Life Lessons from the Amazon

(note: the internet sucks in Iquitos and the spell check is in spanish. Why is punctuation so difficult on this peruvian keyboard?!@#. be forgiving)

1) Trust your Instincts.
It seems counter intuitive that its hard to find a good person to book an excursion with when everywhere you go, people throw flyers in your face, tried to pull you into their expedition offices, or herd you toward the river to go for a tour in some boat. There really isn't one 'great' company that offers tours and everyone seems to have a different opinion on who is best. I may not even need to mention the bounty of sketchy ones in the mix too. So how did I choose? Well, I rely very heavily on my instincts and they have yet to fail me on this trip so far. I talked for a few minutes with the friend of the person who owns the hostel I was staying at, Alex. He supposedly co-owns a lodge down the Yarapa River and contracts with freelance guides to lead excursions into the jungle. Despite the underlying sketchiness of the whole exchange (typical Peru), I got good vibes about the situation. So there I was ... locked into 5 days in the Amazon!
My instincts basically rock. I had an amazing time and probably had one of the best guides in all of Peru!

Larry grew up in the jungle and spoke quite a bit of English. He knew the name of almost every specie we

came across (both plants and animals alike), which is a rather difficult task considering how many things actually live in the Amazon. He could make the sounds of dozens of different animals and recognize a hundred more. He knew what was ok to eat out of the jungle, and more importantly the things that could kill you. He knew so much about the medicinal qualities of the plants around us, something that is absolutely fascinating to me. He was absolutely fearless - climbing trees and picking up all sorts of critters. He was amazing at spotting animals in the jungle, including the most camouflaged ones. Basically he was an overall jungle badass, which I'm sure we will discuss more further on in this post. Larry and I paired up with Bjorn (a 22 year old from Sweden) and his guide, Carlos. The more the merrier when you're romping in the jungle! Carlos grew up in the jungle too and was a very skilled fisherman, so he was also an invaluable resource. Go team! I most definitely would have died without them.
There were most definitely times that I second guessed my instincts, however. The whole expedition thing seemed a little sketchy, but I just kept going along with it. The taxi stopped off somewhere outside of Iquitos, an unfamilar face came up to the taxi and took my big backpack out of the back of the car, and disappeared into the streets with it after muttering 'safe storage, yah?" in spanish. Did my luggage just get stolen? Well, nothing I can do about it now! After the 2 hour ride, the taxi dropped us off in Narca, and I had one simple job of following a person to the ports. Oh man! He moved so fast through the streets and gracefully navigated a crowded market along the river. I was running to keep up with him and on several occasions completely lost sight of him. I had no idea where I was, I was the only gringo around, and spanish wasn't even the primary language of where I was. Thankfully I'm tall (at least compared to Peruvians) so I was able to catch glimpses of the person I was supposed to be following. We came up to the ports and a different person approached me, took my backpack out of my hands, and jumped onto a boat. Logically I followed for fear of being separated from the last of my possessions, but i didn't recognize anyone I was with and really had no idea what happening. We waited for half an hour in the boat, and then Alex appeared to send us off! Oh, what a relief. 3 hours down the Yarapa river and several turns down various tributaries later, we came across Alex's lodge. Sigh.

2) Goodbyes Suck.
Yep, especially when its super early in the morning. I had to meet a taxi outside of my hostel at 6:45am, which made for an even earlier farewell to Matt. It feels like we've known each other for years! I guess we did spend every second together for over 2 weeks while we braved the backpacking life in a strange part of the world. We shared some pretty intense highs (like watching the moon rise in the heart of the Andes while on the Santa Cruz) and lows (like the bout of altitude sickness that knocked us out for 2 days) together. We conquered the city, ocean, mountains, the amazon, and everything in between. I'm really excited about the life changing adventures Matt has in store for the next 3 months and can't wait to hear updates. Even though we had to part ways when our adventures were only beginning, I'm certain our paths will cross again very soon. It feels like there is too much business left undone, ya know?
Matt walked with me down to the taxi and just like that - A hug, a kiss, and an ''I love you' later - he was gone. I was in the back corner of the taxi watching in a daze as we darted through the mototaxi traffic of Iquitos' streets. Oh, the bittersweet backpacker mentality. Bah humbug. I could hardly be sad, though. I got to meet and travel with an incredible person AND DUUUH I was on my way into the amazon jungle for 5 days!

