cashew (nut is at the top, surrounded by another shell and acid)
The seafood was another world entirely. I’ve been to fish markets before, but not like this! We saw the standard river fish that is common to most dishes in the Amazon, the Doncella. It’s somewhat similar to tilapia- white fish with few bones and flavored primarily with citrus. We tried it on a few occasions and all were yummy. There is also a peacock bass that is quite famous and you can take fishing excursions explicitly with the goal of catching it. Then, we got on to the really good stuff. There was alligator, turtle and this scary fish called the Armadillo fish. The whole thing is covered in armor and can live 24 hours outside of water. This means that while they are lying there on the table, their gills are still moving and eyes twitching. It scared the “you know what" out of me and made both Billy and Jeff laugh. Men. Sheesh.

Armadillo Fish
After that, we wound our way through the spices and specialty section. They’ve got more spices and natural remedies than you can shake a (Shaman’s) stick at. We learned about natural tree sap that repels insects and a blend of 21 leaves that is supposed to promote overall wellness. There is no malady that these natural medicines aren’t thought to cure. And let me tell you, by the look of a lot of the lady merchants, they are living a lot time.
Also at the market, we tasted a delicious, but tremendously sweet drink made with the tea from boiled Yucca root and topped with meringue. It was positively sinful, but too sweet to drink the whole pint, so we handed it over to Carlos who gulped it down in earnest. I got the impression that treating yourself to sweets at the market is an expense saved for special occasions in Iquitos. In all our wandering, I got to think about what is important and the difference between want and need. It will be harder to remember this when I’m back on American soil, but hopefully the pictures and blog will help me remember the importance of modesty more often.
Making meringue
 
Channel at Belen Market
When we left the market, we trudged down the banks of the river in some of the most foul smelling sludge I’ve ever seen. We were shooed towards a very narrow canoe and I looked at Jeff with a glance of panic. Was this the boat we were to spend the day on? Surely I will tip us with my clumsiness. But, what were we to do? We boarded the boat, gingerly, and with the help of the dangerously feeble, old captain and sat down as quickly as possible. I was sure I would knock the old man overboard just by taking his hand, but these folks are really strong. (Commercial Interruption). We boarded many boats during our stay in Iquitos, and the manners of the men on every single boat were something to smile at. There wasn’t a time that I didn’t have the hand of at least one person. I think it’s because so many of the boats are narrow and precarious. Ok, back to the story. We were on this tiny little boat and I was growing increasingly concerned, when all of a sudden, we pull up next to a MUCH bigger boat. We only had to go across the channel in the small boat.

Billy and Carlos in the scary boat
We got on our boat, waved goodbye to Carlos and were off on our river adventure. The rest of the day was relaxing and really cool. We traveled up and down various tributaries looking for wildlife. We saw about a million kinds of butterflies (which are frustrating to try to get a photo of because they won’t sit still) and several kinds of birds.
On a boat, in a lawn chair
Flighty butterflies
  Many people live there

For lunch, we were served a delicious appetizer of fruit: perfectly ripe pineapple, banana, and orange. For the main course, we had chicken tamales and rolls with onion sauce. I finally tried the local soda- Inca Kola. It’s yellow in color and looks like it would have a citrus taste. In fact, it tasted precisely like cream soda and I might be in love. If I drank more soda, it would be right up there with Dr. Pepper in my book.

It doesn’t look like much, but it was

Coolest soda you will ever meet
We spent the afternoon boating and even saw pink river dolphins. They are not like our Bottlenose ocean dolphins that swim up near boats. These are very shy and only breach out of the water enough to expose a small bit of back. You have to look very carefully and turn off the motor in order to see them. You have to be patient. We saw a few, one was only a baby. I asked Billy if he grew up with any legends about the Amazon. This was definitely the right question to ask. He then spent upwards of 30 minutes regaling us with stories of fabled jungle monsters. It was a hoot.
Top of our boat
Abandoned cruise ship from the Amazon’s hayday
While on the river, we passed an large floating house which we learned was a famous restaurant, Frio y Fuego. We knew right then that we had to go. It was on the opposite side of the river from town, but if you went to the restaurants office at the port, they ferried you to and fro. That’s where we ate dinner on Wednesday night and even splurged on a bottle of Chilean red wine. We felt swanky.

View of Iquitos from the restaurant

Waiting for the ferry
There are no roads in or out of Iquitos; you can only get there via plane or boat. For this reason, there are very few cars in town and those that you see belong to the rich and the oil companies. The standard mode of travel is the MotoKar or Moto Taxi. This is a motorcycle with a cart attached to the back and it’s great fun to ride in. In fact, there were some times when Jeff and I were so hot that we took a Moto Taxi the 3 blocks back to our hostel just to catch the breeze on our faces during the ride. These taxis are great fun, but wouldn’t do you much good in an accident. Good thing we didn’t have to find out.

The taxi experience
And that concludes this episode of our show. See ya next time!