First things first - greetings from Miami Airport!
On Friday morning we were picked up from our hotel at 9am and taken to Muyuna's Iquitos headquarters. We checked in and then our guide, Francisco (Pancho), gave us a quick city tour of Iquitos, along with Danielle and Kendra who were joining us in Iquitos to head to Muyuna for 5 days.
Then, we had a three hour trip from Iquitos and up the Amazon river to the Muyuna lodge.
On the way, as we neared the lodge, we saw a swimming sloth, having a great Friday. I think I found my spirit animal.
When we got to Muyuna we had a ready lunch, checked into our rooms, and had a bit of time to enjoy the finer things.
At 3pm, we put on or sunscreen, bug spray, and rubber boots and followed Pancho into the jungle to look for creatures. Our search was quite successful as we saw a Pigmy Marmoset (the smallest monkey in the world), a majestic Blue and Yellow Macaw, a Weird Mannequin parrot, and some sizeable Bull Ants and spiders. We also swung on a 50m long Tarzan vine, and I completed the jungle experience by getting stung by a yellow wasp (though Pancho's special ointment relieved the pain almost instantly).
We got back to the lodge after a little over two hours and rested and then had dinner. After dinner, we were off again - this time by boat - to see Caymans (small alligators) and more nocturnal animals.
Over nearly two hours we saw Cockatoos, crabs, and a big Amazon Boa Constrictor in the trees. The highlight, though, was when Pancho caught a 1 year old Cayman and showed it off in our boat. The group took turns holding it before we put him back. Then as the Amazon rain finally started to come down, we headed back to the lodge for MUCH needed showers.
We fell asleep to the sound of a rainstorm outside our cabin - maybe the best sleep I've had in a year.
Day 2 started early with breakfast. Our boat tour down the Amazon to look for sloths and monkeys was delayed a bit while the storm raged through the area, but at 8am we hopped in a motor boat and or guide, Pancho, led us to see some amazing animals. We saw sloths, common squirrel monkeys playing king of the Tree, a howler monkey, macaws, black ringed hawks, and many more really cool creatures. After almost four hours we headed back to camp for lunch and some down time.
After lunch we had some down time to nap through another rain storm before we headed out in the boat again to catch pirhannas. First, Pancho stopped the boat and we saw an adult and then a baby Cayman Lizard, both of which looked just like dinosaurs.
Then, we headed out to a couple of Amazonian lakes to fish. Pirhannas are definitely carnivores so we used meat as bait, and we ended up being pretty successful. The final tally was Adam 3 pirhannas and one sardine, Simon 2 pirhannas (first two fish ever caught), Erika 1 pirhanna, and Frank had several come off the hook as he reeled the into the boat. After a couple of hours, and exhausting all our bait (and sacrificing the sardine) we headed back to the lodge just before, predictably, another storm hit.
On our final morning, we were up early to take a boat out into the Amazon with Danielle and Kendra and our guide, Pancho. On the way out we saw an iguana (well, Pancho pointed in the direction of an iguana and we kind of saw it...) and a prehistoric looking bird called a Watson's bird. Then we had a picnic breakfast on the boat before continuing out.
On the Amazon, we had a pod of grey dolphins swim up to our boat and show off a bit, and then we caught several glimpses of the rarer pink dolphins.
After several hours we headed back to the lodge, washed up, finished packing, and had lunch before getting on our boat back to Iquitos. We then had a three hour boat ride to Iquitos, then a transfer to the airport. From Iquitos we flew to Lima, had a pizza dinner, and then hopped on our flight to Miami after changing into our last sets of clean clothes.
Now, we just landed in Miami and are ready to go through customs. Home soon.
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