Peruvian Amazonian Adventure: The Pearl of the Amazon

October 25, 2024

Plaza de Armas de Iquitos

It was amazing how hot Iquitos was at 9:30 in the morning.  We were sweating like crazy by the time we reached the Double Tree where we were supposed to be meeting up with our cruising company.  Thankfully the lobby was cool.  We watched as the local branches of the military paraded through the streets around the square, while other people trickled in whom we could only assume were also coming on the trip.

We were going to be cruising on La Perla with Jungle Expeditions.  The company is a Peruvian company, staffed by Peruvians, telling us about Peruvian things, and focused more on Peruvian and Amazonian culture and nature, which I thought was pretty cool.  I didn’t really realize that when I picked the cruise.  I pretty much picked it because it was the cheapest Amazon cruise in Peru. But I would definitely recommend it for anyone who might want to make the trip down!

Our group ended up being small.  The boat could hold 28 passengers, but it ended up only having 15.  There was a couple from Mexico, a couple from New Zealand, two sisters from Arizona, 5 Canadians, and two women who didn’t speak English and I never figured out where they were from.  

From the Double Tree we loaded a bus for a quick tour of Iquitos.  The city was once the center of the rubber industry in the Amazon.  It is also the largest city in the world that can’t be reached by road.  It can only be accessed by air or river transport.  There is only one road out of Iquitos, and it goes to Nauta about 100 km away, and there's no other way out of Nauta.  Weirdly enough, there is a house in Iquitos that was built by Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty fame).  It was originally built in Paris and later shipped to Iquitos.

A house along the road to Nauta.  This house has only the walls you can see here.  Coming from the other way you could see a bed in that corner.

After the quick tour around Iquitos, we started on the road to Nauta where we would get on the boat to travel up the Marañon River.  Just north of Nauta is where the Marañon River and Ucayali Rivers meet to form the Amazon River.  Once out of Iquitos the road became pretty empty.  Every once in a while we saw a mototaxi or a car, but not often. There were homes along the road from time to time.  Sometimes all they were were a roof and one or 2 walls, but I suppose if it’s hot all the time, really you only need protection from the sun and rain, and a breeze might feel cool.  And you’re so far from neighbors that you don’t need much privacy either.  At a couple of different places we pass families playing in creeks. 

La Perla is the boat in the background.  The closer one cost about twice as much.

When we arrived in Nauta, there was a group of kids (who I think were our crew’s kids) waiting to greet us and show us into a dockside building where we were given a warm welcome with juice and a story.  From there we went down the ramp to load onto a skiff to take us to our boat, which was docked in the river about 50 yards out.  The kids followed us down to the dock saying "Adios" and "Good bye" and "Buenos Dias", and then running 10 feet further down, repeating this a few times.

Our room on La Perla

The boat was unlike any cruise ship you’ll ever be on.  I assume it has a very shallow draft.  It was three stories tall.  On the first floor there was an open area with some seats, our life jackets (to be worn any time we went out on the skiffs), and the all important blackboard where our itinerary for the day was written.  Our dining room was on the first floor, too.  I also believe there were 2 more bedrooms on the first floor as well.  On the second floor were most of the rest of the bedrooms (and staff bedrooms separate from ours).  Our room was the neatest room ever!  It had windows that took up most of the wall so you could lay down and watch the river slip past.  Up top there was an outdoor seating area with hammocks, beach chairs, and tables, and then inside was a hangout spot with seats enough for the whole group and a bar.

I loved the napkin holders!

After getting onboard the boat we were able to unpack.  Mom and I did a little bit more washing of clothes in our bathroom, and then we headed down to the dining room for second lunch.  They gave us food on the bus which we had all assumed was lunch, but it turns out it was just a late morning snack that looked like enough food for lunch.  By this point we were already slowly making our way down the river and while while we were eating, we looked at the shore slipping past.  In mid-September it is nearing the end of the dry season so the river was quite low.  One of our guides told us that in the wet season the water will flood the trees at the sides of the river.  This would mean that the river would rise probably 15-20 feet!  It would be insane to see what the river looks like in the wet season.  I bet instead of being 150-300 yards across, it would be at least 3-5 times that based on where the tree were!

