Testing Amazon Waters

There are many watery adventures in the world.  One of the first I went on actually did go somewhere on water, unlike what happened in France when the water was too high to travel the canals.  I voyaged on a small ship on the Amazon river in Peru.  I  read about the Amazon in geography class probably back in fifth grade, so I always wanted to see this famous river. 

First, I flew into Lima. I had arranged the trip through Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). They made all the reservations for our hotel stay, and for the boat we would traveled on. I was really disappointed that my hotel would not be in downtown Lima but was in the Miraflores area. World traveler that I am not, I did not know that downtown Lima was undesirable.  I usually travel independently but luckily, I did not this time. I might have booked a hotel downtown and then never been seen alive again. 

We spent a few days in Lima, going here and there. The other travelers in my group seemed nice enough.  I managed to do some shopping also. I found the perfect Alpaca poncho.  I decided not to buy it until I returned to Lima and would be  back on my way home. No sense in dragging a heavy poncho all over Peru. There would not be any cool weather to justify wearing it.

We flew to Iquito. It is the largest city in the world that can't be reached by roads.  You can fly in or take a long boat ride there on the Amazon River. We left the airport and got a short tour of the city before we went to the harbor and boarded our boat.  I had a single cabin which was quite small.  That was okay with me, because i wasn't going to be sitting in my cabin.  We entered the cabin from the deck so there were no water views there anyway.   Actually we had a large area on top deck which included the dining room plus open air seating.  Like a big back porch, only it's on a ship!

This was to be our hang-out.  We all purchased bottles of wine which we kept in a cubby on deck.  I could pour myself a drink whenever I wanted. Our crew was very versatile.  They not only cooked and served us our meals but they were our guides throughout the trip.  If we left our shoes outside our door in the evening, we would find them well cleaned in the morning.  They also knew the names of all the birds and animals we would encounter.  Best of all they entertained us at dinner.  A talented group of young men.

We made the first of many short trips in a long motor boat which carried about ten of us.  (The trip was limited to only about twenty people per sailing.)  We stayed close to shore in order to spot different birds.  There were some serious birders in our group.  You could not even chat with them because all they did was look for birds! The guides would not leave a spot  until all of us had seen the bird they were talking about..  I quickly became an excellent liar.  I could never spot any birds no matter how colorful they were.  There was too much foliage or the birds were too small or something!  Since I did not want to hold up the trip I acted all excited pretending to see a nonexistent bird.  I knew those acting lessons at the College of DuPage would be valuable some day.  The redeeming fact about  pretending to see birds  is that by the end of the trip I was spotting birds before the guide. Faking it really worked for me..  

Sometimes, we would exit our boats and take a walk in the rain forest.  (I still miss the days when we used the word jungle. Rain forest sounds so scientific while jungle brings back visions of Tarzan, doesn't it?) I loved the rope bridges, not only because they kept us from walking in the terrible ick down below,  but because of the rhythm created by everyone marching at the same pace.  The bridge forced us to march together so it could swing evenly.  

One day while bridge marching  we came to a large body of water.  There were rowboats and our guide gestured for me and another guest to get into one of the boats.  He joined us and handed us each a dead fish. At first I thought he was describing my character and I was a bit offended.  How dare he? As usual I was wrong.  The boat proceeded towards deeper water.   Pink dolphins soon came swimming up to our boat expecting something from us.  Of course, it was the dead fish.  I quickly slipped my fish to the dolphin's mouth. You know how dolphins have their mouths in a little permanent grin? This dolphin looked delirious with joy.  I was satisfied too.  The dead fish found its true home.  And how many people get to feed pink dolphins!

As we meandered down the Amazon we stopped at a house.  It was very open and it kind of reminded me of Tarzan's tree house except it was not in a tree.   There was no Cheeta the Chimp, but there were several adorable little toddlers. We were served lunch by a charming couple, who were the parents of the adorable toddlers.  We ate a typical Peruvian meal that I am sorry to say I can't remember at all.  But it must have been pretty good because I ate it all.  We heard a baby cry and the young mother went and brought out their youngest.  She casually nursed the little one.  I couldn't help noticing that this woman had a lovely figure with no apparent sags despite having borne and nursed several babies. This made me wonder why we "civilized" women wasted our time and money on bras.  She certainly didn't and she looked great.

I also remember that lunch because it was the first time I knew I had a problem.  We were served our meal on the floor.  When it was over I had to get up.  Whoops!  Never did I feel so clumsy and awkward.  I suddenly realized I was falling into the classification of Old Age.  

We visited more villages on our journey and admired the huts and the handicrafts.  Of course, we bought many bracelets and other trinkets.  Years later I got to present a talk to the West Suburban Art Society about the art of the Amazon.  Thank goodness for the Internet because I remembered nothing, and I do not even know what I did with whatever I bought. Certainly, what  I researched was more authentic than anything I could remember!

We eventually finished our boat trip and were back in Iquito.  However, our plane trip to Lima was seriously delayed.  We had to patiently wait at the airport for a huge flock of birds to fly away.  The birds were intent on staying near the runways which meant that planes  could not take off.  The birds would be sucked into the engines or something. 

 Because of this we were given a lot of food.  We had a meal at a restaurant and then we got a picnic lunch to take on the plane.  Finally the birds left and we boarded.   We flew to Lima. Our plane back to the United States was ready for us to board as soon as we arrived at the Lima airport.  I was very  upset about this new plan.  My Alpaca poncho was still in the store and I had no time to go and buy it.  Who goes to Peru and doesn't come back with something Alpaca?  As I wrote this I paused, and googled Alpaca.  There is a place in Montana that sells Alpaca clothing so someday, if you see me wandering around looking very warm for once, you will know that I finally got my Alpaca.   

We returned to the U.S. and we got more food on the second airplane trip.  The lovely thing about going to South America is that there is never much of a time change.  It is directly south.  We landed at the Atlanta airport.  We had to pick up our luggage and transfer to our home flights. While we were standing around some drug-sniffing dogs approached us.  Many of the passengers on my plane were stopped.  It seems they were still carrying the food they were given in Iquito.  Were they planning to eat it when they arrived at home? The dogs smelled it and they had to dump the food. I did not get stopped.  I discarded the food I could not eat on the plane. For once I did the correct thing.   

That was my grand adventure in Peru.  I would do it again.  It was a cozy group. I met some great people.  It was also super relaxing.  There was even some entertainment as two men who were assigned  as roommates did not get along at all. One was a Republican and one was a Democrat.  The rest of us were fascinated by observing them. Sometimes there was no talking at all and then there would be small outbursts.   Finally arrangements were made for separate quarters.  At the time I just thought this was unusual.  However, our guide told us that all guides had been warned about discussing politics with Americans.  This was probably fifteen years ago.  The chasm we are in today started years ago.