The Jungle

We have spent 10 days in the Amazonian jungle town-Iquitos. Iquitos is one of the biggest cities in the world that is inaccessible by road. One can only fly there or take a god knows how long of a boat journey on the Amazon river to get there. I said god knows because it all depends on the boat, the weather, and all kinds of others variables that you can imagine. Actually, I learned in those short ten days that everything pretty much depends on something else and no matter how much education you have, Iquitos has its own rules for everything ( even for math).


At the beginning of this blog, I would like to write about unusual people we have met in Iquitos. It is not my intention to make fun of them at all, I just want to describe them the way I saw them or heard about them from others.


I liked the description of Iquitos, by the man "who was very hard to listen to". He, told me that Iquitos is like a rollercoaster that the authorities of the United States have declared unsafe.

Soon after arrival we found our favorite hang out, a place in town that served very good coffee and great meals. We heard tons of stories from the owner, "the Texas man." “The Texas man” had his baby picture on the wall of his restaurant. The picture was taken a few hours after he was born, the baby is smiling and visibly showing his middle finger to the camera man. The description under the picture reads "Jerry, born with a real Texas attitude." The next picture is of him, was taken a few years ago with a sign that reads" forget about the dog, be aware of the owner."

Not sure if I described the "Texas men" enough, but for now, you get the picture. At first I was a little afraid of this Texas attitude“ , but I learned to like Jerry a lot and admired him for his strong Texas personality, his ability to take nothing personally, and to be able to manage being honest in such a corrupt society. Even if it literally means to take to court just about every other person in Iquitos, having 25 % of Iquitos population arrested along with some of the judges.

As we were sitting in the Texas bar, or walking around the town we soon noticed a few other characters. The first one worth mentioning was definitely “the parrot man’. He walked the streets up and down bare foot and made a strange loud parrot noise. He would come close to you and start squawking as a parrot. We later observed a police officer talking to him, but yet again he was answering her in his parrot language. I suspect that he could not speak, but he was always happy and smiling while making his noises. Every other person seemed to understand him just fine, but I guess one has to be born in the jungle to decipher that tone.

Then there was a "hairy man". Hairy man, as the name suggests, had very long hair all over his body. Most of the time he would be hanging out on the sidewalk, wearing only shorts. What was interesting about this man, was that he would not move, he occupied an exact space on the street for the whole 10 days we were there ( 1 meter radius). Sometimes we saw him shave using the store window as a reflection. He would just shave random parts of his body, but for the most part he would just stay motionless in the same spot .

Then there was the walking man. Oh man, this guy could walk. He would just speed walk from sunset, until very, very late at night. Not much need to be said about this man, as there was nothing unusual about him expect his fast walk. He even ate while speed walking. He walked so fast that it seemed like he was always either in front of you, behind you or next to you. He was very easily spotted due to his colorful shirt.

Then there was "Johnny." We kind of liked Johnny, he would also walk a lot with his big sign that said that he can read your fortune from hands, cards, and cigarette ashes. We did not have him read our fortune, but he noticed that Todd was wearing a wrist brace, and switched his jobs from the fortune teller to a masseuse and immediately started to massage his arm. From that day on, every time he saw us he was ready to massage Todd’s arm. He was one of the hippies hanging out by the port, kind of an unusual character but nice in his own way. He told us that his house collapsed when the Amazon river rose . We have learned that the river fluctuates about 15 meters during the year. Therefore, he is trying to make living as a fortune teller, before he was a jewelry maker.

Then there was 'Johnny’s father". He had fathered 9 children, 8 daughters and Johnny. He was supposedly a well known Amazonian guide. He spoke very good English but his voice sounded machine like, and a little scary. I almost took a trip with him, as he promised me to see the real jungle, not only the "stupid shows for gringos". However, his offer to sleep in his house a day before somewhat freaked me out and I backed out of the deal. Don't take me wrong maybe this is totally normal by jungle standards.

