Andres met me at the airport and we went to his house by car, not copter, thank goodness. Sonia was at the beach visiting one of the girls. She's on a lot of morphine and steroids but is feeling a lot better because of a recent course of chemotherapy. Andres said it is better that I not see her and remember her as she was.
We took a short swim in his pool, which gave me the idea of the glass fence, and I saw Teri for a few minutes. She works for the equivalent of Teach for America in Chile.
The Lima Tours rep met me in Lima and took me to the Swissotel to meet Connie via a sketchy route to avoid all the people going to discos. The city appeared to me to be crowded, run down, trashy, and not appealing. As one Peruvian said, traffic rules are suggestions only. Another one said they enjoy the stop lights as Xmas decorations only.
Saturday, Jan. 14- Iquitos. We almost missed the plane- so many people in line. IQT is a smaller version of Lima in terms of appearance except everyone gets around by half motorcycles, half backseats of cars. Safety briefing, expedition briefing, great dinner with small portions and many courses and new tastes.
Sunday, Jan. 15- into the Peruvian Amazon nature reserve.
I have no idea what's going on in the NFL or with the ACC basketball season or the political primaries or the markets. A satellite phone would cost $8 a minute when we could get a connection which may be an hour or so a day.
Today we had two outings- the first was up one of the small tributaries off the main Amazon to a water hyacinth carpeted lake (Charo Lake) to fish for piranha- very small, about baby bream size, with an orange throat. The second outing, after lunch and siesta time, was up one of the main tributaries (Nauta Creek) to a black water lake for sunset, mosquito time, and to catch a caiman.
The skiffs we use carry about 8 and are open. There are two guides, Daniel and Ricardo, both Amazonia natives. The other guests are 15 in number, from Boston, NYC, Phoenix, Denver, San Antonio, Spain and Switzerland. About half leave after 3 days and some new ones come on. We have 17 out of 24 max possible. The previous 2 months trips have all been full, and the one after us will be full too, including the boss, so cruise director Christie may be showing increasing anxiety as Saturday approaches.
Daniel gave us an interesting talk about the river dwelling communities- he is number 10 out of 14 children his mother had. The child mortality rate is 60% with most of that in the first 2 years due to parasites from drinking the river water or from snake bites. Speaking of snakes, the guides also told us that it is not unusual for the river people to have a "pet" anaconda that they keep in a sack in the day and then turn loose in the house at night to control rats. I wonder what keeps the anaconda from taking children too.
Daniel is about 55 and said the most important thing he has learned from his tourists is not to have a lot of children. He and his wife of 31 years have two children and a one year old grandchild.
When Fujimori was president, he established a school and a futbol field in each little town. The river people use futbol as a social occasion. Often it is the way boys meet girls to marry. The girls usually marry at about 15 and lots of children follow. Boys are taught to be independent by 10 or 12. There is a lot of population movement to IQT but no room so about 1/10 of the city lives in the Belen district in floating houses (went there the last day).
The Japanese connection to Peru began at the end of the 19th century when Japanese engineers came to Peru to help with irrigation. Many stayed and became Peruvians, and the descendant of one became President.
As for what we saw on the outings- lots of birds, especially hawks, sloths, gray and pink river dolphins, monkeys, red biting ants ( got on board our skiff by bumping into a "punishment tree"), strangler figs, and lots more.
A little more on the geography- I know none of these rivers other than the obvious one, but overnight on the first night we motored up past the Peruvian origin of the river. This is about 100 miles up from Iquitos. The nature preserve is situated between the Ucayali (canoe breaker) and the Maranon (cashew nut). On the way to the lake last night we were in the Yacapana Islands (iguana).
Monday, Jan. 16- we elected to go on the 2 half day outings instead of the full day. I needed that break to catch up and rest. The trips actually started off together for the most part. We traveled up the Yanayacu river which flows into the Maranon. We did not see many new birds but the new ones we saw were spectacular- blue and yellow macaws and the large toucan. We saw more pink dolphins, more monkeys (tamarinds), and somehow found a 4 meter anaconda in the hyacinths. The guides picked it up and brought it onto the skiff. They were sweating a lot as they held it up. Everyone had a great time getting pictures taken with the anaconda.
After another delicious lunch buffet style (Asian theme today), we went out for another boat ride- highlights were more pink dolphins, more monkeys, and a couple of new bird species. As the sun was setting we came upon a Snowy and Great Egrets roost with lots of beautiful white birds flying for the setting sun scene.
Tuesday, Jan. 17- New passengers arrive today, and 7 of our group depart. We are in Nauta, which has about 25,000 people. Seeing electric lights was something new.
Breakfast was served at the junction of the 2 rivers where the Amazon forms. Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru claim the origin of this river, but according to our Peruvian hosts 3 expeditions have confirmed that the mighty (here mighty full of mud and debris) river starts it's 4000 mile journey from the Peruvian Andes (1600 miles upstream from where we are and 2400 miles downstream to the Atlantic).
This is the first of 2 times we interact with some of the locals. We made a short upriver skiff ride and stopped at one of 15 villages (60 people) that Aqua supports along the tributaries. The local band and some dancers met us, and we had a brief but very animated speech in the local language by the village (tribe) elder. She said she was 68 but Daniel said she has been saying she was 68 for the 5 years he has worked on the Aqua. To me she looked younger than 68.
