Iquitos - Day 3

Our third day in Iquitos started off down the river to search for pink dolphins and fish for pirahnas.  This is an average family from the jungle.  Dad it on the right side and he was hauling buckets up from the river.  

Harvesting rice on the river bank.  They are taking advantage of the land the few months of the year that the water levels are low.

On the lookout for pink dolphins!  Luckily for 4 little girls, we found them, but have no photos to prove it.  They even jumped a few times.  So cool!

 Heading in to the Black River tribuatary to fish for pirahnas

Check out this black water that does not mix with the brown waters of the Amazon. It is black due to high level of tanic acid from the rotting tree roots.

Everyone caught a pirahna!  They started biting within seconds of dropping the meat in the river.

 On the way home, we stopped somewhere along the bank where a family is known to have a boa.

 We returned home for lunch.  The lodge cooked the pirahnas for us to try.

In the afternoon, we headed to Monkey Island and in true Barlow fashion, found a rainbow!

 This was certainly a day to remember.  The monkeys jumped up and down on Peyton's chest and tried to lead me away fom the kids and into the jungle, but it is sure hard to take pictures when you have little monkeys jumping onto your camera strap!

Iquitos - Day Two

The jungle lodge, Ceiba Tops, was scheduled to pick us up at 9:30am so we decided to get a quick excursion in beforehand.  We had read about the shanty market of Belen, which is home to the famous floating village known as the Little Venice of the Amazon.  We had hoped to fit it in the first day, but we were advised not to go anywhere near the place after 5pm when the police leave. 

We found mototaxis outside of the hotel and paid them $1 each to take us to the port of Belen.  There we found a pair of canoes, powered by what could have been a weed eater, to take us down the river and through the floating village of Belen.  This was one of the most memorable excursions for me.  I just could not believe my eyes.  The waters of the Amazons are at their lowest point this time of the year, so many of the house boats are beached.  The stilts of the homes are completely visible and latrines were nothing more than a box to stand in over the river.  Women washed clothes next to the latrine, men fished and one woman was even brushing her teeth.   I still cannot believe that we were there! 

 The Sorensons

Check out the stair to nowhere on this Catholic church

Port of Belen from the canoe

So many bananas

Can you imagine hauling bananas on your back for a living?

Other side of the island.  These are the beloved mototaxis.  I am not sure how they get back to the other side or if they every do because these houses are all floating during in May.

Peyton and Alli

Victoria Regia Lilies can support the weight of an infant.

Is this powered by a lawn mower? Sophia is wondering too.

School Children

Floating Convenient Store

View from the mototaxi.  These streets are normally under water.  Can you believe that our family of 5 fit in one of these mototaxis?? They were pretty sweet.

When our guide Paul arrived, I felt like some much had already happened.  We headed to Ceiba Tops lodge, which is a 45 minute boat ride from Iquitos downriver.   We unloaded, unpacked, swam, ate lunch and then went for a hike through the jungle.  Paul pointed out much of the flora and fauna and managed to keep the kids interested the entire time.   We visited the famed Ceiba Top tree, which reminded us of the tree in the movie Avatar and everyone had a chance to be Tarzan. 

My Tarzan Family

Later after dinner, Paul spotted a baby tapir that often hangs out in the jungle around the lodge.  What a great way to end the day.

We couldn't believe how close they let the kids get to them.  The small deer licked Alli's hand.

Sophia loved petting the wild baby tapir that lives somewhere near the lodge.

What a cute little thing.

Iquitos - Day One

Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin.  Our family trip to Iquitos was one of my all-time favorites.  We traveled with the Sorenson family.  Our girls are best friends and spend countless hours together on a regular basis.   They entertained themselves with animal figures on the boat, at dinner and by the side of the pool.  They held hands running through the villages and bickered over who picked the most flowers.  They doubled up on the water slides to come down together and giggled when something fun happened.

Iquitos, a city of 500,00 people which is only accessible by boat or plane, is the largest city in the Amazon rainforest.  It is a short 1.5 hours flight from Lima.   We decided to take advantage of our stay in the jungle and add one extra night in the city itself.  We fed the kids sack lunches on the plane so that we could hit the ground running.  

The Mission President on the Lima North Mission was on the flight with us and called us two small mototaxis to take our families out to Puerto Nanay, where we caught a small boat recommended by the mototaxi driver out to the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm.   There were monkeys, a caged jaguar and a tapir too, but aside from the boat ride into the tributaries of the Amazon, it was not what we thought that it would be.  The three-wheeled motorcycle taxis were a blast.  The kids were waving and yelling through the streets.  I wish that we had a photo of our family of 5 squished into a seat made for two. :)  

Known as Suri, this local dish is fried Bettle Larvae that we found readily available at Puerto Nanay.  

No thanks.

 Local fishman 

Our captain as we approached the Butterfly Farm.

Cute Kennedy.

The moon over our boat

Entrance

Macaws.  Hola. Hola. Hola.

 Not so awesome.

Vibrant Jungle Flowers

Mama and baby monkeys at the Butterfly Farm

Sweet Peyton

We found a hammock stuffed into the roof of the boat... of course we had to try it!  

Abe loved making baby Tanner smile. 

Baby Tanner

Our ride.

On our way home, we stopped at the highly recommended Yellow Rose of Texas for dinner.  With eccentric décor and a tiny staircase to the second floor, we weren’t sure what we were getting ourselves into, but the food was great. 

Okay, all political jokes aside... SERIOUSLY?