Animales!

I started keeping track of how many hours I am in transit and I am up to 160 hours. I don`t know about you, but I am pretty surprised by that number. That`s almost 7 days worth of sitting! I am now in Colombia with a Costa Rican deadline of July 22nd. I spent the night in Bogota, just took an overnight bus (supposed to be 9 hours, turned into 23) to Medellin, I`ll overnight bus to Cartegena tomorrow, find a sailor (who hopefully isn`t an alcoholic) to get to Panama and bus straight to Costa Rica. Since I have my five year visas for Brazil and Bolivia, I am already planning my next trip back to South America to do more of Argentina (such as the wine region), Northern Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and more of Colombia. For anyone that hasn`t been to South America, don`t be scared! There are so many beautiful places here and Spanish is the only language you have to grasp, unlike Europe. Did you know that less than 20% of Americans own a passport? That`s insane! So many other cultures encourage young people to travel, but in the States I feel like there is so much pressure at the end of college to jump into a career or grad school. I guess I ignored that pressure :) but I`m not worried about when I do want to start thinking about a job because I think I will gain a lot from this trip. At the Cusco hostel, I overheard two guys from California talking to an Aussie girl saying that they could only travel for 2 weeks because it would be really hard to explain in interviews if they were traveling for months. Pish Posh, I think it`s definitely worth the explantion, but that`s me. Anyway, I love South America and I`m coming back. I arrived in Ica last week sometime and took a 5 minute taxi ride to Huacachina, the tiny oasis in the middle of all the sand dunes. This was the first time I really felt that I was on my own. I signed up for the buggie ride and sandboarding at 1:30 so I had some time to kill. I walked around the city which took about 10 minutes. Ok, what now? I walked around again to take some pictures and I met an old man sitting on one of the smaller dunes making sandboards. He started talking really fast and I told him in Spanish to slow down a bit. We were able to have a pretty basic conversation and basically what he was telling me was that there is Machu Picchu, but there is also this other really amazing place that is less touristy and his friend `right over there at Bamboo Restaurant` has all the information. He gave me a business card, I said thank you and was on my way. Everyone here is trying to sell you something. I didn`t go to Bamboo Restaurant, but it was fun trying to talk to the old man. The sun was having a hard time that day, but it was still pretty warm so I sat by the pool and read until the buggie pulled up. Over the first hill and all I could see was sand mountains for miles. I have seen dunes before, but never anything like that. They drive really fast and the downhills were pretty steep so that made for a good time. They stopped at the bunny hill and got the boards out. The first time, everyone went down on the boards on their stomachs. I was expecting a mouth full of sand, but I actually got my jeans full of sand. The buggie picked us up at the bottom and drove around for a bit to the next hill. Still bunnyish, so I tried standing and was successful. I was surprised because I was terrible at snowboarding. Though, I don`t think you gain as much speed going down on sand as you do on snow. They took us to about 5 more hills, all getting bigger each time so I decided it was more fun to just fly down on my stomach. The last hill was massive. As we all walked up to the edge, not knowing what to expect, it was pretty silent when we all looked down. The first thing I heard was `who`s going first?` It actually looked like the hill went concave at one point. People started going and I was close behind. At the bottom, waiting for everyone else, a girl noticed her hand was bleeding. It wasn`t bad, but at that moment we heard really loud thuds and turned to see a guy tumbling down the hill. It looked like he stopped, but no, he kept tumbling right to our feet. He stood up, but immediately collapsed into a heap, gasping for air. He obviously got the wind knocked out of him, but we noticed his nose was bleeding. It was dripping blood and he had a big scrape in between his eyes. After catching his breath a bit, he said, `that was f***ing fun.` It was funny, but he was still in a lot of pain. We got back in the buggie and rode around for a while until we went back. Good thing it was the last hill! Back in the oasis, I got some food and went straight to the bus station to go to Lima. Huacachina was cool but there was no way I was staying in a 10 minute town overnight. 5 hours later I was in Lima. I met some nice people at the hostel that night, walked around the Barranco district of Lima the next day and got a flight for Iquitos that afternoon. It was so nice to see the ocean again, if only for a short time. I had another attempt at a conversation with my taxi driver and it really enhances my desire to become bilingual. I know I will, just probably not this trip. There are too many things to do, I don`t have time to sit in class :)