After the wet season, all of this sand is underwater.

In late afternoon we boarded the skiff again to take off up one of the smaller branches of the river.  Every day we had a few such excursions planned. This is an adventure cruise where getting out and seeing the Amazon is the point of the trip, so other than a rest period in early afternoon, we were out a lot. We were heading out to look at birds before the sunset, then hopefully caimans after the sunset.  We got distracted by some pink dolphins shortly after heading off, which was really exciting!  You can’t find pink dolphins anywhere else in the world except for the Amazon.  Then after the sun set we started to see lightning.  It made me rather nervous as we were in a small metal boat on water, but our guides didn’t seem too worried and I figured they knew the place better than anyone, so if they weren’t worried, we shouldn’t be.  The lightning was all staying up in the clouds, seemed more like heat lightning than anything else.  But then there was a strike and thunder, and once that happened our guides turned the boat around and we went back quickly to La Perla.  While it didn’t rain then, it did apparently rain during the night (though we had no clue).  This area of the Amazon normally gets over 100 inches of rain a year spread.  We wrapped up the night with dinner and bed.

The next morning we had to be up early because we were going out for an early morning excursion.  We went in the same direction we had the night before.  Lining the shore were hundreds of birds.  Most were egrets, cocoi herons, and storks.  We also saw a number of kingfishers.  We passed a village where all the men were out cutting the grass with machetes.  Our guides said they do this about once a month so you can see the snakes 😦. He said it is done by the men who volunteer their time to do it, but if they don’t do it they can be fined or jailed…so it doesn’t really seem like a choice.

Buenos Aires

We continued further upriver and then came across Buenos Aires, but not the one you know about.  In fact, I couldn’t even find it on Google Maps.  This was a small village with houses built up on stilts. I would assume perhaps there was a population of 100-200 people  There was a large grassy square in the middle of the village and off to one side was a fenced-in area with a giant sandbox.  Near to the sandbox we met with one of the villagers who explained the work they do.  He said that he and others in the village collect turtle eggs when the river turtles lay their eggs to protect them from poachers.  In parts of South America, turtle eggs are considered a delicacy.  Poachers will come and take the eggs out of the nest after they’ve been laid, and as a result, the number of turtles has been decreasing.  This village gets paid to collect the eggs, lay them in nests in the large sandbox, and then return them to the river when they’re a few weeks old.  They had recently collected some eggs and we were going to each get the chance to lay a turtle egg into its new nest.  It was a neat thing, and I hope Baby Krystina grows up to be a happy and healthy turtle that grows to an old age.

Each stick belongs to a nest of turtle eggs.  A few weeks after we were here, we were told there would be babies starting to hatch.

After our turtle egg rescue mission we returned to the skiff.  We journeyed upstream a bit further and then pulled over to the side for breakfast.  We had a nice breakfast right there on our skiff, surrounded by nature.  It was quite exciting and enjoyable. The heat hadn't really set in yet and temperatures were still cool(ish).

Yes, our breakfast sandwich was wrapped in a leaf!

With breakfast done, we turned around and headed back down the river from the direction we came, looking for animals along the way.  Because the week before we left, we happened to watch a Jack Hanna episode where he was in the same area we were, I was on the lookout for animals he saw. He had seen a sloth way high up in a tree so that's where I was looking, because I waned to see one. Then our guide found one! A sloth was spotted!  Our guide said it was exciting to see one this time of year because by this late in the dry season, they have often moved further inland where they can find certain foods they like better.  We watched the sloth for a while before continuing on.  

Sloth!  In Spanish they're called perezoso, which also happens to be the word for lazy.

Praying Mantis

We then stopped at the village we had passed earlier, where they were cutting the grass.  The village of 20deEnero.  I’m not sure of the significance of the name.  There we climbed the stairs up to the village.  This village was also built around a grassy square.  There were some kids playing there and we went past a school building where other kids were learning.  I’m not sure if they take turns in the classrooms.  The kids that were outside were older, so maybe their lessons take place later in the day.  Both of our guides said they came from small villages like this, and then chose to continue their studies to become naturalists.  That the kids are required to study and sometimes will have to take boats to other villages to get to school.

