Gil’s Blog

6:30AM – We got up early and packed our bags before heading to breakfast at 7:30AM.

8:15AM – We hoped to catch some piranhas for lunch, but first we stopped off to look at lily pads. The lily pads produced flowers that die in 24 hours. Another interesting thing about lily pads was that they produced prickly vines. While looking at the lily pads, we met some locals with a pet three-toed sloth named Lucho. We finally got to our fishing spot and casted our fishing poles. Pretty soon, we could feel little nibbles. We stayed for quite a while, but no one was able to hook a piranha. Both Alice and I were able to yank a fish out of water, but we weren’t able to completely hook it. I’m not sure if they were piranhas, since we only got a quick glimpse, and they were pretty small.

11:00PM – We got back to the lodge to wash up, finished packing, and then had lunch at 12:00PM.

1:00PM – I’m not sure why instead of the smaller, speedier boat, we took the larger, but slower ship back to Iquitos. The view of the Amazon River was nice. The sun was out, but with a lot of cloud cover, making it pretty pleasant. We were able to see a lot of rainbows along the way since it was raining in the distance.

3:30PM – We arrived at the Explorama main office and collected our luggage that we had left there. The Explorama bus then took us to the airport to catch our 5:35PM flight to Lima.

7:10PM – We arrived at Lima, collected our bags and then found a spot to repack our luggage, since we didn’t have time to do that at the Explorama office. At first we had trouble figuring out the check-in location for international flights, but Alice used her Spanish and asked a security guard for assistance.

8:30PM – Dinner was at the food court again. I had Papa John’s pizza again. Alice decided to try the Chinese-Peruvian dishes of Los Manos Menaras. Alice didn’t like it, but I found it to be pretty good. After dinner, we went to the souvenir shops to get rid of all our soles.

9:30PM – We got a voucher from Amazing Peru for entrance to the VIP Club at the airport. At first they had problems with our voucher, but they eventually let us in. There were lots to do in the VIP lounge. There were hors d’oeuvres and drinks. The first two alcoholic drinks were free. There were two plasma screen TVs in the entertainment room. There were even a bunch of stations where you could play Wii. Alice and I chose to go upstairs to use the computer and surf the net.

11:15PM – We were finally forced to leave the VIP lounge and board our plane. The plane took off on time at
11:40PM and we were scheduled to arrive in Houston fifteen minutes early.

6:00AM – We landed in Houston and got through customs pretty quickly. But that just means we got to wait longer for our connecting flight to SFO.

5:45AM – Don’t these people ever sleep? We got up this morning at 5AM so that we could catch the boat at 5:45AM. We had to get to the other Explorama lodge that was deeper in the jungle. The trip took about two hours. At the speed we were going, it got pretty cold since the boat only had overhead covering, and the vinyl windows were rolled up.

8:00AM – When we got to the other lodge, it was time for breakfast. This place was very different from our lodge. Ceiba Tops has air conditioning and hot water. This place was more of what you would expect from the jungle. Yes, we’re wusses. Here, although the rooms had roofs, there were no windows you could close, just curtains for privacy. And, those curtains don’t do much good in keeping the critters out, so people have to sleep under mosquito nets. Speaking of critters, there was a parrot who could speak both Spanish and English. There was also some furry pig-like creature called a capybara named Charlie. We didn’t pet him though, since he’s been known to bite.

9:00AM – Roldan and a family of three hiked to the treetop canopy walkways with us. But Kathy, the mother, was afraid of heights. She took the ground path, while the rest of us climbed to the top. From the tree tops, we saw a lot of flowers, trees, and bugs. We tried to look for birds and monkeys, but were unsuccessful.

11:00PM – We hiked back towards the lodge and stopped at the ReNuPeRu Botanical Gardens. Over there, we met a local shaman who explained to us how natural plants could be used to treat diseases and ailments. He even demonstrated a healing ritual on several of the members of our tour. The shaman also had a pet anteater named Dennis. I got to pet it while it laid in my lap.

12:00PM – Buffet lunch was served once again. And they even served the wild monkeys here. They hung a bunch of bananas outside, and pretty soon the monkeys came to feast. At first the black colored monkeys came. They were little guys who were about the size of squirrels. When they left, some even smaller brown monkeys came to eat.

2:00PM – We headed back to the Ceiba Tops Lodge by boat. It was going to be approximately a two hour ride, so I napped most of the back.

4:00PM – Once back Ceiba Tops and back to our rooms, we washed up and relaxed for a while. Since there wasn’t a TV in the room, I watched shows that I brought on my pda.

7:30PM – Buffet dinner was served, and it was one of the guides birthday. They sang the longest birthday song that I have ever heard. Roldan stopped by to tell us our itinerary for tomorrow. We thought we got to sleep in, but he actually scheduled piranha fishing for us in the morning. So we went back to our room after dinner and prepared for another early day.