Read about part I of our adventure here

Read about part II of our adventure here

The next morning we woke up to a new day. I was hopeful as one great thing I had read about this tour company was the fantastic banana pancake breakfasts they made! Sadly we were met with disappointment yet again as they still had not been able to locate a cook. So instead we had a pineapple (which was good) and some toast along with the leftover spaghetti from the night before. On top of this there was still no guide or boat in sight for us. Not off to a great start.
The tour organizer told us he was going to stay behind and wait for our guide to show up who would hopefully be there at lunchtime. Pablo and I had a quick pow wow discussing what we should do as we had paid way too much money for this tour and hadn’t gotten to do anything yet we wanted to! I specifically wanted to go see the giant floating lily pads, the part of the jungle where the monkeys lived and would come jumping in the boat with you, I wanted to see tropical birds (like toucans and macaws) and a sloth. I hadn’t checked anything off my list so far other than the pink dolphins which we had only seen a tiny glimpse of far in the distance. We were under the impression we’d be able to see them super close to the boat but that hadn’t happened yet either.

On top of this, the next day we would have to start making our back to Iquitos. This really left little time for us to see all these creatures. We decided to tell the tour guy that when our guide arrived at lunch time we would take a quick tour with him to some of the things we wanted to see but then would like to go back to Iquitos that evening and get some of our money back. It just wasn’t worth it to keep wasting so much time sitting around in the middle of the jungle with nothing to do. The way we saw it we could sit around there in the jungle without any fans or a/c, sweating to death with not much to eat or we could head back to Iquitos and have actual meals and a cool place to sit around.

Thankfully the tour guy was very understanding and super apologetic about the whole thing. He kept saying how nothing like this had ever happened before and he knew it was not what we had signed up for or what had been promised to us by the company. He told us he’d speak with the guide when he arrived and make sure all of our details were taken care of without any more issues.

So off we went into the sinking boat yet again for another hike with the Israeli family. I wasn’t too excited as I knew it would be very slow going examining every detail of all the plants along the way. But I was NOT expecting the adventure that would come as well. Most everyone in the group understood at least a little bit of Spanish so we went with Tony who spoke no English but was the guide for the group. He pointed out a great fruit to try that was at the top of a tree. Not to worry, he carried a machete with him and told us he would chop the tree down for everyone to try the fruit. He started hacking away and Pablo told me to keep an eye on the tree as we didn’t know where it was going to fall. Thankfully it did start to fall away from the group but as it came crashing to the ground we realized one of the Israeli aunts was standing right in its path. The tree landed on her head and knocked her to the ground.

You read that right, the tree literally landed on her head and was now laying on top of her on the ground. As we stood there in disbelief her family rushed over, yanked the tree away and pulled her to her feet. She appeared a bit dazed but overall looked like she was ok. This was a true blessing as we were hours away from any hospital and the only medical supplies we had on us were in Pablo’s small med kit he had packed. We offered up some bandaids and asprin but she declined saying she would be ok just needed a few minutes.

This is the moment everyone realized that she not only had a bump on her head but the tree had knocked her down into an army of fire ants. They were now crawling all over her, under her clothing and everywhere. Fire ants are VERY painful when they bite and it wasn’t long until the bites began. They immediately began stripping off her clothes to get rid of the ants and dumping water over her head to wash them away. This seemed to be working but in the process of tearing her clothes off the ants were transferring to everyone else! WHAT A MESS. I stood there in shock not believing this could all actually be happening, but it was!

Eventually the ants were taken care of, the aunt was re-dressed and everyone seemed to be recovering from the ordeal. Tony asked if we wanted to go back to the lodge but the aunt said she would be ok and they all wanted to keep hiking for a bit longer. The rest of the hike was fairly uneventful, mostly just boring again as we trudged through the foliage sweating buckets and not seeing any animals.