At this village we wandered into the jungle to plant some trees.  We were planting aguaje trees, which are a type of palm.  These trees produce fruit that is used in juice, jams, and wine.  The oil from the tree can also be used.  It is a tree that can help improve the financial and economic value of the village, while also providing a place for wildlife to flourish.

The aguaje tree I planted.

After our tree planting ceremony, some of the kids came out.  One little girl sang a song for us which was very cute.  Then, some of the women in the village took us on rides in their dugout canoes.  Their ability to control the canoe with ease was amazing, as the canoes were probably 25 feet long, and they were rowing from the back.  After our canoe rides we headed back to the skiff and then back to La Perla.  Once back at the boat it was lunch time followed by a couple hours of rest time.

Time for a canoe ride!

Our next adventure was a jungle hike.  Hiking in the jungle when it is like 120% humidity and 95 degrees is quite an experience, and not one I need to really repeat.  If not for the giant leafs our cruise medic handed to people, I probably would have passed out of from the heat.  Using the leaf as a fan was extremely useful.  Thank goodness I had packed a bunch of water for this hike.  It wasn’t a terribly long hike, only like 2 miles, but in that heat it seemed a long ways.  From the skiff we hiked inland a bit to the remains of an old hotel and then we followed a trail from there.  It may seem weird, but one of the fascinating things we saw were soldier ants, marching in a line for 100s of feet.  Some ants were carrying leaves, while others weren’t.

A tree that provides a natural anti-diarrheal, joking called a Pepto Bismol Tree.

At one point we stopped at a tree.  My eyes were drawn to the tree with a bunch of slashes on it, but that wasn’t the tree that was the topic of our stop.  The tree next to the slashed tree was a rubber tree.  Our guide told us about the Amazon rubber boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s.  The Europeans came to South America and essentially pulled the indigenous population into an almost slave-like existence.  During this time a lot of the locals died from disease and overwork, while others were harmed or disfigured due to punishments for not working hard enough or fast enough.  Our guide says he remembered the scar his grandmother had on her leg from when she was a girl, forced to work on a rubber plantation.  When he completed this story, he turned his attention to the tree with the slashes on it.  I can’t remember what type of tree it was, but he said that this tree was a natural Pepto Bismol tree.  That if you are dealing with diarrhea that you can cut the tree to get the sappy inside and eat it to cure your issues. That is why the tree is cover in slash marks.

From here we continued on until we reached some swinging bridges that went from tree canopy to tree canopy.  Being up so high in the rainforest was both exciting and frightening, as we were probably 50-100 feet above the ground.  After passing through all the bridges, we started our trek back to the skiff and the boat.

Mom had fun on the swinging rope bridges.  I knew she would and this is one of the reason I specifically picked this cruise.

On our way back, we picked up a Shamana from a local village.  She came onboard to share with us how she treats people in a number of villages in the area using only natural medicines found in the jungle.  She learned from her grandfather how to be a shaman and went through years of training starting when she was a teenager.  She helps people with aches, pains, and injuries, as well as childbirth.  It was very fascinating.

Items the Shamana had laid out for her talk.

After dinner, a small group of us went out in hopes of finding caimans.  Unfortunately we didn’t find any.  In order to look for caimans, you look for glowing eyes with a flashlight. Like their cousins, the alligator and the crocodile, their eye look like they glow when hit by light in the dark, making they easy to see. We did enjoy a nice boat ride though ever without seeing any caimans.  The sun was down by this point and with a breeze blowing past you (thanks to the moving skiff), it wasn’t too bad outside.

On the morning of our last full day on the boat, we were able to sleep in a bit.  After breakfast, while waiting to head out piranha fishing we spotted some grey river dolphins off the back of our boat.  Grey river dolphins are maybe half the size of a bottlenose dolphin. We watched them for a long while, until it was time to get our stuff together to go fishing.  We loaded up the skiffs (To the Skiffs! Was our rallying cry) and headed to an area known for being a good place to fish for piranha (it also was a good place to watch pink dolphins too!).  So what do you need to fish for piranha?  A stick, a string, a hook, and some raw meat.  You drop it in and move it around a bit, then if you’re lucky, you tug at the right time and catch a fish.  I caught myself a piranha that was about 3 inches long. I took a picture with it and then they helped take it off the hook, showed me its sharp little teeth, and threw it back in.  Contrary to what people might tell you, piranha are unlikely to actually kill a human.  It does happen on a rare occasion, but when it does happen, it is usually a small child.  They will bite humans, but not enough to fatally injure most grown adults.  

