3 July 05

Woke up to a breakfast of smoked gator breast. I am a great fan of the tail, but the breast was stringy and tough, reminiscent of trying to chew dental floss... Not that I`ve tried ;-)

We drove the canoe the 4 hours downriver to the entry control post, signed out and were met by a bored "Captain Canoe" in the speedboat. Someone had taken pity on him while we were away, and given him a CD of Peruvian folk music to supplement Juan`s "Ballads in English"... With that as a background, we hightailed it down to the "Ecological City" where we had a quick lunch and filled gas before setting off homebound, adventure over...

Back at the hostel we learned a couple of things... One, the guys had not taken us to the place in the reserve they were supposed to (instead they followed a suggestion from the rangers), thus the small gators and bad fishing. Two, catching gators is strictly forbidden... Doh! So don`t expect to be feasting on gator tail if you go on an organized jungle trip :-)

We had a fabulous adventure with a lot of action, and Lucho & Juan were great, though quiet hosts. They aren`t guides so I can`t recommend them, but if you do find yourself in the Iquitos area, I highly recommend a jungle camping trip over a stay at a lodge. The undisputedly best guide in town is Orlando (of Orlandos Expeditions, on the plaza) - apart from having him recommended from a myriad sources, I met several people who went on a trip with him and came back having seen Anaconda, Puma and more! The cost is $40-50 per day, all inclusive.