This past weekend I traveled with the four other Holy Cross students to Iquitos, the largest city in the rainforest in Peru. It was certainly an adventure! The only logical way to get to Iquitos is by planes, and out flight was on Thursday afternoon so we arrived in Iquitos around 7pm Thursday evening. The city itself was pretty nice; it was pretty small and relaxed and everyone drives around in moto-taxis and mopeds. As soon as we got there we spent the rest of the night finding a guide and tour agency, finding a hostel for the night, and grabbing something to eat.
On Friday the adventure began. We met our guide Timo at 9am and took off in boat down the Amazon river to start our 3-day, 2-night tour. It was so cool to be on the Amazon river, and it was so wide! Our first stop was a little village on the bank of the river where we saw a little lagoon full of alligators! We got to feed all the allilgators dead fish, and we were able to get very close to them. Thank God there was a little fence in between! In another little lagoon we got to feed these huge fish called Paiche, which were probably four or five feet long and are an endagered species. Later, we made our second stop along the river to an animal refuge area, mainly for monkeys. As soon as we got off the boat a bunch of friendly monkeys started running towards us! I have never gotten so close to monkeys as I was there, and I even got to hold a few of them. They were so cute and we spent a while playing with the monkeys and observing in awe how many different kinds there were.
Con mi amigo el mono
After the monkeys we continued out journey in the boat, but not without problems. The branch of the river that we had taken ended up being pretty shallow because the dry season just ended in Iquitos, and our guides, the boys in our group, and some of the local people all ended up have to stand in the river and push the boat! At one point, we had to empty our backpacks and food supplies out of the boat to carry along the shore and then we had to get into a local family´s boat to make it out of the shallow branch of river. Eventually our boat made it and we switched back to our original boat and continued on to our lodge. Our lodge was located on a branch of the Amazon river called Yanayacu.
Once we got settled and enjoyed a lunch of fresh catfish we headed back out to the Amazon river to visit a native tribe called Yaguas. Although the tribe clearly had modified it´s way of making money towards tourists, it´s basic way of life remained the same. The tribe consists of only about 45 people and speaks mainly Yaguas with a little Spanish. We met some of the children and their pet monkey and then got a demonstration of how the chief uses a huge dart gun to catch their dinner. We shopped a little perusing their hand-made goods and ended the visit with a tribal dance around the fire stones. We ended the day with dinner back in our lodge, a night-time boat trip to hear the sounds of the jungle and look for alligators, and bedtime in our bungalows since there was no electricity and therefore no lights!
Una niña del tribu Yaguas 
El grupo en frente del árbol Lupuna
After our hike we decided to cool off by swimming in the river, trying not to think about the fact that there were pirhanas swimming with us at the bottom. After lounging on the hammocks that afternoon we took a boatride in a downpour of rain up the river for about twenty minutes until we got to Timo's village. We got to meet Timo's family and see the simple village with little houses, a primary school , and a meeting house centered around a soccer field. The village is called Yanayacu, after the river, and it had about 100 people in it. It seemed so interesting how cut off this community was from the outside world. The first language of the majority of the people in the village is Quechua, although most speak spanish too. It seemed like a very simple life of farming and spending time with family. As we were about to leave the village we ran into Timo's cousin who was carrying an anaconda which he had just caught the day before! We all got to take turns holding the anaconda. Since snakes are probably my least favorite animal, it definitely took some convincing for me to hold the snake!
Con la anaconda!
Our adventure didn't end yet on Saturday. When we returned back to the bungalows we ate alligator for dinner, which I ended up really liking and which tasted like a mix of chicken and fish. Our guide also pointed out a tarantula crawling along the pathway outside! Peter, Jen, and I found multiple cockroaches crawling around the room - even one on Jen's suitcase! After examining the situation and noticing there were cockroaches in every part of the room, we decided it would be better to sleep in Meredith and Meg's room since they hadn't found any insects. We ended up smooshing all five of us full-grown students into two beds pushed together!
On Sunday morning we got up early to head out to go fishing - piranha fishing! Although I came close to catching a few, Jen and Peter had a little more success and actually got to catch some. We ended up eating turtle for lunch that day, which was a challenge for me because I could see the poor little shell on my plate. After lunch we set off in boat to return to Iquitos for our evening flight back to Lima, stopping to watch the Amazon dolphins along the way.
The boat ride was an experience in itself. We watched as some storm clouds slowly approached us, and it started to rain harder and harder. We were in a little metal boat with a small covering over it, probably only big enough to hold ten people. The storm got worse and worse, and at one point we could see lighting blots hitting the earth in front of us, behind us, and on both sides of us! The fact that we were in a small metal boat in the middle of the huge Amazon river during this lighting storm made the experience one of the scariest in my life. We ended up almost deciding to pull the boat over, but then we realized that the only option for where we could pull over the boat was an extremelly poor area. As soon as the people who lived there saw our boat of tourists approaching, they started getting closer with big grins on their faces. We knew at that moment we had to decide if we wanted to risk it and continue going in the storm or stop on this shore and be robbed! We decided to keep going, and by some miracle we arrived safe and sound in Iquitos in time to grab dinner before our flight home.
All in all the trip was an experience! It was the most adventurous trip I have ever taken, and although at times I felt a little bit in danger, in the end everything was fine and we all get to look back on some very interesting memories!
~Michelle
Anochecer en una rama del río Amazona
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