My Piranha!

My what big teeth you have!

I reached a point while fishing where I got too hot to keep doing it.  And my burning hands were back.  In fact, while we were on the boat, the medic saw my hands and sort of freaked out.  I tried telling him I was fine, but he didn’t seem like he believed me.  Later when we got back on the boat, he had the cruise director translate and asked more about what happened with my hands.  I told him it was the sun.  He looked at them and said he thought it was a bad burn and he had something he would get to me that would help.  So that is how I finally ended up with a treatment for what ended up being pretty bad 2nd degree sunburns on my hands.  Thanks doxycycline. I now know to avoid medications that increase sun-sensitivity.

Don't my hands look fantastic?  They probably looked at their worst, maybe a day or two later because that is when they were all fully blistered.

In the afternoon after lunch and a rest period, we went out for another jungle hike.  This one was going to be focused on wildlife.  The first thing we came across was a giant tarantula.  While I don’t like spiders, strangely enough, one this big didn’t really frighten me much.  Maybe because it was very obvious and easy to see.  A ways further down the trail our guide showed us a poison dart frog.  It was so little!  I have no idea how he found it!  After going a ways in, we turned around and started the walk out when our guide shouts excitedly, “ANACONDA!”  That is the last word I wanted to hear.  I don’t do snakes.  I don’t do little snakes, I don’t do big snakes.  I don’t do snakes behind glass at the zoo. I don't do pictures of snakes, and I definitely don’t do large snakes in a tree 5 feet to the left of the trail.  No way.  Everybody hurries up to take a picture, while another lady and I are like, “is there another route to the skiff?  If not I’ll just stay here until everyone takes their photos and then I can run past!”  And that is exactly what I did.  A bit further on we found a lizard up a tree, and then monkeys!  A whole group of monkeys was making their way through the canopy above us.  Unfortunately that means they were a solid 60-80 feet up, so not easy to see.  But you could at least see something jumping through the trees, which was neat!  And you could hear them hollering too.

Poison Dart Frog...look how tiny it is!

For our last adventure by skiff, we went to one of the sandbars in the middle of the Amazon for a bonfire and champagne.  The sand under our feet was the softest sand I had ever felt.  It was so, so fine.  It wasn’t dirt, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t quite sand either.  We enjoyed the small bonfire before heading back to the boat for dinner followed by music! While we were out there a man walked past with a bag and some goods. Our guide said that due to the river being so low, that man's village had been cutoff from the river, and they were now having to walk a couple of miles to get to their village.

Amazon River Sand

After supper we found out that our crew was made up musicians!  Who knew our barman was also a guitar player, and the waiter was fantastic on the panpipes, pipes, and guitar, as well as a great singer? In total, there were 6 or 7 of our crew alternating who was playing.  It was fantastic and they were amazing!  They played a variety of songs; some local songs, well-known Mexican folk song Cielito Lindo (which I learned in Spanish class in 5th grade…turns out I still remember the chorus), John Denver’s Country Roads, and more!  They played for at least 30 minutes.  Some folks got up and danced.  I just happily clapped from the side.

The next morning was our goodbye.  We got up and ate our last amazing meal onboard and then had our 8:30 am Pisco Sour lesson because you can’t leave Peru without learning how to make a Pisco Sour.  After returning to Nauta, we started our trip back to Iquitos.  As we neared Iquitos we stopped at a Manatee Rescue Center.  This place takes care of injured animals, as well as those that have been taken from animal traffickers.  They had 2 little manatees they were helping in a small tank.  One was just 3 months old and about 2 1/2 feet long.  The other was a few years old and maybe almost 4 feet long.  They said this one had been rescued from someone who was keeping it in a bathtub.  It is still working out how to swim about after having lived in such a small space, which is so sad.  The hope is that these manatees will someday be able to return to the Amazon.  So far the rescue center has successfully reintegrated 33 manatees into the wild and all are still alive.  It is a multi-step process that can take a long period of time.  Some will never be well enough to send to the wild, but their hope is they’ll all be able to make it back.  The center also has caimans, turtles, tortoises, capybara, some other large rodents, monkeys, birds, and even fish that they hope to send back to the wild one day.  The center is sponsored by a number of big name organizations like USAid, Turkey, Germany, and the Dallas World Aquarium. 