3) Roughin' it in the Amazon is whole new  kind of Rustic.
The Lodge was a pleasant sight simply because all I had seen for hours was jungle and water. It was propped up on stilts over the water, and had the typical palm leaf roof. The floors were wooden boards that connected the 'rooms' of the lodge. There were 3 'rooms' with 'beds' that were enclosed in mosquito nets. My bed was balanced on 2 planks of wood, and I could see down to the water below. Yeesh, gotta watch my step around this place! At night I could hear fish jumping out of the water below - that was pretty cool! The bathroom was pretty interesting. It took a balancing act to walk across a plank to a curtained off area of the lodge. There was in fact a toilet (without a seat - extremely common all over Peru) and flushing involved dumping a bucket of river water into the bowl, which flushed right back into the river. Luxurious!
And I'm not being factious. I camped for 2 of the nights instead of staying in the lodge because I couldn't resist the opportunity to camp in the Amazon. I think Larry was rather surprised the gringa from America was so stoked about camping. But I think it was just my ignorance that got in the way of how intense camping in the jungle really is. We set up hammocks between 2 ant covered trees and enclosed them in the mosquito nets. You can't sleep on the ground in the amazon, for very obvious reasons. We had a campfire, but it wasn't like ones you have when you camp in the states. It is simply for cooking food. By no means can you sit around it to enjoy it; the risk of sitting on a tarantula, scorpion, or some other poisonous thing is way too great. i watched in awe as a a giant snake moved through our campsite, bugs crawled on anything and everything around, and a giant spiky turtle wandered under my hammock.
The heat and humidity is inescapable in the Amazon. Regardless, I was walking around in boots, long

Here was home for 2 nights!

sleeves, even with a hood at times so I didn't get eaten alive. This made the hammock quite a blessing. Safely inside the mosquito net, I could strip down to shorts and sports bra, and sleep peacefully as a sweaty, damp, deet burrito. It was kinda terrifying at times to hear hundreds of bugs flying to the net with full intentions of eating me alive. You could see the proboscises of hundreds of mosquitoes sticking through holes in the mesh and silhouettes of giant spiders hanging onto the walls of the net. So there I was, in my bug free bubble, dangling in the pitch black of the Amazon Jungle, thankful my sleep walking days are over. The sound of the Amazon is so LOUD at all times, especially at night. In fact, I think it was arguably louder than the streets of Lima. The monkeys, the insects, the frogs, the birds, even the fish - EVERYTHING MADE SOUND. What a surreal experience to be in the heart of the symphony for 5 days.
So just to up the ante on my hardcore factor, I would like to mention that I bathed in the river every day. Yes, the same river we fished piranhas out of. The same river which a local fisherman pulled an anaconda out of his fishing net 2 days ago. The same river with electric eels and sting rays. The same river you couldn't see any further than a few inches under the surface. Ah, so fresh and so clean clean!

4) Surrender to the Jungle.
I was such a jungle clutz my first day or two in the Amazon! I was still getting used to the fact that at any given point in time, there are just always bugs crawling on you. I would freak out and quickly flick them off, grabbing for more bug spray. I had a very humbling realization when I felt a giant spider drop onto my back from above, I flicked it into the river with full intentions of drowning it, and it proceeded to run on the water back toward the boat. Yes, it seems as though everything can fly, swim, and crawl in the amazon. EW
My muck boots were a size too big, which didn't make it any easier to get unstuck from the muddy swamps we were romping in. I would get stuck, loose my balance (and then a boot), and instinctively grab onto a tree for support. I would then be borderline helplessly panicked as i stood with my foot submerged in the mud as a snake slithered past, mosquitoes swarmed the rare opportunity to devour an inanimate mammal, and an army of ants crawled down my arm from the tree I grabbed onto. Awesome. I'm very thankful that I'm so good at laughing at these kinds of situations because I most definitely would have not survived another minute in the jungle.
The amazon is in the tail end of the wet season right now so it is effectively one big swamp. We spent a lot of time exploring in the canoe, because that was the only way to get around most of the time. This isn't much safer than going on foot because more often than not we were brushing up against the foliage that delivered a mighty interesting collection of bugs into the boat.
If only I had a dime for every time Larry would point at something as and say "This is poisonous." Yes, I was always within inches of something that could kill me, but that is not to say that everything will kill me. What a relief to come to terms with the fact that not everything was out to get me and I could peacefully coexist with so many 'dangerous' plants and animals. Surrendering to the Jungle! I would still get the heebeejeebees sometimes when I would see a wasp the size of a softball or an ant hill the size of my old apartment, but I was able to really relax and take in the wonders of the jungle. Now its just kind of funny that my mother is so terrified about me getting kidnapped when in reality I'm hours away from anyone who wants to hurt me and am always within arms reach something that can kill me.