I landed in Iquitos after the sun went down but the temperature was 86 degrees. Warm nights, I love it! Well, warm and humid are two very different things. I feel like I went to the absolute extreme of hotness. I really can`t complain though because I 100% prefer being hot over cold. I got a map from the information lady at the airport and asked her about the different hotels, in Spanish, and it was going pretty well until she said `English is fine.` I wish she wouldn`t have said that because if I think I have to speak Spanish I will try harder, but if I know the person speaks English, then it`s really easy to revert back to English. So I found the hotel for me and was on my way. The main sqaure was a block away so I walked around for a bit, but I was really tired so I called it a night. The next day I walked to the street where all the Amazon tour offices are and was bombarded by salesmen. It`s so hard to know who is legit because they just talk talk talk about how great their tour is. When I leave one office, another person is at my side asking me what I`m looking for since the last office must not have been it. I went to one where I was explaining that I needed to get to Leticia for a flight to Bogota, but he explained to me that Leticia is up river and not many people go that way for tours because down river has so much more flora and fauna. Well, this could have been total BS, but I went with it because he told me there were some people from New York already at the lodge I would be going to and that made me the most comfortable. I decided on a three day two night jungle adventure and left to go get cash. When I came back to pay, there were two guys from Mississippi paying for the same tour, except only staying one night. Again, I felt a lot better knowing that other people were going. So Sam, Brett and I headed out for a tour of the floating neighborhood and then to the Butterfly Preserve and Animal Rescue Center. The floating neighborhood was so much different than the floating islands in Puno. These houses are built on wood platforms so when the river rises and falls, they just float with it. Right now the river is falling so some of the houses are on the ground. It is so amazing how resourceful these people are and how little they really need to live and be happy. We got off the canoe and walked through an outdoor market full of fruit, fish, meat, clothes and baby animals. Really sad, but really cute for passersby. We saw a baby armadillo, a spider monkey, a sloth, a caiman and lots of little birds. I guess people buy the spider monkeys, drug them and put them in their pocket so they can get through security at the airport, and bring them back to the States. I don`t know how true that is, but I wouldn`t be surprised if it is. Our guide from the floating neighborhoods was still walking with us and he said that if people either stop buying the baby animals, or at least only agree to pay very little for them, maybe the sellers will realize there isn`t a high demand for them and they will stop selling them. That is the hope, but I honestly don`t see that happening :( We got in a mototaxi, a motorcycle with a covered bench attached to it for three people max, and went to another harbor where we took a boat to the Butterfly Preserve. He dropped us off and told us we had to walk for about 5 minutes. We started walking, but didn`t see any signs, except a young girl who clinged to Sam and a couple of stares that made us feel like we were in the wrong place. I just asked the girl where it was and she pointed to the trees in the distance. So, deep into the trees and across a bridge, we finally found it. The woman running the place sounded Kiwi and she showed us around. First the butterflies and then the monkeys who are running free and love attention. There were two that were following us around. Tony and Junior. Tony would catch me off guard by sliding down a branch and looking me straight in the eyes with this huge grin. I would laugh, but the woman told me that showing your teeth means aggression to the monkeys. Ooook, no more teeth. I did like holding them on my shoulders and I want one of my own, but I wouldn`t drug one and smuggle it back home. Next, we got to the jaguar and she fed him a huge piece of red meat. The story behind these animals is really sad and usually has to do with someone killing the mother and trying to raise the baby, but couldn`t and either dumped it somewhere or brought it to Rescue Center. Then we met the tapir, strange animals! You can`t tell by looking at him but they are really good swimmers. Like a hippo, I suppose. There was large, squirrel-like animal next to the tapir and when we asked what it was, the woman said `that`s food for the jaguar.` Ok then, moving on. We saw two howler monkeys that make the most incredible, yet annoying sound. It`s a really throaty howl. Then, she brought out the anteater and a man was feeding her milk in a bowl. They said she is only approachable while drinking milk. Anteaters have massive front claws and a girl died from a puncture to the jugular. After that delightful story, the woman said, `you can pet her if you like.` Um, no, I don`t like. We saw a caiman in the water, but only it`s head sticking out and it wouldn`t come near. We ended the animal tour with some sloths and headed back to town. I am so glad I went out there, it was so much more personal than a zoo. We had dinner that night at a place called The Yellow Rose of Texas where Gerald, the owner, is an ex-football star that got injured, moved to Iquitos where he was in the tourism business and then opened the restaurant. The waitresses wear shirts with the University of Texas Logo. Pretty crazy decor, but really good food. Early to bed that night because the next day started at 6am on our way to the lodge in the jungle.