The two young manatees.  They were just refilling their pool with fresh water after receiving care.

From the rescue center we made our way to the airport where we successfully boarded our flight back to Lima.  There we got a car to our hotel for the night.  The next day we walked to the airport through what I had read was a somewhat sketchy neighborhood.  Mom was the one who recommended walking, and then she wondered why I was walking so fast (maybe it was because we stuck out like sore thumbs!)!!  Anyways, we made it to the airport safely and super early.  We waited around, walked around, ate, and eventually headed through security to our gate where we boarded on time and made it back to the US!  As we had been through the airport a couple of times by this point we knew what to expect for snack and drink prices. We found out though that the prices on the international side were a lot higher. But since the domestic side was also open to us, we went down to the other end and got drinks for half the price. We flew home overnight which is always not fun (at least in economy...I've never experienced the better side of things). Journey complete!

Peruvian Amazonian Adventure: 36 Hours of Anxiety

 October 18, 2024

Sorry for the lack of pictures on this post...there are no photos of Krystina actively freaking out.

On the morning of September 13th, we headed to the airport in Cusco to exchange our stay in the Andes for a stay in the Amazon.  Doing this ended up being a lot harder than expected.  We got to Cusco and got our bags checked without any issues.  We headed up through security and then to the gate area to chill until our flight.  The airport at Cusco is small; just four gates.  It was fairly empty and we were able to grab some seats.  At one point after looking up at the board we noticed that our flight had been delayed.  This wasn’t good.  We only had a 65 minute layover in Lima before our flight to Iquitos and our flight had been delayed by an hour.  And then it got pushed back a bit more.  It got pushed back enough that we found out that the airline had to provide us with a snack.  This snack ended up being a delicious ham and cheese croissant and a pop.  Finally they tell us we’re boarding, but I already know that it’s going to be too late for our connecting flight.

When we get to Lima, of course our flight doesn’t get to just land at the terminal.  We end up pulling into a parking spot on the tarmac to unload, meaning we have to get on a bus to take us back to the terminal.  When the bus gets to the terminal, it lets us off…straight into baggage claim.  What?!?  We have troubles trying to figure out where to go, and find out that the only way is out through baggage claim, and then we have to go back through security to get to the gates.  What a mess!  We get up to security and then after explaining our flight was delayed and we need to see if our flight is still at the gate even though it is at least a half hour after our scheduled departure, they let us through.  Our flight has of course left, so we go to the gate where the next flight to Iquitos is departing from and they tell us it is full and that we need to go back to the front desk to get a new flight.

So next we have to figure out how in the world to get out of the gate area.  We can’t find any way out because there isn’t just an exit like in American airports.  Someone finally points us to some small door in the wall that is guarded by a security guard.  They let 6 people through at a time.  While we’re waiting, I start typing on my phone in Google Translate, that we missed our connecting flight and need to go down to the front desk to rebook our flight.  I figured it was easier this way because whomever was on the other side of the door could just looked at the Spanish translation instead of us trying to explain in my poor Spanish what happened.  We finally get through the door and find that there are customs agents on the other side.  None of them seemed to want to look at my phone, and I finally shove it in their face to look at.  They scan our passports and almost reluctantly let us go downstairs.  

Once downstairs we explain we missed our flight due to our first one being late and they direct us to a line for rebooking connecting flights (apparently this is a big enough issue?).  My heart is racing by this point because it's all falling apart.  Everything had gone so perfectly up to this point!  My watch told me twice that I was stressed and needed to relax.  Finally we are booked on a flight set to leave at like 4:30.  Perfect.  We should still be able to make it to Iquitos before 7.  It is all good.  

