Trip to Iquitos

I have quite a lot to report since the last update. I and 3 other volunteers made a trip to a city called Iquitos in the Amazon jungle. It was quite a journey getting there. First it took 24hours on a bus from Trujillo to a place called Tarapoto. This was followed by a 4 hour car journey to a place called Urimaguas on a treacherous road at night.

We stayed a night in Urimaguas and then got the boat to Iquitos. This was a 3 day boat trip. There wasn’t much to do on the boat except play poker and listen to music. The food on the boat was really good. You actually had to buy a hamac for the boat to sleep on which was cool. Here is mine:

We then arrived in Iquitos and we were met by an ex-SKIP volunteer called Felipe. He helped us out a lot and got us sorted with a place to stay.

When we in Iquitos we made a trip to the Amazon. We spent 3 days there and took many excursions. We saw many cool animals including monkeys, snakes and many beautiful birds. Hera re a few photos of us trekking and canoeing:

Our first night in Iquitos we tried Ayahuashca. It is a drink made from special plants from the Amazon and is a strong hallucinogenic. It was the most incredible night of my life. I never thought experiences like that existed. We did it under the supervision of an experienced Shaman and with Felipe there. It really is an experience that words could not do justice to.

We also visited a butterfly farm in Iquitos. That doesn’t sound exciting but actually turned out to be really interesting. There they had many other cool animals. They had an anteater and a jaguar. Jaguars are a really impressive animal. Here is a photo of the entrance to the farm. The owner has a monkey wrapped around her head:
After Iquitos, we flew to Lima. We spent one day there and then got the night bus back to Trujillo. The entire trip took 13 days and was really worth it.

I don’t think I will do anymore travelling when I am here in Peru. I think I will be the only person to come to Peru for 5 months and not visit Cusco and not do the Inca Trail. Apparently it is really expensive and to be honest I am not that intrigued by it. I intend to return to Peru in the future so maybe I will do it then.

I have 3 more weeks of teaching to do. The week before I left for Iquitos we taught the kids about there favourite animals. This week we are going to teach them about the family. I had my inter-cambio this week again with Tatiana. My Spanish has reached a low plateau! I don’t have as much time as I use to learn and feel I am not progressing as much as I would like to.

When I was in Iquitos I took one day to organise what I am going to do after Peru. I am going to work in an orphanage in Kenya with a friend of mine. It will only be for about 2 months as I have a job in England to start in September.

That’s about it for this update. As always, any questions let me know. My email is m1572202@qub.ac.uk

Adios

Joseph