We took a two hour taxi ride and a two hour boat ride to the lodge. I realize `lodge` sounds pretty luxurious, but basically we were in the middle of the jungle in a wood hut. On the way we saw pink dolphins jumping out of the river. Pink river dolphins..weird. There were three other people there, a couple from Canada and a guy from New York who I in fact met in Cusco. It`s a small world here too. Their guide went out in a canoe and 5 minutes later came back with a baby anacanda. It was a decent sized snake, but I wouldn`t have known it was an anaconda if they hadn`t told me. I was amazed at how calm it was. It wasn`t squirming and it opened it`s mouth a couple times but wasn`t hissing. I was hesitant during the pass from the guides hands to mine, but luckily it went smoothly and I still have all 9 fingers. 10 fingers, yeah, that`s what I meant. After we had lunch and fresh pineapple we put on rubber boots, grabbed some machettis and our guide led us into the jungle. I was hoping to see more snakes, but instead we found butterflies, termite nests and lots and lots of mosquitos. There were a lot of cools trees though! We walked for about 2 hours and when we got back to the lodge, we joined the other three and their guide on a canoe trip to the tower. The tower is made out of wood and it looks like the termites have made a nice home there. We climbed the tower despite the seemingly unstable ladders and ended up above the tree tops and looking out towards Brazil. The sun went down during our canoe ride back to the lodge and it was completely dark by the time we got there. We lit some candles and I took my first enjoyable cold shower. I went back to the main room and they had found a tarantula INside the lodge. It was crawling on one of the beams and someone just happened to see it in the candle light. Good thing! The guides were picking it up and letting it run around for a while, but finally took it outside. I said, `far away please.` We sat down to play some cards before dinner and someone saw another tarantula inside! I thought the point of having screens is to keep large insects out of where we eat and sleep. So, that was pretty comforting. They made us soup for dinner and I`m not really sure if they thought 4 boys would be full after that. Even I was still hungry. There was jam on the table from breakfast so we asked for some bread, and Brett had a jar of peanut butter with him. I think you know what that means..a PB&J had never tasted so good. After dinner we went on a night cruise down the river to look for caimans and snakes in the water. It was cool being on the river at night but unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our search so it was back to the lodge for bedtime. There were no flat sheets to sleep under on the beds, just a fitted sheet. It was really hot so I`m sure most people don`t need the extra sheet, but I woke up in the middle of the night pretty cold. I know I`m weird. Anyway, I grabbed my sweat shirt, which was outside the mosquito net and pulled the fitted sheet off the bed to wrap myself in it. Of course I turned my flashlight on first to inspect my sweat shirt and the sheet for bugs, mostly looking for tarantulas that thought I might want to cuddle, because I definitely would say no way to that! We woke up the next morning at 6am for bird watching, again cruising down the river. We saw monkeys in the trees so we docked the canoe in some mud and went walking. We saw tons of monkeys, but none of them came close to us. We got to a big marsh area where our guide said he saw a jaguar drinking the water before. Ok, time to go! I actually think it would be really cool to see a jaguar in the wild, just really far away. We went back to the lodge for breakfast and then went fishing. Our guide speared two fish. I thought he was just throwing the spear on a whim because I couldn`t see anything, but sure enough, he threw the spear two times and each time got a fish. We had stick poles with pieces of raw chicken on the end and didn`t catch anything. Oh well. The guides told us that there was going to be a transportation strike on Wednesday and that`s the day I bought my speed boat ticket to Leticia. So, I decided to go back to Iquitos a day earlier than planned and change my boat ticket to Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Like I mentioned earlier, I`m on the fast track now to Costa Rica, so I couldn`t get stuck in Iquitos. The only bummer was that I paid for three days in the jungle and only spent two.

One more night in Iquitos and up at 5am for my speed boat to Leticia. Well, it wasn`t very speedy because it took over 10 hours. I was hoping to sleep, but I don`t think I did at all. My knees hit the seat in front of me so I was turning and twisting, but it was humid and the wind blowing on my face didn`t work well with sleeping. I read a bit, listened to my ipod and watched horrible peruvian music videos. They dropped us off In Santa Rosa, which was still Peru (and I was entering Colombia) so I had to go through immigration. There was only one lady behind the counter and no organized line so I just had to get my hand out there with my passport. She stamped the little white paper that you get every time you enter a new country saying that I`m leaving Peru and told me I had to go down to the police station. As if I know where that is, so I said `donde?` She pointed, but was busy with other people by then, so I started walking down the street. It wasn`t far but the guy behind the counter told me to go back to the place I was just at to get another piece of paper. What?? She told me to come here! So I went back to her, people still crowding the counter and told her he told me to come back here and get something. She rolled her eyes and stamped my passport which meant I was free to go. Glad I walked in circles. I then had to take another small boat to Leticia which was about 5 minutes away. The next day I had a flight to Bogota at 2:45 so I decided to walk to Brazil. 10 minutes down the road and besides the Brazilian flag, I knew I was walking into Brazil because of the endless racks of Havaianas flip flops. There is a 24 hour grace period so I didn`t have to go through immigration again. I guess after 24 hours they stop trusting you, who knows. It started to rain so I headed back to Colombia where it was sunny. I found `my` tropical oasis made of fruit. You can`t see behind this strong lady, but the wall of fruit goes on for about 2 blocks, mmm. Well, the sun didn`t last long, a thunder and lightening storm started after I got to the airport and our plane was late so my 2:45 plane turned into a 5:00 plane. I arrived in Bogota and was really amazed. For a place that has such a bad reputation for being dangerous, I pictured a city like La Paz, but instead I was surprised by the European feel of Bogota. I talked to someone who felt safer in Bogota than in parts of LA. The area near my hostel looked like a college campus. The streets are brick and separated by fountains. There is a really cool bus system that runs through town, like an above ground - on wheels subway. You have to buy a ticket, go through those spinning things (totally don`t know how to explain those) and wait behind glass doors until the bus pulls up and the glass doors open like subway doors. The buses are 2 bus lengths long with the accordion middle and VERY crowded. I took one of the buses to the fancy pants district called Zona Rosa where there are a bunch of classy shopping malls, a Hooters and a Hard Rock Cafe. I had to catch my bus to Medellin so I headed back during rush hour which was a huge mistake, but I got the feel for the city life I suppose. This picture is Simon Bolivar Square which was in walking distance from my hostel, doesn`t it look like I went to Europe? It was raining in the morning so no one was out yet. The end.