The last thing we have to do for now is go down to Desk 62 and pick up our suitcases to get them re-checked for our new flight.  We head down there and explain what happened and they tell us we’ll need to wait an hour before they are able to get our bags to us to re-check.  We are hungry by this point so head up to the food court to get food.  The majority of the food at the airport is outside security so we were able to get to it without issue.  Later we head back down to get our bags and they check them onto our new flight to Iquitos.

Now that the bags are taken care of we can head through security again.  As we’re heading upstairs people are excited talking and it seems someone famous has entered the scene.  Or maybe the correct answer is many someones.  We end up following the Universitario futbol team through security and people are fangirling and fanboying everywhere.  We have no idea who they are at this point.  My only guess is they are a soccer team, and we can see their uniforms have a U in a circle on them.  We end up googling them later to get an answer.  They finished at the top of the top league in Peru last year and have a stadium that holds 80,000 people.  No wonder everyone was so excited.  I suppose it would be like seeing the Chiefs walking into the airport.

When we first get through security and look at the board, our flight has a gate listed and we walk down there, but it is too crowded and still like 2 hrs from departure so we go to find somewhere less busy.  A little while later we check the board again, and our flight has changed gates.  We go to the new gate.  Then it gets changed again…and then again.  We’re finally at our fourth gate and our flight is delayed.  Eventually the plane pulls up and people get off, but nothing seems to be happening.  Eventually they pull out the snacks again.  Still nothing is happening.  Then around 6:30 people start crowding the desk at the gate and are getting rowdier and rowdier.  An announcement is made in Spanish and people go crazy.  They never make an announcement in English, but I say to Mom, “I think they just canceled our flight.”  I type into Google Translate “Flight Canceled? Downstairs to rebook?” and flash it to one of the poor workers near the desk who nods and Mom and I take off downstairs as fast as we can.  We figure the sooner we can get down there, the sooner we can get rebooked and for sure get on a flight the next day.  Because we have to get to Iquitos the next day.  We had one extra day booked into our trip just in case of issues getting between Cusco and Iquitos.  

We race downstairs, passing a number of people on the way and end up about 15 people from the front of the line.  Once again my heart is racing.  My watch buzzes at me twice again saying “Abnormal Heartrate”...probably due to hitting 120 when it knew I wasn’t exercising.  I was just sort of freaking out.  Mom kept telling me it’ll be okay and that they’ll make sure we get on a flight, so no point in getting too worked up.  It takes about an hour, but we finally get up to the desk and they book us on a flight for the following afternoon.  It turns out that rebooked the whole flight onto a brand new flight because the last time our flight number had been used was in 2020 (I looked it up on FlightAware).  

As part of the rebooking, they book us at the Sheraton in Historic Lima.  The cost of this single night at the Sheraton was roughly equal to what we paid for our 3 nights in Cusco and 3 nights in Ollantaytambo.  Luckily for us, LATAM was footing the bill for our night there, our food, and the taxi there and back.  The trip there took us around an hour!  By the time we got checked in it was after 10.  The one problem we had with losing our extra day was we were going to do laundry on that day off.  Since we were going to be spending the day traveling, this wasn’t going to be an option, and laundry services had already closed at the Sheraton for the night.  This meant Mom and I ended up washing underwear, a few pairs of socks, some pants, and a few shirts in the sink, and then hanging them up to dry.  Boy were some of those clothes dirty!

The next morning we went down to breakfast where we were able to enjoy a breakfast buffet and some mimosas (all for free).  Then because we weren’t being picked up until noon, we went for a walk around the area.  The hotel was just off the Parque de la Exposicion so we headed for a walk in the park.  We quickly found that much of the park was closed off because of a festival that was happening.  As we walked, we discussed our plans for our last day in Peru, when we were supposed to be back in Lima.  The initial plan had been to stay at a hotel near where we currently were at.  We both decided that after dealing with the hour-long taxi ride from the airport down there, and since we were unexpectedly getting the chance to see the area, we didn’t feel the need to come back.  We decided we would rebook to a hotel closer to the airport.