Back at the lodge the tour organizer was also shocked to hear the story of what had happened. It really was just the icing on the cake for the whole experience! Our guide and boat still had not shown up but arrived about 30 minutes later, hooray! He rushed out to explain what was going on but then learned that it was not the guide’s boat. The boat he had used to come out to the jungle needed to turn around immediately and head back to Iquitos. This meant we now had a guide but no boat to go anywhere. They told us they would go to the village again and look for a boat for us to use but by then Pablo and I had had enough. Locating the boat would take at least a couple more hours which would put us in late afternoon. I was DONE with sitting around for hours waiting with nothing to do. We were told our only other option was to go back to Iquitos right that minute with this boat and we made the decision to do just that.

The tour company was very apologetic and did everything they could to make it right in the end. The tour organizer guy came back with us so he could explain everything to the head guy. By the time we arrived several hours later to the city they had already reserved and paid for a hotel room for us. And they apologized profusely and refunded us for 2/3 of our money. They asked us how much we thought we should get back and we probably could have asked for it all but we felt that was fair. They had been so polite and attentive trying to make things right for us and had paid for all the transportation for us to get into the jungle and back. So we walked away disappointed with our experience but definitely feeling like we made the right choice in leaving it early. And we have no desire to go back to the jungle ever again.

Read about part I here: Amazon Jungle Tour Part I

After evacuating our original lodge location, we headed back out into the boats to go 30 minutes further down the river, deeper into the jungle. By this point it was already very late afternoon and I was disappointed we were losing out on so much for our first day. But I was happy to be going to a different lodge!

As we approached the new lodge it definitely looked like an improvement. Still rural, but at least in better condition and a bit cleaner! However, as we drew closer there was no one to be found anywhere. The tour organizer explained there hadn’t been a way to contact them and let them know we were coming so it may be a little while while things were set up. As we pulled up to the dock Pablo looked at me and said, “I feel like we’re in Jurassic Park and a velociraptor is going to come charging out of the jungle any minute!” It was a very accurate description of the look of the new place.

We hung out in the main room area while our tour person wandered around shouting “Hola? Hola?” trying to find someone who worked there. Eventually he did and they went to work on setting up our rooms. Another hour or so passed while we waited with nothing to do. We could have swam in the river, but it was such a thick brown color I did NOT trust what could be hiding in there or have any desire to jump beneath the waters. So we just sat around waiting some more.

Soon updates came through of more problems. Turned out Raul not only owned the other lodge we were going to stay at originally but also the boats. So we now had no means of transportation. Tony, the guide for the other group, was going to go to the village down the river to see if anyone would rent boats for us to use. Raul also had much of the food and the cooks for us. So they were going to also go to village to try to hire a cook for us. Finally, Raul was supposed to be our guide and since he was now out of the picture we had no one to take us around anywhere. They were working on finding a cell phone and reception to make a call back to Iquitos to get a guide for us the next morning.

I was less than thrilled hearing all these updates. Things continued downhill from there as only one boat was able to be located to use. And the boat was so old and run down it was full of holes. This meant constant bailing of water was required when in it to avoid sinking. We got used to having water filling the boat above our ankles at all times and had to switch off turns in scooping it out. We also had to share the boat with the other family since once still hadn’t been found for us.

It also happened to be Saturday night now so all the villagers were out dancing and no one wanted to come work as a cook! The other family didn’t have an issue with this and said they were fine just heating up rice and eating that for dinner. While I didn’t want to be a snob, we had paid a LOT of money for this and one of the things I had read in the reviews was about the great meals provided. I was hungry! I don’t mind cooking myself and doing dishes and everything, but it wasn’t what I had been planning on and was not worth paying so much money for. But that’s what we did, we had plain spaghetti with some chopped up beets we found in the cupboards at this abandoned place and some carrots, onions and tomato that had been brought with us. Tony went out to spear some fish from the river so the others had that as well.

It took quite a while to cook, chop, eat and clean everything. We had only a few knives to work with so it was slow going and I was getting grumpier and grumpier about this whole thing. Tony took us on one walk around the lodge (since the boat situation was still up in the air) and that was cool, but he was the guide for the other family. They were nice and told us we could tag along with them since we didn’t have one, but they were very interested in learning about plants- I wanted to see animals! After stopping every 5 minutes to discuss the history, life cycle, uses and every possible detail of dozens of plants, I was pretty much done. It was dark and I was tired of being hot, sweating, having bugs buzzing, being hungry and having no idea if things would improve the next day. The one positive surprise was that the mosquitoes actually weren’t as bad as I was anticipating. Our bug spray worked well and we had treated our clothes before going as well. While they were buzzing and flying around us, at least we weren’t getting eaten alive!

