We are alive!

January 16, 2008

We have survived the jungle, but not for lack of adventure! On the 8th we travelled via reckless/dangerous/insane taxi driver from Tarapoto to Yurimaguas. This was our only option inland on our way to Iquitos and thus we had to grit our teeth and hold on for dear life. This would be the first time in our adventure that Greg, being the qualified and well skilled (I know some of you may chuckle, but I am making a comparison here) CDL driver officially lost his cool. We were travelling in a small sedan wagon, meant for 4 passengers and the driver. There were in fact 5 passengers, two of whom were sitting in the front bucket seat for the torturous 3 hour drive. After being held up at the road block for a half an hour (the road is currently and constantly under construction, thus only allowing one way traffic after construction work ends for the day) we began climbing into the jungle hills. Due to recent rains, the dirt- rather mud road was saturated and as we raced along we watched sections of the road sluff off down the steep jungle slopes. It seems that our driver is currently training for the Indy 500 as his objective was to pass each and every car that was ahead of us- not at all concerned about the large trucks that were directly oncoming. He was quite persistant and continued his irratic driving after numerous DEMANDS to slow down were made. Greg was concocting numerous plans of which he would dive over the driver seat and rip the key out of the ignition- in hopes of making our exprience safer. After 3 very long and stressful hours, we arrived- barely in tact- to give quite an earful to the gentleman´s boss. The rest of our evening was spend unwinding.

On January 9th, after a great morning in the city of Yurimaguas, we ventured into the market to purchase our beds for the next several days. You see, we were headed to Iquitos which is the largest inland city in the world not accessible by road-for the next two and a half days we would be travelling down some of the enormous tributaries of the Amazon (chocolate brown waters in rivers that were often half a mile wide). We slept in hammocks in the comfort of the upper deck of the Eduadro II. The second deck was occupied by nearly 5 times as many local Peruvians in conditions that were no where near as comfortable as those that we had on the upper deck.

Numerous hard working locals loaded down the boat (carrying everything on their backs) with several tons of goods to be sold at various villages along the river! While they worked and we relaxed, several gray Amazon river dolphins played around the boat keeping us amply entertained! Greg even fled the boat chasing after an allusive caimen!

The boat ride was quite lovely- providing for a very relaxing time with incredible views and amazing sunsets. Jess was quite relieved when it was over as she came down with her first bit of the ¨tourist flu¨- we are not quite sure what from. Out of pity, Greg became ill as well. Finally in Iquitos, we rested our sea legs and booked a trip into the heart of the jungle!