Living in Iquitos Peru

G’Day to my new Bootsnall friends. I know a lot of you are looking for a new travel adventure to capture your imagination, and I think you would like to know more about the 10th annual Great River Amazon Raft Race, Sept 20th to Sept 22, 2008, held in Iquitos Peru. The Great River Amazon Raft Race is the longest raft race in the world, held on the largest river in the world. That captures my imagination right there, how about yours? If that is not enough, try this, the rafts must be constructed of balsa logs, tied together with jungle vines, and part of the deal is you have to build your own raft. Incredible.

The race starts over 118 miles upstream, at the village of Nauta, several miles beyond the beginning of the Amazon River and the finish line is down in the jungle city of Iquitos, the largest, most isolated city in the world, with no roads going anywhere. Iquitos is surrounded by jungle and rivers.

The race will take three days to complete, some say it will take three more days to heal up from. This is a difficult endurance contest. The motto is “The faint of heart need not apply”. That says a lot but does not tell the whole story. Every year male and female rafters up in their 70s sign up for the challenge. Most people probably feel like finishing is winning.

Everyone that has participated in past races form a small band of adventurers with great camaraderie. Those who have not attempted this challenge can not know what it feels like to have finished the longest raft race in the world on a primitive balsa raft, just like the indigenous used hundreds of years before, and still use today.

That is why I do not believe an international team will ever win the Great River Amazon Raft Race. How is a gringo team of athletic adventurers going to beat a team that was born and raised on a raft? A team that reads the current so naturally they do not even know they are reading it?

I hope some of you prove me wrong. I believe the only way to do that is to come to Iquitos a few weeks before the race, build a prototype balsa raft, and practice reading the river currents. I have spent a lot of time on the River and can share some of my hard earned lessons. If anyone is interested leave a comment below. Maybe we can get a team together and test our skills against the best balsa rafters in the world.

The Amazon Rafting Club are the organizers of the Great River Amazon Raft Race. You can check that blog at;

The Great River Amazon Raft Race Blog

There are already several comments on their official blog. This could be a good way for one or two adventurous paddlers to hook up with one or two others and form an international team.

Dawn on the Amazon

If your imagination has been tweaked by this story, please tell your friends about the Great River Amazon Raft Race, and leave a comment. I will be reporting back here with more details regularly about Living in Iquitos Peru. Please subscribe to the RSS feed at the top of this page. Thank you for your consideration. Best wishes, Bill

I am going to take you behind the scenes of the Amazon Animal Orphanage and Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm in Iquitos Peru. Most people know a little bit about the Butterfly Farm. I have earned my insights studying and photographing at the Butterfly farm.

Tony Piraña using new friend Tom for a salt lick, Butterfly Farm, Iquitos Peru

First, let me introduce you to the cast of characters:

Tony Piraña thinks she is the star of the show at the Butterfly Farm. Tony is a White-fronted Capuchin Monkey, raised by street children in Iquitos Peru. Capuchins are considered to be the smartest monkeys in Central and South America, with many documented cases of habitual tool use. Tony uses tools. She uses sweaty gringos for salt licks, supplementing her diet with daily mineral licks. She is a talented pick pocket and a good photographer. Keep one hand on your camera and the other on your sun glasses.

Chavo is the boss. Everyone does what he says. How an endangered Red Uakari Monkey took over the Butterfly Farm is another story. Chavo nurtures and grooms the young monkeys, and carries them around on his back. He does not seem to care what species they are. He protects them all, so don’t attack any little monkeys, otherwise he will do the same to you. Something that he likes is to groom the guests, and then he wants you to return the favor.

Chavo Grooming Gabriela

Zeke and Florian are Saki Monkeys. If you are lucky they might let you touch their luxurious tails.

Junior is a Black Capuchin and is Tony’s pick pocket protégé. No offence to Tony but Junior is cuter, nicer and has much better manners. He likes to come and play with you and be coquettish, wiggling his eyebrows up and down, as he crawls under your shirt or blouse, ha, ji. Here the people joke that the man would like to be the monkey…

Rosa is a Giant Anteater, also orphaned and an endangered species. To me it is a great treat to see this animal up close. Until you have seen how long her tongue is, you will not believe me.

Gudrun is a human. Her job is just to work hard and make enough money to feed the animals.

Gudrun showing a Blue Morpho at the Butterfly Farm

Igor and young Argus are Red Howler Monkeys and are among the most polite characters at the Butterfly Farm.

Two new members of the Butterfly Farm family are Pauly and Wicky. Pauly is an immature Red Uakari. Wicky is a young Saddleback Tamarind.

All of the characters listed above are free to roam at will around the Butterfly Farm

Lucas is a tapir that lives in a large fenced in jungle pasture. He eats $1,000 worth of fruit and vegetables per year.

Pedro Bello, the magnificent Jaguar, lives in a huge cage that cost $10,000 to build, with a big pool of water, plus he eats $3,600 worth of red meat, chicken and fish, per year. I did not realize how large Jaguars get until I stood close to Pedro. His paws and head are huge.

Roblar is another human. Like Lucas, he rarely leaves his fenced in area. He works hard every day, leading tours and preventing the monkeys from eating the caterpillars and butterflies.

The monkeys forage for most of their food except for peanuts which they seem to love. The monkeys cost around $250 per year to feed.

Four macaws and nine parrots eat around $600 per year of fruit and nuts.

The manatee eats 22 pounds of lettuce per day for a cost of over $1,000 per year for a sea cow that only shows you its nostrils.

Add a few hundred dollars to feed the agouti, turtles, and caiman.

Had it not been for Gudrun’s and Roblar’s intervention, all of these other “characters” would most certainly have died long ago.

These two humans need help. I do not know how much the veterinarians charge them, or how much is spent on labor and maintenance, INRENA fees, taxes, and miscellaneous expenses, but I think it is a lot.

Don’t expect me to be unbiased about the Amazon Animal Orphanage and Pilpintuawasi Butterfly Farm in Iquitos Peru. Gudrun is one of my best friends in Iquitos. I know how hard she works. In addition to the Butterfly Farm she works at the University teaching German and English so she can afford to buy enough food for Pedro Bello.

I am going to reveal another behind the scenes secret. There is a new character in the plot. Gudurn and Roblar have saved an Ocelot. The Ocelot must have a larger cage to be happy, and to make Gudrun, Roblar, all the rest of us, and you happy.

I am not authorized to speak for the Butterfly Farm, but please, donate money toward a larger cage for the Ocelot, and to help with food costs. Do not ask to see the ocelot without making a donation.

In case you think a Butterfly Farm sounds boring, lots of exciting natural events happen here. Boa Constrictors slip into the Agouti cage for a meal, and then can not get back out. Giant larva, big around as a sausage, hatch into huge beetles with samari swords for pinchers. Pedro Bella hurtles after a monkey silly enough to get on top of his cage. When Pedro is very lucky he gets a live agouti turned into his lair, or a live fish released into his pond.

The Butterfly Farm is located in the jungle near the village of Padre Cocha, and the life and death drama of the food chain plays out here every day. I observe and photograph something new and unexpected every time I go to the Butterfly Farm.

Join me the next time Dawn on the Amazon visits the Butterfly Farm. There you will find a lot of what you came to Iquitos Peru to see in the first place. I didn’t even mention the 40 species of tropical butterflies and their host plants in the botanical garden.

Amazon Animal Orphanage and Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm, Iquitos Peru,
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