Then there was a women called "Aura", I kind of liked her, she reminded me of a real gypsy. She was this cute little thing, wearing the brightest colors you can imagine. Wrapped tightly in a sarong highlighting all of her bulges. Not sure what her job was, but she turned out to be the only real estate agent in Iquitos. Todd was looking at some buildings so she went with us. She of course liked the brightest pinkish tiles you can imagine on the houses and strange little decorations , such as turquoise unicorns. Anyway, the Texas man called her “the Englishman ‘s sexcretary” and stated that he had her arrested too and that she will go to jail soon. He and the Texas man had a tense relationship and every time they passed each other on the streets they would show each other the finger. According to the Texas man, she practices witchcraft as he could see her everyday in the balcony with voodoo dolls cursing his business and his marriage.

Then there was the scooter lady. We came to her store to rent scooters to see the outskirts of Iquitos and she told us that the price is 8 soles per hour. We came back 9 hours later and she said that we owe her 46 soles. So I wanted to give her a couple more chances and said 8 times 9 is and she replied 46 again. I smiled at her , and she got little mad, she pulled her calculator out, enters the numbers right in front of my eyes- 9 times 8 and the calculator shows 46. I figure that must be some kind of new jungle math and I decided to pay her what she wanted as it worked just fine for us.

That's about it I can think of for the moment so I will turn the computer to Todd to add some more stuff I have forgotten about, and then I will write a little more about the jungle children. The kids out there are soooooooooo beautiful.

Hello everyone, Todd here, stuck in the middle again this time in Kristi's jungle blog. So Kristi has said a few words about some of the locals. check out this link to see why some of the tourists are here.
http://www.iquitostimes.com/nunu.htm

Oh Iquitos! what an amazing place. It seemed to be as someone mentioned, suspended in time 60 years ago. Wooden buses, tuk tuks everywhere and of course Gustave Eifels Casa di Hiero or iron building sits on the main plaza. It was made in Europe and like everything else brought up the river. Many of the other buildings have facades of imported tile brought in by the rubber barrons at the turn of the last century. One of the most famous barron, Fitzcaraldo called this place home also. In fact you can still have lunch in his old warehouse. Iquitos is like New York City for the jungle. It is the largest city in the world that can not be accesed by any road.

From the moment you prepare to leave and find out that because of the buzzards on the runway there are no flights between the hours of 9 am and 6 pm you realize this place is different. Five hundred thousand call this town home but there are only 100 kilometers of improved roads in the vicinity. It sits on a tributary of the Amazon river with traffic of all sorts motoring by. From large cargo, to longtail transport boats to small paddle from the front canoes. Anything that will float is used to move he, she or it up or downstream. People, produce and cargo move rythymically in and out of Iquitos ports.

The river itself moves up and down quite substantially. With 20 or 23 percent of the worlds freshwater this river has flow and flow she does. We heard vaious numbers but the level flucuates by 20 or so feet from the dry to the rainy season. We even heard that at times it has moved up 50 feet. So there is this phenomenom true only in the Amazon. That is where rivers that are feeding the Amazon can flow both directions once the volume of water in its basin reaches a certain level. Then as the water drains to the Atlantic the correct river flows are restored.

In the markets in Iquitos one can find just about anything that you would like. Maybe you wouldn't like it! Who knows! Common fruits (15 types of bananas, one tastes like a potatoe) to

fruits that look so unusual but taste so wonderfull , regular river fish alongside Piranha, meats from any and every type of mammal that ever made a footprint even jaguar, vegetables and yes 58 varieties of potatoes, aligator and monkey meat (how could you?), spices dry and wet, beans up the wing, wang, woo, amulets, medicinal treatments for " well what kind of problem are you having", hair loss, weight loss, girlfriend loss, torn this torn that, dysfunction of any internal part of the body and enlargement of some external parts also. I had to have another leg sewn onto my pants because I drank the wrong elixir! It said something about an elephant trunk. But my spanish is getting better.

