Also, it was just Kara's birthday, her 21st! Somehow we pulled right up to the university as we counted down from ten and the clock hit midnight, marking the beginning of what is sure to be an AWESOME birthday-day.
Our trip began last Thursday, when we successfully left an incredibly foggy Lima and arrived in Iquitos, a city of several hundreds of thousands of people that is actually the largest city without road access. The only way in is a plane or a boat. Some people say once a guy got there with pixie dust and happy thoughts but that sounds pretty outlandish to me.
Iquitos was exciting personally because I had heard of a University of Texas alum who had started a restaurant in the city called The Yellow Rose of Texas, and in the back of my mind for the entire trip I had planned on visiting it. The thing with being a Texan is that every now and then I just need to talk to someone about the homeland, reflect on our status as the Most Glorious State in the Union while also chuckling warmly about the fact that we are a country on our own, with an optional bashing session on other respectable but inherently inferior states, before moving on to the inevitable talk of football, something I could not wait for.
We left the airport and met our guide and headed towards the city. We learned that there is very little crime, and I began to feel a sense of isolation from the rest of the world, but in a good way, a way that made me feel like the world was a little different here. We neared the Plaza del Armas and down a street adjacent to the plaza I saw the restaurant, adorned with regalia from my rival school. I was floored. I had also heard that there were respectable heladerias around the plaza and my mind was set: Texas restaurant and ice cream were the main attractions for the afternoon.
We checked in at the hotel, Henry and I chilled in our room for a minutito, and we were off. We assembled the gringo parade and embarked towards the plaza. I got to the Yellow Rose first and talked with the staff for a bit, realizing that Mr. Gerald was sleeping upstairs. I asked if I could just walk around the inside of the restaurant. The rest of the group turned the corner and were waiting outside on the sidewalk, and were probably a little disturbed when they saw me gazing at the walls full of Texas mementos and memorabilia, all googly-eyed, maybe tearing up a little (*editor's note: the writer is actually too chock-full of testosterone for his body to produce tears. However, missing Texas is a perfectly manly and acceptable thing to cry about.).
I finished my reminiscing and we went to a fastfood burger place along the plaza, where we got all kinds of new food, including camu camu juice which was an electric pink color with a tastelike a sugar shock. I was quite impressed. After dinner most of the rest of the group went out to a kareoke bar, but I went to assuage my eternal vice and ate some ice cream with Maria Elena, our ISA mom. We walked back to the hotel and talked for a good while, and she told me of her experiences working back in the States and how hard it was to be away from her two sons. She eventually decided to come back and be with them, and I got to hear about a good number of jobs she had before her current one as the resident ISA angel. It was nice getting to know her story a little, and I felt priveleged being able to hang out with her.
Friday
Woke up at 8am and everyone was still asleep from the club the night before. Maria Elena and I took a moto-taxi, aka a taxi motorcycle-turned-tricycle with a bench seat on the back, to Belen, a town that Maria Elena said represented the mental image she had of Iquitos. Belen was a city on the outskirts of the central part of town, and was made up of wooden house, the majority of which were built on floating platforms. The area was one of extreme poverty. We hired a small canoe and the two of us and our moto-taxi driver went through the little village as he explained to us the history of the area and how the people got by day to day. I was really interested and wanted to see it, but I hate the feeling of being such a tourist, tramping through people's lives and looking at their livelihood through such distant eyes; it makes it hard not to feel uncomfortable and a little self-repulsed. It was such a new experience though, motoring in the little boat through the floating village, in a city without roads to the outside world, quietly nestled in the Amazon.
We finished our tour and went on a short drive through upper Belen, the part on land, and then the driver took us to the Yellow Rose where I was able to meet the owner Gerald and talk to him abow-ut Texan thangs fer a why-ul, as he'd say. Long live the Lone Star. He made an Aggie joke and I didn't even mind.
