Iquitos at last

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  Iquitos, Peru
Wednesday, November 2, 2005

So we are on the river, on our third night from Pucallpa to Iquitos, and it's around 11 at night, when all of a sudden there is all this commotion, and everyone starts running around and grabbing life jackets. Not a good sign, generally speaking. So I get up, and run to the deck to figure out what the hell is going on. I asked several people, and the answers (from what I could gather, I am crap at understanding really fast Spanish, and as everyone was excited...) varied from 'The launch fell overboard', to 'The motor fell overboard' to 'Pirates (something something something in spanish'. The boat went over to the shore, and all these guys ran to the shore, then all these other guys ran to the roof of the boat with rifles, then the captain brought out all these high powered lights and trained them on the jungle. Then some of the guys with rifles joined the others on shore. And they ran into the jungle, with the lights following them, for about an hour. Then they came back, and everyone chilled out and went to their hammocks. And all my questions led nowhere. But we stayed there all night, and in the morning we had to get on another boat, which was already full, by the way. And the original boat was towed back to port.
What? Right? So if something just fell overboard, then why the guns and the jungle stuff. But if someone was trying to get on the boat, then why was the boat incapacitated? Anyway, the next boat took three more days, so it was a total of five nights and six full days. Man was I happy to see a bed when we arrived in Iquitos. And some spicy food. And a real shower. So finally I have arrived in the largest city in the world with no road connections. Found a great resturant owned by a Texan, which has extrememly cold beer (trust me, it's needed, cause man is it hot) and food with spice. Now normally I try to avoid the gringo stuff to a certain degree, if i wanted BBQ I should have stayed home..., but after a few days being literally the only gringa amongst a few hundred, and after six days of not a single word in English (well, I did swear under my breath at the children having tantrums a few times, but even that was occasionally in Spanish), something familiar was most needed. And I met a really cool english anthropologist, who splits his time between the jungle here and the Gallon Jug region of Belize, which is where I did my archaeological dig in 99. He stays at the same camp. So random. So we spent all night talking about anthro (I know, I am a dork) and Darwin, and getting really really pissed. It was awesome.
So, this town is really cool. Right on the Rio Amazones, lots of trips into the jungle, which I am still trying to sort out. I might actually save the hardcore jungle trek for Rurrenbaque in Bolivia (its like half the price) and just chill here for a few days. Who knows. Well, that's about all for now. I am off to find some lunch (but not almuerzo, I can't handle soup and chicken with rice and beans for a few more days at least). More later. Oh and from now on, I am totally going to claim that my boat was attacked by pirates. It could have been, right?
-A

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