When we finally got the boat we all crammed into it (taking turns bailing) and took a quick trip towards the village. We did see a giant tarantula on our hike to the village and a cayman as well. The village itself was tiny and there was a huge party with tons of loud music and dancing. We stayed a little while to check it out but it wasn’t really anything I was excited about and we headed back after a bit. We were told the next morning would be better! We should have more food, a cook and our guide there by 8:00am. We climbed into our bed wrapped in mosquito netting, still sweating, but thankful the heat had reduced slightly.

Read about the conclusion of our adventure here.

The Amazon jungle is something I have been fascinated with ever since childhood. I loved learning about all the larger than life plants, their dangers and uses, the poison arrow dart frogs, the adorable sloths, everything. I got to do a big project for school on it once and I still remember it to this day! So visiting the jungle in real life was an experience I was so looking forward to. Unfortunately, it went far from according to plan.

Just a disclaimer, this is all 100% true. When we returned back to the States and tried explaining what had happened to our family and friends, there was a lot of confusion and disbelief, but I promise this is an accurate account of our 48 hours in the jungle. We selected a tour agency that had excellent reviews on Trip Advisor. Seriously, everyone loved them from families with kids to couples. These jungle excursions can be really pricy and they had some of the most reasonable prices so I was excited to have found them. Over the months they were always extremely responsive, answering any and all my questions in a very timely manner. In fact, when they learned I was vegetarian they even asked if this meant I also didn’t eat eggs! Finding a company that was that detail oriented and careful in wanting to make sure they had things set up perfectly for their guests really impressed me and I felt great about spending the almost $500 for Pablo and I to spend 3 days with them touring the jungle.

Iquitos is the launching point for the jungle tours, but it still is quite a ways away. The company arranged for vans to drive us to the port area about 1.5-2 hours away. From there it was around another 3 hours down the river to get into the depths of the jungle. The boats move very very slowly so this was a long and boring trip sitting on it for 3 hours floating on the water. There’s not a whole lot to see for most of the way as you have to go pretty far before the jungle starts. But we did see some pink dolphins far out in the distance doing a couple jumps at one point! Not close enough for a photo though.

We were traveling out to the jungle lodge to spend 2 nights/3 days there. There was another family traveling out with us at the same time as well but these guys were staying for 10 days! They were scientists from Israel who studied plants and their medicinal uses and it was a family of 6 including parents, aunts and kids our age. They were so so excited to be doing this, they were even going to camp in the middle of the jungle for a few nights so they could have more time there seeing things. I had decided to pass on that option since the idea of sleeping in hammock and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes all night did not appeal to me. We opted to stay at the lodge for our sleeping instead.

Needless to say they were very enthusiastic about this trip and ready for hard core roughing it. I, on the other hand, was excited, but after paying so much money had high expectations of the whole experience. Pablo and I were set to have our own guide and boat to navigate around and the other family would have their own guide and boat as well. We chatted with them during our hours on the river as we made our way towards the lodge to meet our guides.

Shortly after we finally arrived things began going downhill. Our “lodge” was filthy- I mean really filthy. I admit I’m a bit of a clean freak and I was prepared to be in a bit of a an adventurous location in the jungle but there were dead bugs everywhere. Our room was completed screened in with mosquito netting to keep the bugs out and the mosquito netting on the ceiling was full of dead bugs everywhere. I was really really not happy about it but we were 5 hours from civilization so there was not much to do at that point. At least our primitive bathroom looked clean enough.

We were told we were going to each lunch and then head out with our guide, Raul, to look for some animals. We ended up waiting over an hour as lunch was prepared which was frustrating to me as we wasted time but it’s definitely not uncommon in Latin American cultures for things to fall behind schedule. We sat around in hammocks while we waited, pouring sweat from the humidity and heat (no fans or a/c in the jungle!).