Maria Elena and I went back to the hotel, and everyone gathered to set out for the jungle. We carried our bags a couple of blocks to the river and hopped in a boat and were off. Not thirty minutes into the ride we encountered our first wonder of nature, the Amazonian river dolphin. I am mildly embarassed in a kind of proud way that as soon as I first saw the fin I, along with a handful of others on the boat, calmly brought it the attention of the rest that there was a DOLFINDOLFINDOLFINDOLFIN!!! in the water. After making sure that I hadn't peed my pants I was astounded when we saw a pink Amazon dolphin jump out of the water. When I was in Brazil we were on the river for ten days and never saw a pink dolphin show itself like that one did. We followed the dolphins around for twenty minutes or so in what was similar to a seven-year-olds-at-the-zoo-wired-and-impossibly-excited kind of euphoria, and got some good views of gray ones swimming and a couple brief glimpses of pink ones as well.
We got to the lodge and relaxed in hammocks. My life was complete. In the back of my mind there is a part of me that is forever pointing me towards a very simple goal, wherever I happen to be, and the objective is to find a hammock, and get in it. Also, the lodge had very soft toilet paper. Livin the life.
We went to visit a shaman that afternoon and learned a lot about local herbal medicines, and also got to sample a good number of drinks, my personal favorite being the Siete Raices. We went out that night and listened to the noises the jungle made. The moon was so bright we couldn't see many stars. A bunch of us sat together in the lodge dining room and played a game where two teams were given one word (like blue, tears, shampoo, etc.) and had to find songs that had the word in the lyrics, the title, or the band name, and then sing two lines of the song with the name and the artist or sing enough of the song to show they knew it. One team would give their song, then the next would answer, etc. It was a pretty fun game. We got competitive.
Saturday
We woke up early and went out on the river, in search of more dolphins. Saw a few, but not as spectactular as the first day. We did some other stuff but it kind of blends together. I know we went to this one spot to look at something, a bird I think, and then on the way back we jumped in the water and swam around in the Amazon. Some of us took pictures proudly holding our undergarments above our heads. Proud moment. Can't wait for the pics.
After our swim we went to see a gigantic tree, and upon arrival we suddenly heard a WHACK! WHACKWHACKWHACK! from the front of the boat, where a guide on the front killed a poisonous snake that was chilling on a tree we pulled up next too. The group took pictures and talked about how we could have died.
We went back to the hotel and ate lunch. I look forward to meals more than anything else. I love food. We unsuccessfully fished for piranas later; Hannah caught one, and Caroline caught three but all of them jumped off her hook as she was pulling them from the water. We spent the night in the lodge dining room again, this time just talking and trading hilarious stories, gruesome stories, and finally scary stories, which is a great idea to do when in the middle of the jungle in a hotel with lanterns for lights. We all went to our rooms a bit shaky and wishing we had some sort of cuddly stuffed friend to keep us safe. It was a bittersweet night, the last we would spend together as a group on an excursion; we bowed out humbly, without being over-conscious of the fact that our trip is very quickly winding down, simply enjoying the company of good friends while making some pretty sweet memories.
Sunday
In the morning we went to birdwatch somemore, I think. Then we went to a little village where we got to shoot a blowgun and watch a traditional dance. A bunch of the people in the group bought blowguns. Some bought four.
We had an amazing lunch: fried banana chips, fried yucca, fish, lentils. We headed back to Iquitos after a short nap-time.
We shopped around in Iquitos and Henry and I were very close to getting tattoos. I finally realized what I want to get for my Peru tattoo - a llama on the right buttcheek. Ashley did not approve in the least bit. As the co-founding member of the Hey Let's Get Tattoos In Peru club she does hold some sway, but a llama on the butt cheek has the potential to be talked about even by friends of friend's cousins.
We ate at Yellow Rose at my Texas restaurant and all was well.
On the plane ride home, Corey and Henry and I sat in a row. We were...pungeant. We watched the hilarious gag reels videos that they play on flights, the videos from Canada. Those videos have single-handedly made me think Canada is awesome.
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