Where the Wild Things Are

Goodbye Chimbote!!! Jill and I left Chimbote and are not looking back. The city itself had little to offer us besides the smell and the fact that it is the 2nd most contaminated city in Peru. However, all said and done, it did become home after a while. The people are what made the difference. I was not looking forward to working with children every day but they were really the most enjoyable part of the stay. It felt good to know that our work was appreciated by all. Our host families also went out of their way to make both me and Jill feel at home - very nice people all around.

So that's it. Life goes on and its going fast. We left Chimbote and headed north east to the jungle - yes it is the real jungle. In order to get to this distant, isolated city we had to take 2 buses which consumed roughly 22 hours to get to the remote city of Tarapoto. From there. we split a taxi with two random people to drive through forest mountains to get to Yurimaguas. Yurimaguas is located down stream from Iquiots (our ultimate destination). At Yurimaguas we bought food, water, and hammocks for our two day boat trip into the jungle. We boarded a cargo barge and shipped off. It was not a bad trip but slow. The only entertainment I had was a book, a deck of cards, jill, and thankfully a bottle of rum. It was a peaceful and uneventful voyage but something I wont soon forget. The most unnerving part was the bugs. Wow. Bugs. They had big bugs, little bugs. flying bugs, crawling bugs, black one, greens ones ...... I could easily keep going....so to get away from it all we get off the boat and book a 3 day jungle tour.

Okay, now im getting a little ahead of myself - getting off the boat. ha, Dad, this part is for you. We had this large cargo barge 100 plus feet long, 30 plus feet wide trying to dock on the beach where all the other large barges were located. There was about a 10 foot gap between two already parked barges and our fearless boat captains tried to make our boat fit. (I worked a fishing boat for 6 months and never saw anything like this.) He just banged his way between the small gap and hit the throttle repeatedly until... That's it! He was in after about 40 minutes and adjusting the paint designs of his and his neighbors´ boats. Graceful. Anyway Jill and I went on a hostel hunt, found breakfast, and looked for jungle tours. We found a decent one, and haggled, found two more, and kept haggling. We picked the one which we felt would rip us off the least and then went back to our hotel to prepare for our early jungle departure.

The jungle trip. How to describe it... good, bad, wet, scary, dirty, shady, hot, exciting. You decide. They all play their part but the one that rings turn constantly. Buggy. Great trip. Starts by taking a car an hour and a half to get to our boat. ok. Road is closed. Native uprising in the area and we have to get out of the car early and walk two hours. (shady) Jill and I think that they really just didnt want to pay the taxi to drive into the city. Walk two hours through humid jungle. Get to our little boat and shove off into the amazon. 3 hours, two rivers, river dolphins, and countess birds later we end up at our camp. This place was cool.
Everything was up on stilts. The water in the amazon river basin rises and falls 10 meters a year. The river was 2/3 full ( stay positive! ) when we got there. Everything was connected by bridges and all rooms were screened in. As soon as we got there, we dropped our things and hiked into the jungle. Oh, and our camp was the furthest one down the black river (name of the river we were on). Jill, our guide, Junior - a 12 year old local boy, and I hacked our way into the jungle. Let me tell you, Junior and I give deforestation a new name. I dont speak the launguage but I sure can communicate with a 12 year old boy and his machete. We had unoffical hacking contest. I think I lost. (Insert here - this is Jill talking - throughout the jungle we saw some pretty dangerous-crazy animals, plants, and insects. The number one thing I was scared of? Mike and a machete.)

So while in the jungle we did all kinds of adventures from hiking, to canoeing, to fishing. We did your traditional fishing. Jill was all over those paranas - not a scary fish when jill is on your side. Jill and a fishing pole is a deadly combination. Now, that being said Im glad she wasnt in charge of getting dinner when it came to spear fishing. In order to spear fish you wade in the water and wait for a fish to swim by. I had to stand on land durning jills turn because apparently my feet look like fish to her. One more thing. We went out at night in the canoe to look for small crocks. It is freaky being on the water, in the jungle, no light, throught the brush (when you know that thier are scorpins and deadly snakes hanging of trees). You feel so helpless and the hardest part is trying to look brave in front of your girlfriend. Anyway, I have so much more to say but no more time or patience for writing. If you want to know more, come to South America and let me know. You´ll just have to go searching for me because Jill and I get on a plane in a few hours and our next expedition begins!!!!

P.S. The entire time Mike wrote this he had dog poop squished between the bottom of his foot and his flip flop. (The stray dogs out number the clean up crew 10:0)