Sep
23
Written by:
Cathie
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Iquitos The others had an early 6.20am breakfast then 7am departure to the black markets. It sounded like an interesting experience to say the least. Not many animals apparently for sale but I was so happy to stay in bed and relax for the morning.
12.45 meeting in the foyer to go to Monkey Island. Motorbike taxi took us to the boat ramp where we boarded a Peki Peki (slow boat) to China. – 2hrs there, 1hr on the island then 3.5hrs back. The trip back included a half way stop for petrol, colliding and being marooned on a sand bank at dusk plus numerous tacks back and forth across the wide river to avoid the naturally faster flow of water around many of the bends in the river. We set off from Iquitos at 1.30pm and got back at 9pm, well after dark. Jade, Beck and Sara stayed in Iquitos and hence were worried as to our whereabouts.
I really enjoyed the whole day and the slow boat gave me an opportunity to take photos – and lots of them! When we got there a 20min walk took us to the monkeys. They were tame but lively and pretty playful. Monkey Island also had chickens, maccaws, sloths (which we didn´t see) plus a number of walks through the jungle. We stayed about 20mins with the animals then high-tailed it out of there to fight the current all the way home. When we finally saw the homecoming lights of Iquitos and stepped into a taxi we suffered a similarly epic journey except now in the bustling town. I reckon we overloaded the poor bike for a start, 2 big men and me, his engine sounded really rough and half way back it died – conveniently next to a petrol station. We bailed out, hailed another, piled in only to have him turn into the petrol station and fill 1/10th of the tank. (They hire the bikes and only put enough petrol in to cover the journey and a bit in case they don´t get another paying passenger.) Road closures took us every which way around the square and finally to our hotel.
Met up with Jade, Sara and Beck 2 doors up in a restaurant. I ate their left over salad, had a good laugh, bought an icecream and popcorn and went upstairs to pack for the jungle and crash.
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