Monday, May 27, 2024
If yesterday was all about ‘Out of Africa’, today was reminiscent of ‘The African Queen’ with Bogie and Hepburn.
We woke up about 6 am, having slept super good with our AC and fan. Breakfast starts at 7, so we got ready, and packed our bags to leave.
At 7, we went downstairs for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread, jam, coffee, tea, juice, oatmeal and fruit salad.
After breakfast, we went back to the room for a bit. Nathan is still feeling pretty tired, so he rested. I was preparing to go out to a bank to get smaller bills for our Amazon adventure.
At 8:30, I set off for the nearest bank. I got there about 15 minutes early and ventured into the vestibule. Already a line forming, damn. I had forgotten about the line queues for the bank in other countries. I should have come earlier.
The bank opens at 9 am and Muyuna Amazon Lodge is coming to get us at 9:20.
I got into line, and being the only foreigner, attracted the attention of the security guard. He wanted to know what I needed. I told him I needed smaller bills. He asked how much, and I just replied ‘a lot.’ I later saw him make change for someone else out of his wallet, so perhaps that’s what he was going to do for me as well.
I stood in line for a minute, before the security guard told me to come with him, and he started a new line near the bank door with me. He proceeded to split up the lines, by people who needed quick things and people who would need more time in the bank.
When the bank opened, he let me go in first, and I was able to get my smaller bills and head back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, we grabbed our stuff and headed down to the lobby. Within a few moments, Donaldo, one of the Muyuna guides came and we hopped into the van.
At the Muyuna office, we were briefed about the day ahead, and what to expect at the lodge, and then the other tourists, guides, and Nathan and I all hopped into the van for an hour and a half ride to our boat.
Once at the port, we navigated down some wooden planks and across still more wooden planks to get to our boat. And finally a single wide wooden plank walkway over water while carrying all our belongings – no pressure, but don’t slip or fall! From here it’s 20 minutes on the Amazon River, and an additional 20 minutes on the Yanayacu river where the lodge is.
On the Amazon, we see scenes straight out of ‘The African Queen’ movie. Old boats and ships, overgrown jungle coastline, and brown water. We might as well have been on the Nile.
We arrive at the lodge at about 1:30, receive our welcome drink and sit down to lunch. Chicken, rice, potatoes, and a few other dishes. After lunch, we are given our rubber boots and a small briefing by our guide Francisco. We have until 3 pm to get settled in and rest, and we need to meet back at the dining room with our boots on and bags packed for a jungle hike.
We didn’t take the opportunity to rest, but we did settle into our room. At three, we went down to the dining room, applied some bug spray, and waited for everyone in our group.
We share our guide with a woman from Austria who proves to be quite rude in a group/shared guide setting. We are supposed to hike behind our guide in single file, and common courtesy would have the group members shuffle up every once in a while so everyone got a chance to be at the front of the pack with the guide. Instead, Greta, (not her real name) is hogging the space at the front, and not allowing me to pass her. She’s also stopping frequently to take photos, which is fine, but she’s holding up the line and simultaneously not allowing us in front of her. The worst bit was when Francisco showed us a line of leaf cutter ants. She wouldn’t just take the photo and allow Nathan in to take photos. Instead, she took many photos, using up all of the time the guide allotted, and then only when the guide started moving again, did she get out of the way so Nathan could take a photo. That said, I don’t think she meant to be rude, and she was a nice person, just somewhat oblivious.
Annoying fellow travelers aside, on our hike we saw the smallest monkey, the pygmy marmoset. We also saw a tarantula, capuchin monkeys, a black beetle and its maggot offspring, toxic mushrooms, the bullet ants that get infected with mushroom fungus in their brain, blue morpho butterfly, giant mahogany trees, tree that iodine is made from, acai tree, and the flower of the philodendron.
By 5 pm, we were back at the lodge, and it was time to shower and get ready for dinner, which is served at 7. Once showered, Nathan and I went to the dining room and had happy hour. Camu Camu pisco sours! Dinner was a brothy soup, fish, tostones (fried plantains), with apple crisp for dessert.
After dinner, everyone who ventured to Muyuna today on the boat from Iquitos met up for a night boat ride to see the animals. We saw fireflies, caiman, a few types of snakes, two species of bats, a few sloths, and I spotted a glimpse of the rear end of a capybara, which is very similar to a ROUS, or rodent of unusual size. I hope to see more of them!
After the boat ride, it was time for bed, and Nathan and I turned the fan on and slept like babies.