When we got back to the hotel we got our bags and headed to the front of the hotel to wait for our taxi back to the airport.  We waited and waited and were about to just get a taxi ourselves when finally our driver shows up.  We get back to the airport, check in, go through security, and go to our gate.  And thankfully the airplane is there and it is showing “Confirmed” on the board, which was something it never showed the day before.  We see passengers we recognize from the night before too.  To our relief, we get on the plane and fly to Iquitos.  The plane is only about half full.  I assume some people decided to cancel their trip.  

We're on a plane!  And it's flying to Iquitos!  Finally!

The first thing you notice when arriving at Iquitos is the humidity.  Goodness gracious was it humid!  And hot!  But the humidity was worse!  We successfully haggled with and got a mototaxi ride to our hotel.  Mototaxis are essentially motorized rickshaws.  Like a mullet motorcycle: motorcycle in the front, family vehicle in the back.  We quickly found that in Iquitos, like 95% of the vehicles on the road are these sort of vehicles.  We also later found out that they make them Iquitos and there are supposedly over 80,000 of them in the city.  

Riding in the Mototaxi

We made our way to our hotel which was on a sort of inlet off the Amazon River.  I booked this place specifically because you could see the water, which made you feel like you were really there.  We were so grateful for the little a/c in the room which made it a reasonable temperature inside because outside was still like 95 degrees.  

View from our hotel in Iquitos

We went for a quick walk to find food and ended up buying a bag of 25 rolls for 5 soles ($1.25), and ended up eating rolls and peanut butter for supper.  

The next morning we showered and walked a kilometer up the road to the Double Tree Inn where we would be meeting our tour guide operators and setting off on our Peruvian Amazon Cruise.  

Peruvian Inca Adventure: A Magnetic City

 October 11, 2024

Approaching Machu Picchu!

The haze in the sky somewhat hampered our view of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate.  It was visible, but a bit hazy and too far away to see well.  From there we made our way down towards Machu Picchu along a trail with a few other smaller ruins.  But for the most part we were keeping our eyes towards Machu Picchu which was getting closer.  This looking towards Machu Picchu thing was really not a good idea because you needed to watch your feet too.

Along the way I took many photos and for the most part this post will probably be mostly pictures and less story.  

This short story is something that amused me, but seemed to be less amusing to others. I had set my backpack down briefly to get something put something in it. A little while later I noticed that the magnet that attached my water hose to my pack had soil magnetically attached to it. There must be iron or something metallic in the soil around Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu Soil

Machu Picchu has multiple circuits that tourists can take.  Your ticket determines which circuit you take.  Since we hiked the Inca Trail to get there, we got to visit the Sun Gate which few others get to.  And then we got to take the Panorama Circuit, which is the circuit where you get all the great panoramic views of Machu Picchu.  

After getting all our photos, we headed down to the main gate to enter Circuit 3.  With this tour, provided by Ronaldino, we got to visit the Royalty sector of Machu Picchu.  

Walking along the terrace wall.  What you can see here are are stairs sticking out from one terrace to another.

Huayna Picchu is the mountain in the background.

After walking into Machu Picchu’s Circuit 3 gate, we walked across the terraces that made up the agricultural center of Machu Picchu.  Up on one of the terraces we got to sit down for a bit while Ronaldino gave us another history lesson, this time about the discovery of Machu Picchu by American Hiram Bingham in 1911.  Of course Bingham didn’t really discover the “Lost City”, as it was still known by those who lived in the area.  He did however, bring wider recognition to the site by “rediscovering”. At the time it was "found" much of the village had been swallowed back up by the forest. There were trees and plants covering it (go look up photos of what Machu Picchu looked like when discovered).

Ronaldino telling us about the Machu Picchu.  He was 23 and very passionate about hiking and teaching people.  He tried being a porter when he was younger and realized it wasn't for him, but guiding was something he loved.

The terraces of Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is likely not the actual name of the site, but is widely recognized as the modern name for it.  It means “Old Peak” in Quechua, which was the language spoken by the people known as the Incas, and is still spoken by many (including our guides) today.  Technically speaking, “Inca” was only used to refer to the ruler of the Quechua people.  So basically it was like “King”, but now all the people the Inca ruled over are considered Incas, so it would be like all the people a king ruled over being called Kings.  Today, they believe the site was actually known as Huayna Picchu (also the name of the large mountain that stands behind it that you see in photos), but it is too late to change names now.  Machu Picchu is believed to be a royal retreat for the Inca.  It is unknown exactly when it was abandoned, but they are sure the Spanish never made it Machu Picchu because of how much of the city still stood.  It is likely that citizens of the city either died by diseases introduced by the Spanish and brought there, or they abandoned the place when the Spanish started their conquests in the area.