Then we went for about an hour on a hike through the rain forest. It was more humid than a cloudy 100 degree day in Richmond, and mosquitoes were everywhere. We saw paper wasps in their nest, inch long ants that can bite and sting at the same time, a walking stick, and lots of plants the natives used. Everyone was very glad to emerge from the forest into the village (10 huts or so plus a school and a futbol field).
We then did some shopping for native crafts. Connie had accumulated a few chocolates and thought she counted the kids correctly to give one to each, but more found out very quickly (a mini version of the jungle telegraph) and soon she a trail of followers. We left some school supplies like paper and pens and some fishing kits in addition to soaps and shampoos.
During siesta I looked out our window while we were at the dock in town and saw about 7 Black Vultures sitting on the roof of the building across from us. I read in my bird book that these are the refuse collection system in some small towns (very prominent in IQT too).
The afternoon skiff ride with Daniel went across the Maranon from Nauta for about 20 minutes upstream and then into the tributaries which seemed to be more like crossing someone's farm land because the water was so high. This was our best view of monkeys up close and jumping, so far. We also added a couple of smaller birds to the list. I finally figured out that you need to look in the bush for the birds without polarized lenses. I also need better binocs.
Connie skipped this outing.
Jan.18- Yanallpa Stream, an oxbow off the Ucayali River- One of our earlier guides Riccardo left with the 3 day group, but we added Julio and George. This morning we had Julio, who was very good, taking time to spot smaller birds. We also saw a lot of of monkeys of two kinds, a pair of caiman lizards, and a green tree iguana. This trip was in a black water river but the trees came closer to the water. Julio explained a lot about how several of the trees and plants are used by the natives and by the birds and mammals. I like the story of the cacique which builds it's nest near the paper wasp nest so the wasps will keep the predators away from the chicks. If the nest is not near a paper wasp nest, then cowbirds will lay their eggs in there too. Then the baby cowbirds hatch first and eat the maggots that are drawn to the babies of the other species.
For the afternoon, Connie and I and the new US contingent went out with Daniel. We saw a couple of sloths, a perfect view of a Plum-throated Cotinga, and a good view of the Green Kingfisher, but the rain came on so strong we had to cut the outing short (strong is an understatement- everything we had was soaked in spite of wearing ponchos).
Thursday, Jan. 19- Further up the Ucayali River- today we went the farthest upriver we are going to go. We explored a couple of black water, oxbow lakes, then a small village of riberenos, the people who live along the river. The guides said that 70-90% of the diet of these people comes from the river, mostly fish (they eat the bones to get calcium because the soil is so poor). The kids in the small village did not look undernourished, but were scruffy and a bit dirty. They enjoyed shooting sling shots (boys) and the girls liked running up from behind us and "tagging" the strangers.
Then at night time we went looking for caimans and nocturnal creatures. It was quite a surprise to me to find a couple of new bird species with each trip. In addition to caimans we added red howler monkeys and tarantulas to the overall species list.
Friday, Jan. 20- Pacaya River. The morning's skiff ride took us out the Pacaya, then along a narrow shortcut and into a huge oxbow lake. We added Dusky Titi Monkeys (white tails) to the list as well as Amazon Red Squirrels and another few bird species. A light breakfast was served on the lake with a couple of distant pink dolphins as accompaniment. After a little piranha fishing we headed back to the boat just ahead of really hard rain.
It rained most of the afternoon and then the group went to see pink dolphins and possibly swim with them. We passed. They did not swim anyway because of the general color of the water, and possibly the thought of the 18 different kinds of parasites that have been identified in this water.
At lunch we saw Ann for the first time since the third day. She got some kind of bug, probably from some food. Since she has been on the boat, the crew has been nursing her with some meds and lots of chicken soup. She also has spent a lot of time talking to Christy, the hotel manager/ cruise director. One interesting she found out and told us about- the reason we have been carrying a police boat with us this week is that we have 4 policemen aboard. About a year ago the Aqua was the victim of a pirate raid and the pirates cleaned house totally- boat property and passengers' property too.
At dinner I found out Roger, one of the four day people, also has a GI bug.
Saturday, Jan. 21- overnight we cruised back to Iquitos. Today we went to see the floating city, and the Manatee rescue center (they really need to restore the manatee population to clean up the overgrowth of water hyacinths and water lettuce which is choking the oxbow lakes and ponds). These manatees are a different species from the Florida ones, which are born much bigger and weigh more than twice as much as adults.
It is hard to say which was more interesting- the floating city or the manatees. On the way to the floating city, we even added one new species- a brown rice rat sitting on a floating plank, waiting for the plank to bump into a boat it can board and mooch off.
The rest of the day was waiting in line or in a lounge, either sweating or freezing in the AC. I think we got a little sleep on the flight to Miami.
Wow, what a 3 weeks we have had!
See the link for a few more pictures. Additional pictures and https://picasaweb.google.com/103487700054521552182/20120115AquaExpedition?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCN-ko9Slj6_A7wE&feat=directlink
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