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Iquitos, Peru (Post #122 )

Wednesday, May 24th, 2006

Mike writes…

Very fortunately for us, our flights from Cuzco to Lima and then from Lima to Iquitos were on time and without incident. 

So, we arrived at the Iquitos Airport at around 5:00 p.m. on May 15 and were collected by a representative of our hotel — Hostal Ambassador.  It turns out, the representative was actualy an employee of an Amazon jungle lodge company called Paseos Amazonicos.  Upon arriving at the hotel after the 30 minute ride from the airport, Jesus (the rep.) briefed us on what his company could offer us.  We didn’t want to leave the next day (Tues.) but did want to go for a five day adventure beginning Wednesday the 17th.  His lodge seemed good and off the beaten track.  You see, the jungle lodges that are actually on the Amazon river itself aren’t as good for viewing wildlife because the Amazon river is like a highway for the locals.  So, the Paseos Amazonicos lodge was on the Yarapa river about 140km from Iquitos.  This was a good location and the price was only $45/person/day.  Unfortunately, Jesus could not promise us they would have a guide availible for us on Wednesday.  We really wanted to depart on Wednesday and come back on Sunday so Jesus was good enough to refer us to a couple of other companies he thought were reputable. 

Well, after two hours of talking with Jesus about jungle lodges, we finally checked into our room and headed out to find dinner.  Itquitos has a realy unusual atmosphere that’s kind of difficult to describe. Our first impression is that it is a cross between Africa and Thailand. It doesn’t really appear to be set up for tourism (although there are tons of street touts trying to earn commision from jungle lodge sales) and most of it isn’t very attractive.  Really, most of the buildings look very industrial.  Below is a picture of one of the main streets with the primary modes of transportation shown. (There are very few cars in Iquitos.)

[read on]

The Sacred Valley, Peru (Post #121)

Wednesday, May 24th, 2006

Michele here….(Did I mention we are actually in Ecuador? And doing our best to catch up on the blogs.)

Our last day in Cuzco (May , we went on a very inexpensive ($13 each) all day tour of the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley area is incredibly beautiful.  There are many small towns and villages within this huge valley and many crops growing in the surrounding valleys and mountain sides. At various points in our tour you could also see rivers in the valley and snow covered mountains.  The tour consisted of visiting four main places – Pisac, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo, and Chinchero – but we stopped at a few viewpoints along the way.

[read on]

Cuzco, Peru – Part II (Post #120)

Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
Michele here...we are way behind on the blogs but think we may be able to catch up today (May 24th). We are actually in Ecuador now but we will write about that later. The day after we got back from Machu ... [Continue reading this entry]

Machu Picchu (and Aguas Calientes), Peru (Post #119)

Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
Mike writes... We awoke early on the morning of May 10, 2006 to catch our 6:15 a.m. "backpacker" train to Machu Picchu Pueblo.  Our intention was to walk to the station because it was only a couple of kms.  However, by ... [Continue reading this entry]

Cuzco, Peru – Part I (Post #118)

Monday, May 15th, 2006
Hi Michele here.... We arrived in Cuzco on May 7th and checked into our wonderful hostel, Piccola Locanda.  Months ago we had planned to do a 5 day hike once we got to Cuzco but, for a number of reasons (including ... [Continue reading this entry]

Lima, Peru (Post #117)

Saturday, May 13th, 2006
Mike writes...  On April 5th, 2006 we left Nazca on a Flores bus at 6:15 a.m. bound for Lima.  The funny thing about most of the long distance South American buses we have ridden is they are both long-distance and local buses.  ... [Continue reading this entry]

Nazca, Peru (Post #116)

Sunday, May 7th, 2006
Hi! Michele writes.... So, on May 2nd, we took an overnight bus from Arequipa to Nazca (8.5 hours).  We were in the top front seats of the double decker bus, which allowed us to clearly view the scary driving tactics of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Arequipa, Peru (Post #115)

Sunday, May 7th, 2006
This is a combo blog written by both Mike and Michele... This is a blog on our trip to Colca Canyon where things did not go as planned, thanks to a tour agency called Pachamama Explorer (314 Jerusalen Street, Arequipa).  This company also ... [Continue reading this entry]

From Iquique, Chile to Arequipa, Peru (Post #114)

Thursday, May 4th, 2006
Mike writes... Well, for the past hour i have been trying to book accommodations on hostelworld.com but the computer i´m using isn´t cooperating with that web site so i have only managed to book one night in that time. In the ... [Continue reading this entry]

San Pedro de Atacama – Day 3 (Post #112)

Thursday, May 4th, 2006
Michele here....writing about our last day in San Pedro de Atacama. We got up this day (April 25th) at 3:15am in order to take a 2-hour bus ride to El Tatio Geothermal Field, which sits at an elevation of 14, ... [Continue reading this entry]