In the middle of the main plaza in Iquitos, proudly stands their tallest building. All fifteen stories equipped with the latest digital and cellular towers atop. Built in the 70's she sits unfinished still. Seems that a drug dealer had it seized from him after his drug arrest and the current revenue from the communication towers goes to the police ,so there she sits. A pretty blue with trees growing out of it. No windows or doors, rain water washes in on the top floor to the bottom where a lonely guard trys to protect himself from the rain. One thousand years from now as they are pulling the jungle away from the blue building, one archaeoligist will say to the other. "do you think a drug lord used to live here?"

There is also the golf course. Dubbed as the only opportunity to play golf in the jungle anywhere in the world. A sign warns you that if your ball goes into the water "just forget about it''. Evidently one northern golfer tried retrieving his ball from a small school of piranna's. When he cries out fore today he is just counting his fingers.

Then of course there is the butterfly farm, the endangered manatee habitat and a great zoo. All mixed into a local color and beat that thrives at 95/90. That's 95 F. and 90% humidity. I sweat so much in Iquitos I was emptying my boots out three times a day.

While here we went upriver about 5 hours by boat/bus, dugout, to a small jungle lodge. The lodge was rustic but we ate the best fresh jungle food we have had. We fished, traipsed thru the jungle swatted at flying insects that I swear had air traffic control and wondering what was going to eat us that night. In the morning we visited a couple of villages where Kristi did as well with her dart/blow gun as the chief. Three out of three darts on target from 75 feet. The chief said she would make a good tapir killer. When I saw that I knew a marriage proposal was immienent. Kristi would have been number 8. She explained to the chief that many of the animals he hunted were pets or in a zoo in her country. The chief sadly relented at her lack of entusiasim. He just had never seen a chick use a blow gun like that before.

I have to go now. Not for the lack of stories but if I don't let Kristi finish we will never post this blog.

Ok, here I am again. The city of Belen a part of Iquitos is probably the most (not sure which word I should use) “oh my gosh” city we have ever visited. Just like I mentioned before the water fluctuates about 15 meters during a year so the houses are all built on stilts. Some are just built as floating houses on rafts and they rise and fall with the water. There is about 20,000 people living in Belem and it seems like 15,000 of them are children. There are children everywhere. There seems to be a certain pride for living in Belem. They said that Belem is like Venice, Italy.

When the water is low, there are sidewalks, a soccer field, basketball courts and street markets and vendors. When the water is high they use canoes, kids are playing on the boats or in the water. They use the water to wash their clothes in, to bathe, and to cook their meals with. Unfortunately, there is no canalization or sewer system so the waste from the bathrooms goes right to the water as well. The water moves by quickly though. However, they all were very nice, smiling at us and waving at us as we were passing by.

We were fortunate to help out a wonderful young women Natalie, who was a social worker andwe spent an afternoon with some children. We helped make mother’s day cards for their mothers. It was a lot of fun, hard work and by the end of the day we were so exhausted. Check the Jungle kids Picassa album to see how gorgeous they are, as the description does not do it justice.

We have also visited an orphanage in Iquitos called Santa Monica. They have this amazing system of “houses” that I have never seen anywhere else, except Slovakia. The kids live together in a house that simulates a family environment. The older ones are taught to take care of the younger ones just like in a regular family. Each house has one “mama” who works 6 days straight and has one day off. We met several mama’s and if you could embody an angel that is how I would describe them. The stories we heard were heartbreaking, but luckily at least for now the kids were in good hands. The children there gave me the biggest and the strongest hugs anyone ever gave me. That kind, you will always remember.

Even though we really had lot of fun in Iquitos, there was also a lot of sadness to see so many street kids, asking for food and money. We later learned that most of them are using the ‘base de coca’, which is like the byproduct from making cocaine from coca. Pasta de coca is even worse than crack cocaine. This base de coca is very very cheap $ 0.33 cents, but very, very damaging to children’s little brains.

La Restinga is a great organization who is doing their best to educate children about their human rights. If you ever go to Iquitos have a good meal in the Yellow Rose of Texas restaurant (you can even show Jerry your middle finger at your own risk) and check out some volunteering opportunities with La Restinga.

See y'all,

Kristi

Don't forget to watch the videos!!