Soon we realized something was up. Our tour organizer who had brought us out was in a big argument with the lodge owner, Raul, who was supposed to be our guide. Apparently Raul had been stealing customers from the company and pocketing the profits for himself. This resulted in overbooking at the lodge and some of the Israeli family members were now sharing rooms rather than having the ones they reserved. It was a major mess as the tour company was furious and no one knew what to do. There’s hardly any cell reception but someone borrowed a phone and was able to contact the company office back in Iquitos. They had about 5 minutes before the phone battery died and determined that this was not ok and we would not be staying at the lodge. The tour organizer told us to finish our food and pack up. He apologized but explained that this is not the way business can be run and Raul needed to learn. I was totally happy to hear we were moving to a more “luxurious” location and eager to leave all the dead bugs behind. Little did we know our adventures had only just begun.

Read about part II here.

And read about the conclusion to our adventure here.

Iquitos itself is not the nicest city to visit. And the Belen part is perhaps the most famous part of the city for its poverty. We had not originally planned on visiting it but after our change of plans with our Amazon jungle tour we found ourselves with an extra day in Iquitos and decided to add it to the list.

There are two main parts of Belen to see- the neighborhoods with floating houses and the market. I had read a lot of mixed reviews online saying how dangerous it can be in Belen and to never go there without a guide. They went so far as to say avoid all contact when there, for sure leave all money and bags at home and don’t even bother bringing a camera of phone to take photos unless you wanted it stolen. Pablo and I aren’t usually very intimidated by these sorts of reviews and scenarios, we’ve never had a problem with any sort of theft during our travels. But after spending a few days in Iquitos itself I already didn’t feel the most comfortable there and we agreed that if we were going to go to the rather bad parts of the city it was probably better to play it safe this time around. We tried looking online for guides to hire but couldn’t find very much information at all. So we decided to ask the front desk of our hotel for advice. The woman working there said she knew someone who took tourists to Belen and within 15 minutes he had arrived at the hotel ready to take us.

We hopped into his motortaxi and off we went to visit the neighborhood first. He told us that it’s not smart to be in the area after 3:00pm, so if you do plan to go make sure it’s early in the day. After that a lot of drug deals start and prostitution is everywhere. Iquitos also has a big problem with child sex trafficking so it was interesting to learn all about Belen but also very sad. The homes are in such disarray it was by far the poorest area I’ve ever seen, even more so than my time as a missionary in Honduras. Children seemed happy enough all laughing and waving and smiling as we passed, but everywhere was just covered in piles of garbage. It smelled bad and it was difficult wading through the garbage at times. We made our way on foot towards the waterfront where our guide got us a canoe to take us around to see the neighborhood.

The homes are built on stilts so that they can raise with the river during the rainy season. We were there during the dry season so nothing was up too high, but it was interesting to see how they were tied on to the poles. Water levels raise by many feet and at that time it’s really only possible to navigate the town by boat. We passed by so many homes that looked like they could fall to pieces at any moment, churches built right on the water and even some “grocery stores” with food being sold out of canoes. Floating gas stations are available all along the way as well. It was quite the cultural experience to see, though not something I’d like to return to.

From there we hopped back in the motortaxi and made our way to Belen market. If you’ve never experienced an open air market in another country, this one could definitely be quite overwhelming. Our guide took us through the part of it, but it was far too large to visit without many hours. It just stretched on and on forever! He made sure to guide us away from the unsafe parts where drugs were being sold and things like that. Walking through the medicinal section was quite educational as it was full of different plants, potions and animal parts believed to heal any ailment you may have. Other sections were full of clothes and shoes and accessories while still others served as the actual food market. We saw everything from the normal fruits and spices to cigarettes being freshly rolled to turtles sliced wide open with their eggs for sale beside them to crocodile (alligator?) heads and tails available for purchase to eat. The smells were strong and the sanitation levels definitely were not. We probably spent about 45 minutes in there and that was enough for me. I was eager for some fresh air and to be away from all the bloody meat by the end of it. Not to mention it was packed with people! Try to get there in the morning before it’s really full if you go to visit.