5) You Just can't see it all.
Pink dolphins swam next to our canoe every single day. Brightly colored birds flew overhead, and hundreds of butterflies danced around the foliage. The thunderstorms would leave giant, brilliant rainbows across the sky. Monkeys swung through the canopy above. No matter where I directed my gaze, there was always something incredible and beautiful to see! I gave up on trying to take pictures of all of it because they really just don't do it justice. I chose to rather take it all in, so I apologize for the lack of pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it :) It's everything I imagined a tropical rainforest to be and more!
I probably saw the tiniest fraction of the species that I actually passed by. It seems that every living thing has either remarkable camouflage abilities or remarkable coloring. Larry was far better at spotting critters than I was. There was one time we were out in the canoe at night, exploring the nocturnal life of the jungle. Larry

Alligator that Larry caught

turns around slowly and goes, "quiet and don't move." He turned off his flashlight and started delicately paddling in the canoe. I was just sitting there in the boat, trying so hard to contain the excitement and curiosity bubbling inside. Something about our nighttime adventures tapped far into my inner child - I loved it! I heard a big splash, the boat rocked to one side, and Larry popped his flashlight back on. And there he was, dangling over the front of the boat, holding a baby alligator! WAH! Unbelievable!
This wasn't unusual for Larry, either. He was constantly finding critters! We took the canoe into to bush one day and anchored it between the roots of a saber tree. He started to make the mating calls for different species of monkeys. I was a little nervous about this, because I'm not sure what exactly I would do if a bunch of monkeys came down from the trees

A spider monkey and a capuchin monkey

and started trying to mate with Larry. Thankfully, we didn't have to go there. Within minutes, branches of the canopy began rustling and 2 spider monkeys swung their way right over to us! Ermergerd they are freakishly cute! A howler monkey and a capuchin monkey were soon to follow - man, they are curious little guys! We fed them bananas that we collected from a tree about half an hour before, which made me a little nervous to have my fingers so close to a wild animals teeth. Too late for a rabies vaccine, so glad I didn't get bit! That little devil turned out to be a clepto monkey as well. He grabbed the container of instant coffee out of the boat and ran up a tree with it. He proceeded to bang it again the branch until it opened and then he chattered away about his great find. Cool, Amazon Katie - caffeinating amazon wildlife one monkey at a time! Oops.
Larry asked me on the way back to camp if I wanted to hold a sloth. Uh duh, YES! I turned around in the boat, only to realize Larry was now climbing up the trunk of tree with a machete. Oh dear lord - now I was

Me and the sloth!

in a canoe by myself, in the jungle, and Larry was 40 feet above me in some tree. My life. He started hacking

away at a branch that a sloth was on, but had to stop frequently so he could acknowledge my objections to disturbing and hurting the sloth. He reassured me that sloths are in fact built to fall out of trees (omg that's hilarious in and of itself) so all would be fine. The poor thing fell out of the branch from about 2 stories up, decked its head on the side of the boat, and went flipping into the water. Classic me, I started screaming, "Larry we killed it! OMG! LARRRY! What do we do?!?" Larry climbed down from the tree, picked it out of the water from the scruff of the neck, and smiled, "It's totally fine." Wow, sloths are possibly the most invincible and dumbest creatures on this planet. That combination of characteristics is probably in and off itself the only reason they still exist. It looked so pathetic dripping in amazon water, moving ever so slowly as it tried to find something to grab onto with its hands. It probably would take a whole day for it just to get back up to the top of the tree. But, that's what they're built for...falling out of trees. And I was holding a sloth. Ha

