another sporadic update from peru! i kno i´ve been bad with my blog... didn´t think it´d be quite so inconvenient getting internet access. but i´ve been keeping a faithful journal of all my journeys so i´ll eventually post up a synopsis WITH pictures. :)
so i´m on the last leg of my trip now... in the humid and hothothot city of iquitos, peru--amazon land. the warm weather makes me want to eat and siesta all the time; i´m starting to look like one of those tropical women in those huge mumus.
just got back from the jungle yesterday. tough shit. i got eaten alive by the mosquitos. i think i´m over 20 bites now...they´re so relentless. but it was definitely worth the extra trip. did yall know every inch of the amazon river is brown? full of silt and activity. and that´s what they pump for shower water. yall don´t want to be anywhere near me right now. it´s gorgeous tho. heavy, dark water teeming with brightly-colored birds and fish and pink dolphins. and the river is low at this time of year, so the mud beaches are open for the taking. our group stripped down to our undies and took the best mud bath ever. with little one inch frogs jumping around us and dolphins a few yards away.
an animal trainer was staying at our lodge and he rescued some baby animals from the food market--a couple turtles, a baby caiman (mini alligatorish thing), and a baby sloth. the sloth was so adorable. she looks like a monkey but moves like a slug and clings to you like those trolley dolls. dun be surprised if i come back with something moving under my jacket. totally illegal but so tempted...
and there was a kid there shooting something for animal planet--we called him bug boy cuz he is a bug genius. he picked up a HUGE cockroach in our bungalow without a moment´s hesitation. and he pointed out a bird-eating spider (they do exist!), living right outside one of our group´s bungalow. apparently, it´s the 3rd deadliest spider in the world.
the group was terrific--a couple crazy canadians, a handful of witty europians, and the cute american (that´s me btw. heh.). the canadians had jus gotten back from an ihuasca (sp?) ceremony, where you chug a hallucinogen in the dark with lots of chanting and do a group barf fest. sounded like an intense frat pledge test with drugs. one dood thought he was talking to god... O_o