All in all I would say seeing Belen was a cool aspect of Iquitos because it’s such an important part of the city. But it’s not for the typical tourist and not something I have any desire to go see again. If we were to head back to Iquitos, visiting Belen would be at the bottom of my list. Was it worth it hiring a guide? Honestly, I’m not really sure if we would have been in much danger while in the market. But he was very helpful with navigating around because it was extremely confusing. It wasn’t too expensive, I think maybe around 100 soles, and the peace of mind was worth it to me. So if you do venture out I think I would suggest having a guide for yourself as well.

When researching activities to do in Iquitos, there are really only a handful of suggestions that repeatedly come up. Our main reason for traveling to Iquitos was to use it as a launching point for our Amazon jungle tour. But along the way I also came across information on a rescue center where you can pet and feed manatees! I’m really not a big zoo person at all, but whenever there’s a chance for direct interaction with creatures, I seem to be there! Just check out our experiences swimming with whale sharks in Cancun and playing with monkeys on La Isla de Los Monos, also in Iquitos.

I love manatees and someday I’d like to make it to Florida where you can actually snorkel and swim with them. But in Florida you can’t touch them in the wild, while in Iquitos you can feed them directly! Manatees are an endangered species but this doesn’t mean they are not hunted in the Amazon. When authorities catch poachers who have captured a manatee often times that manatee is in poor health and needs help recovering. This is where the rescue center comes in.

They are a small but mighty group who actually help rescue much more than only manatees. We took the brief tour of their facility and saw otters, birds, turtles and monkeys as well. I was inspired by their work with the locals to educate them on the needs to protect these creatures. For instance, turtles and their eggs are a common food in Peru. But they are harvested so much that it’s threatening the population. Rather than telling people not to eat turtles at all (unlikely to happen), the center helps teach that you should never take a full nest of turtles, always leave some behind so that they can re-populate. They also focus on teaching children as much as possible as they know this is the next generation who will be caring for the wildlife. There are many beliefs in spiritualism among nature and they use this to their advantage. They have a man-made “tree” sculpture that actually “talks” to the children and educates them about responsible use of the environment. This helps to reach the kids on their own level in a way they are accustomed to.

The place is really not all that large and really not much more than an hour is needed. The tour is around 30 minutes and then we probably spent another 20 or so feeding and interacting with the manatees. It’s 20 soles per person to enter and then I think it was around 5 soles to buy the food for the manatees. Manatees are vegetarian so you’ll be feeding them lettuce type leaves. We bought two portions of food as we didn’t have enough with the first one!

The manatees were quite comfortable coming up to be pet as long as there was food for them. Their whiskers were absolutely adorable! And it was funny to see they don’t have teeth (don’t need any since all they eat is leaves!) but instead have one big hard gum to much with. It was such a fun and different experience, it probably won’t be the most thrilling or exciting point of your trip but I definitely would not pass it up if you’re in the area!

Here’s the website for more information: http://www.centroderescateamazonico.com/visitus.php

Note the center has a couple different names and I’m not entirely sure of the difference between them all. The sign there says CREA. The center opens at 9:00am and closes at 3:00pm. On Mondays they are only open Noon-3:00pm so be sure to plan accordingly for when you visit. We went firs thing in the morning and were the first ones there. This was nice so we didn’t have to wait for any other groups to finish feeding before we could. Here are some helpful directions to find this place:

Located at IIAP on the Iquitos-Nauta road. It is easy to find and almost any motokarro taxi driver will know where it is. It should take around 45 minutes to get to the Manatee Center. It’s past the airport so you could try to time this just right to do right before you fly out if you’d like. Basically it goes main area of Iquitos, airport, manatee center.

Can get a motokarro taxi for about 10 soles per hour. Then you dont have to worry about buses, or trying to get a return taxi when out of Iquitos. Buses may be slightly cheaper, I think we paid around 30 soles total for our driver. But it was so convenient and simple to have him take us, wait and then take us right back. I’d definitely recommend it as the buses are crazy.

You can haul them anywhere quite easily and most ‘mototaxistas’ know where the IIAP is. If not, just tell them “kilometer 4.5 on the carretera”. The ride from Iquitos should not cost more than 4 or 5 dollars. Tell the guard at the gate you have come to visit the manatees, and they will show you where to go.