We went through the building where the Inca would have stayed.  He was the only person at Machu Picchu to have a private bathroom and toilet.

Doorway to the Royal Toilet

We also visited the Temple of the Sun.  Ronaldino said you could tell how important a place was by how well it was built and what type of stones were used.  Well-crafted stones with straight edges that lined up perfectly were used for the most important buildings, namely the temples.  Buildings of medium importance had well-built, but not perfectly aligned stones, likely flat, but not all the same size.  Things like terraces didn’t need perfection so they were built of irregular stones.  Anyways, the Temple of the Sun was built perfectly with well-hewn stones that lined up.  In fact, it if you remember correctly, on the winter solstice, the sun will rise directly through the Sun Gate and straight into the window of the Sun Temple.  Ronaldino said he’s been there to see it.

The Sun Temple - Notice the nice stonework?

Terraces and their irregular stonework.

Housing with their rows of stone, but not perfectly fit together.

The perfect stonework of the Sun Temple.  Not even a piece of paper would fit between these stones.

We climbed up a bunch of stairs (Please! No more stairs!) and looked across the square to the Temple of Three Windows.  Then we headed a little further down to the Sacred Rock and the entrance to Huayna Picchu Mountain where half of our group was heading to hike up more stairs and get a view of Machu Picchu from a different angle.  Mom and I did not get tickets to do this because I felt we’d be done with stairs by then and would be more interested in the tour of Machu Picchu (I was right).  The Sacred Rock was a flat rock in between a could of buildings, carved to match up with the mountains behind it.  It was pretty neat to see how close it was.  

More steep stairs 😭

The grass was starting to turn green.  Remember we were there in September, which is their March.

The Sacred Rock near the entrance to Huayna Picchu.

Temple of the Condor is named due to the shape of the rocks.

We passed by the Temple of the Condor, which is in the shape of a condor (a sacred animal to the Inca).  After that we started to make our way out of Machu Picchu.  After we left, we had about 15 minutes to chill before taking a bus down into Aguas Calientes.  The road traversed by the buses is an insane series of switchbacks.  Only 4 days later, a bus went off the road and fell about 30 ft to the road below, injuring a load of people. 

A section of Machu Picchu getting worked on.

Work being done on the Temple of the Three Windows

The part of the group that did not climb Huayna Picchu.

A local resident.  The llamas at Machu Picchu ended up there thanks to a beer commercial shot there in I believe the 90s.  They were left there because they make great lawn mowers.

Down in Aguas Calientes we had about an hour to wander the city before meeting back up at a restaurant with the rest of our group.  Those who had climbed Huayna Picchu were obviously not with us as they had some climbing to do instead.  They did arrive at the restaurant for one last “family” lunch.  Then we headed to the train station to catch our ride back to Ollantaytambo, where we got on a Alpaca Expeditions van to take us back to Cusco.  

Upon arrival in Cusco we experienced the first of a few travel snafus.  I had booked a hotel near the airport, since we had already experienced Cusco and had a flight out in the morning.  A driver from Alpaca Expeditions drove us to the hotel.  When we arrived there was no one there to answer.  We waited a bit and then the driver called the hotel.  The owner said he was on his way.  We waited and waited and eventually about 30 minutes later he showed up.  Our driver was amazing and stayed with us the whole time.  Putting us back in the car when it was apparent he wasn’t going to be there anytime soon, which was good because it was not on a well lit street or anything.  He actually ended up calling 2 more times to make sure the owner was still coming.  Eventually he showed up and got us checked in.  Mom and I then enjoyed nice long showers and started the process of repacking our suitcases.  Our hiking clothes were extremely stinky after 4 days of hiking and sweating.  We packed them in some plastic bags and they didn’t see the light of day again until we got home.