6) Let the Jungle Take Your Breath Away.
So many times the pure beauty of being deep into a tropical rainforest literally did take my breath away. There are two moments I want to share with you, although there are so many more.
The first time the Amazon Jungle took my breath away was when we were paddling back to the lodge after going fishing for dinner. Seemingly out of nowhere, a huge thunderstorm rolled in and the rain started to beat down. The raindrops were warm, heavy, and so refreshing. Heck, I was all about it - no mosquitoes to worry about! The sound of the rain on the water drowned out the sounds of the jungle temporarily, and the smell was possibly the most delicious sweet refreshing smell of all time. The lightning was unlike anything I have ever seen before. One strike was a single point in the sky - almost like a UFO had suddenly taken off. Larry explained that the amazon rain forest is home to some of the most interesting lightning phenomena in all of the world - including colored lightning caused by gases released during decomposition in the forest. The storm passed quickly and left behind a dripping forest of the most brilliant greens. The horizon was glowing with intermittent flashes of lightning, displaying miles upon miles of the silhouette of the jungle's canopy. We started paddling again after the rain passed, only to come across a spectacular sunset right over the river. Every color of pink, orange, purple, red you could imagine - complete with some of the best clouds I've seen in quite some time. A huge brilliant rainbow covered the sky and a flock of macaws flew overhead. Now you ready for this? Just when it couldn't get any better, 3 dolphins jumped up and flipped in front of the boat. GAH MY LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE! Magical.
The second time the amazon took my breath away was during my third night on the river. It had to be about 11 o'clock and Larry and I were headed out so he could teach me about spear fishing. We paddled across an oxbow lake whose water was as still as glass. The night sky illuminated our surroundings just by starlight, and was two-fold if you include the perfect reflection in the lake. Yes, there was the milky way, the southern hemisphere constellations, and more shooting stars. We crossed the lake, and started heading deep into the bush. I kept looking up because I was so mesmerized by the sky. The transition was so subtle, I didn't even realize it at first. I was looking up at a spectacular display of hundreds of glow worms hanging from the trees above! WOW! Fire flies glittered away in the trees and I sat back in the boat and just started laughing. Belly Laughing. This place is truly amazing.

7) Headlamps are Not for the Jungle.
I was so prepared for our first nighttime romp in the woods. I was decked out in muck boots, long pants, long sleeves, a thick layer of deet, a machete in hand, and my trusty headlamp. Headlamps are so practical: There is always a beam of light in the direction you are looking and you have both hand free! Well in the jungle, a beam of light on your forehead translates to a beam of bugs on your forehead. Within seconds, I had dozens upon dozens of different species of insects b-lining into my eyes, nose, mouth, and the horrendous side swipe right into the ear. But that's not the worst part. I immediately started to take the headlamp off, as I wasn't ok with all of the bugs of the amazon hanging out around my head for the evening. And then BAM! A gaint friggin' bat smashed right into my face at full speed! I lost my balance and my nose started bleeding from the impact. Haha, we hadn't even left camp yet. Larry just chuckled at me and flicked spiders off of me until my nose stopped bleeding. Amazon 1, Katia 0.

8) Fishing in the Amazon is difficult.
Larry taught me two different kinds of fishing in the jungle. Pole fishing and spear fishing - both of which I'm

Officially an Amazon fishwerwoman!

really bad at. We set off in the afternoon to fish for catfish and piranha. That means you first have to fish for smaller fish, so you have enough bait and blood to put in the water to catch piranha. So much work! Larry was pulling fish right and left out of the water, and all the bait somehow got eaten off my hook without me even realizing it. Larry goes, "you can't be slow like sloth." Oh, great i'm pretty sure that was just a jungle insult for you are so friggin' dumb and so bad a fishing. I'm glad he found humor in being my guide, and told me that I reminded him a lot of when he was a kid and was learning about the jungle with his dad. Awwww bonding moments with Larry! I did end up catching a few fish - including piranha!- and had the utmost satisfaction cooking them up for dinner. Yum.
Spear fishing is done at night when bigger fish come to the surface of the water to feed. You have to be super still, and then javelin the spear into the water with all of the muscle you've got. You have to account for the direction that the fish is swimming, the speed at which its going, and factor in the diffraction of water so you actually hit the fish. Sweet - jungle physics!!!!! I didn't catch anything, but neither did Larry so I didn't feel too bad. Well, that's a lie. I caught 3 logs and lots of dead leaves, which wasn't exactly what I was going for, but it was something :)

