The Jungle!

This has been one of the best weekends of my entire life! It started Friday morning when our group boarded two speed boats on the Itaya River. It felt so good to be on a boat, I was just starting to get a little home sick, but the water brought me back to Seattle. The little houses that seemed to be floating alongside the river reminded me of the house boats I adore along Lake Union. We traveled up the crisp green/blue Itaya River until it brought us to the murky brown Amazon. Our guide, Jimmy, pointed out that the waters of the Amazon River and the Itaya River do not mix and you could actually see where the two rivers met because there were unmixed patches of brown water within the blue/green water, increasing in size, until we were finally in an all brown Amazon. Our first stop was at a riverside village belonging to the native Bora tribe. The chief welcomed us and brought us to a large open hut to be seated as he explained the history of his tribe. The Boras originated from Columbia were known for wearing large pieces of jewelry in their nose and ears and also for violence.The chief explained how his grandfather brought a group of Boras to Peru 40 years ago because they did not agree with the violence.The native Columbian Boras call the Peruvian Boars "Mono's" (Monkeys) because they are non-violent and do not pierce their faces. The men, women, and children performed three traditional dances for us, one of which was a friendship dance where they pulled us up to dance with them. We then looked at art work and crafts made by the tribe and were surprised to learn that they did not just want to sell us items, but they wanted to trade goods! Popular items to trade were granola bars and bandanas. I didn't think that I had anything to trade but when I took out my used cover girl facial powder compact to examine how a pair of wooden earrings looked on me….a young woman quickly approached me and offered a beautiful teal and brown long beaded necklace in exchange for the compact, SWEET!!! I then dug through my bag and found some lemon hand lotion to trade for the matching earrings!!We left the Boras elated with our new treasures and next stopped at a river side tropical petting zoo called "Centro de Rescate Chullachaqui Javiev" (I think). I felt like a little girl going to the zoo for the first time. It was SO much fun! We played with Monkeys (which are really mischievous little thieves!), Sloths, Alligators, Turtles, Parrots, and a sleepy Anaconda!! My new favorite animal is the Sloth; they are so sweet and just want to hug you! Carlos, another one of our guides told us that people call Sloths "congressmen" because "they eat and don't do anything" HA!! Next we had a picnic lunch on our boats and then set off on a long ride to our jungle campground. When we arrived, I couldn't believe what I saw: a large raised platform with a straw roof surrounded by water, nestled in-between some of the most beautiful tree's I have ever seen.This sight was surreal and I couldn't believe that we were camping there!!I picked a tent with Olga and went to bed early anticipating an exciting Saturday.

Saturday-We woke up early to go on a bird watching excursion, we did not see many birds but we did see a pod of grey and pink dolphins playing. They were not afraid of our presence, in fact it seemed like they were showing off, jumping right behind our boat! We had a breakfast of fruit and rice pudding then set out to a small seemingly isolated jungle village to set up clinic for the day. The village houses were all on stilts as the ground was soft and muddy. We had to wear knee high rubber boots to walk from the boat to the clinic location. To try something different, I joined the Pharmacy today and had a great time. They taught me to how to fill prescriptions, dose medications based on age and weight, and gave me a greater appreciation for how hard Pharmacists work (I think the Pharmacists back home would appreciate this as I am sure I have said more than once "what the heck are they doing down there! Why aren't my patient's medications here yet!") So….to my fellow nurses back home….I saw firsthand that Pharmacists DO work hard!! HA!! The drug of the day was Albendezole!!! (treatment for parasites) along with Tylenol for pain.After we saw everyone who wished to be seen we presented our teaching projects to the entire village, which they seemed to enjoy.They thanked us for coming, and then lined up at the bank of the river to wave goodbye as we left in our boats.Back at our camp site, we (possibly foolishly) decided to ignore the warnings about piranhas, snakes, alligators, parasites, and leaches and went for a swim in the murky but delightful Amazon water!! It was great! That evening we took the boats out to watch the sunset over the Jungle from the middle of the river, it was romantic, magical, and again surreal.

Sunday- I woke up early to go fishing with Will, my new friend who brought a fishing pole from home! We paddled a small canoe along a branch of the river and although we did not catch any fish we got to hear the jungle come to life and saw some beautiful plants and birds including a large Eagle. After breakfast at camp the entire group loaded the two boats to fish for Piranhas using wooden poles that our guides carved for us that morning. We used raw chicken as bait and caught a ton of Catfish and Piranhas!! I sat on the top of the boat with Yulia and Amanda and thought that life could not possibly get any better than this! We gave the fish to our cooks and then Jimmy took us by boat to go swimming in the middle of the river with the dolphins! We then packed up and headed back to Iquitos. Jimmy let me sit at the bow of the boat for the ride home and with my feet pushing into the wind I again thought, life cannot get any better than THIS!!! That evening my roommates and I went to dinner at a popular kabob restaurant called "El Carbone" in the plaza and then took pictures by the florescent blue fountain!

I miss the jungle already!