9-17 (Wednesday)

We got up at 5:30 to be ready to leave on the boat at 6a.m. We were "birding" along the edge of the Amazon. We were near a large island that Freddy (our guide) said he has seen shrink as much as 20 meters in 10 years.

When we got back to the hotel we had a wonderful breakfast. We started on later on a jungle walk in the rain. I had my poncho and umbrella. Can you imagine anything more weird? We saw the kind of plant that the natives use for their toilet paper. We saw some very dangerous ants. Then all hell broke loose with the weather. We made our way back to the lodge to hunker down. The main reason they return to the lodge during a storm when there is wind is because all the rain makes the root system vulnerable and something could fall on you. According to Freddy a tourist was hit on the head by a falling limb and killed.

While we waited out the rain we looked at Margareta, the pet spider and I wrote in my journal. A new batch of tourist arrived. After lunch we all went down to wave good-by to Hashemet who was going back to Iquitos and then on to Lima tonight.

Barbara later came to where I was writing and informed me that Freddy, who has two gold front teeth wanted to know if I was single and told her I made his heart pound. That reminded me of the 26 year old no tooth guy from Wadi Rum (Jordan) who wanted to sleep with me in the desert.

It finally stopped raining late in the afternoon and we took a boat to a sugar cane distillery. From there we walked over to where they sell the stuff plus other handicrafts. I didn´t buy anything. Salvador from our group bought some jungle viagra and we all teased him.

Lastly we went to a small village. There was a kindergarten, elementary school and secondary school. There probably weren´t more than 200 kids in all three schools if that many. The people there were also selling but it wasn´t high pressure.

We went back to the lodge to prepare for a night walk (6:30) into the jungle. We got on our swamp boots (provided by the hotel),ponchos and headed out with our flashlights. We couldn´t get over how much of the river bank had fallen in just today. At one place we saw a giant tree that had been claimed by erosion. We sloshed through much and walked along board paths. We saw a giant frog sitting on a log. We saw a praying mantes, a poisonious salamander, leaf cutter ants and spiders. At one point we all turned off our torches. You couldn´t see your own hand in front of your face. We made a big circle and ended up back at the lodge in time for dinner (7:30) The sky was very clear and the stars bright tonight so we were hoping for better weather in the morning.