9) Sleep is overrated
The jungle never sleeps so why should I? Larry and I would start adventuring at 5 in the morning for a couple hours, which was the best time for bird watching. I saw more friggin' toucans than there are fruit loops in a a family sized box! There were so many different kinds of parrots, but I can't remember the names of any of them except the macaw. We watched as birds dove into the water for fish and skimmed the surface of the water for bugs as the sun rose. We also used this as an opportunity to collect fruits and nuts out of the jungle to snack on before all the critters got to them. YUM
We would head back to the lodge or camp when the afternoon sun got too hot for a ciesta. I would swing in the hammock, eating bizarre jungle fruits, watching butterflies and dragonflies putter around, and napping through the afternoon until Larry would wake me up at 3 so we could venture out again. Having fun is exhausting work! The afternoons were all different but often we ended up looking for monkeys or fishing or going for a 'hike'. By 'hike' I mean swing a machete and walk anywhere you want to go. (sidenote: swinging a machete around is oddly satisfying and you should be worried about how natural I am at it) And you just have to keep walking because chances are you're disturbing some termite or ant nest, so its best to get outta there. I guess I'll take this as an opportunity to discuss the horrifying amounts of ants and termites that live in the jungle. I probably saw close to 4 dozen different species of ants of all colors and sizes. From the tiny red fire ants, to the giant bullet ants (who supposedly have the most painful sting in the entire insect world), and the mesmerizing armies of leaf cutter ants - they seemed to cover every inch of the forest! There were literally highways in the dirt that the ants followed, and downed trees seemed to be another main artery for ant traffic. Sometimes I would stop in the jungle, and focus in on a branch or the forest floor to get a micro world impression of what was happening around me. Yep, ants and termites everywhere. Even though they are tiny, the ants had the worst bites out of the ones I got. I became increasingly scared of them, realizing that eusocial insects are part of one big super organism that can literally take over anything they want. I became even more scared when Larry shoved his machete right into a bullet ant nest so he could show me how big and mean they actually are. AHHHH! Here's a fun fact: on average, the average acre in the amazon jungle houses more than 3.5 million ants. Can we go exploring in the boat now?????
We would head out again in the evening which was the best time to see the dolphins, the frogs on the giant lily pads, and different types of birds. We would come back for dinner and then headed out again late at night for a few hours more. I think the night time romps were my favorite, but that's probably because I couldn't see everything crawling on me like I could in the daylight.

10) Stay with your Guide
I was very conflicted about this at times, because sometimes I really didn't want to be next to the wasp nest Larry smashed with his machete or near the giant frog he was holding that was dripping poison from its belly. But let's talk about the time I came closest to separating from Larry. There really aren't that many big animals in the jungle, probably because the foliage is way too dense to gracefully move around as a beast. This was a very comforting thought until I heard something BIG smash through the bush while we were out hiking on the last night. I shone my light in the direction of the sound, but there was just a mass of moving brush and it was uncomfortably close to me. I clutched my machete as I became paralyzed with fright... psh as if it would have been any help. Now here's Larry, running towards the big noise, "Jaguar!" Now I don't know about you, but my gut instinct was to run away from the big kitty cat. I couldn't loose Larry though, so there I was running through the jungle, chasing a Jaguar. I never did see it, but I'm more than ok with that. Keep calm and carry on.

11) Embrace Childhood.
My impressions of the amazon came from a giant floor puzzle of the jungle I had when I was a kid, the Jungle Book, and the Tim Allen movie Jungle 2 Jungle. Very accurate, people (said in the utmost sarcastic voice). As my adventure into the rain forest re-calibrated the truths and myths I had about the jungle, it took a few days for me to realize why it was so different from my childhood impressions. I thank my biology major a bit too for teaching me some of the ways of the natural world. The sound and sights of the jungle are absolutely beautiful, until you realize that every living thing is competing in one giant battle for survival. Professor Ken Clifton teaches his students FOOD SEX DEATH at the beginning of his courses; a theme that underlies the interactions between and within the ecological world and the animal kingdom. At what better way to see it in action than in a tropical rain forest? The crazy examples of mimicry, evolutionary arms races between species,  the way plants strangle each other or compete for canopy space, and defense mechanisms that I had only previously read about in biology textbooks were happening right before my eyes. The sound of the jungle isn't some simple chorus - its the sound of hundreds of species trying to mate in order to pass one their genes and cries between predator prey interactions. Woah. Bio nerd out moment, sorry for getting off topic.
Exploring the jungle reminded me so much of being a kid again. Everything was new, some things were scary to touch, and ignorance was bliss. One night when we were hiking, I cam across a plethora of vines hanging down from a giant tree. I ran, jumped on, and was swinging over the forest floor. Of course I let out a Tarzan scream! Larry just laughed at me, but he already has mastered what it feels like to be completely free.

I'll update this post with more pictures tomorrow when I have more time and patience for the internet - so check back again!