9-19 (Friday)

We had arranged a half day tour this morning. with Bedder. He picked us up at 8:15. We gave him all the money up front and told him if he could bargain for lower prices than he estimated he could keep whatever was left over.

The first place we went was the Beliem Market. Just like so many of the foreign markets they had an assortment of fruits, veggies and of course the recently slaughtered animals. Beliem City or section is very poor. It is also know as the floating city because when the river rises during the winter the houses are on huge logs and they float. Some are just built on stilts. Sometimes the people have to move to the second story because the ground floor will be under water. We hired a canoe and went up river for a ways to see how the people live. Outside their houses and built over the river is their toilet with tarps for privacy.

We went back to the hotel Victoria and picked up the Peruvian couple and their two children who had been at the lodge with us. We went to the harbor where we got in a bigger boat. We went up river stopping where a native family lived to observe some of their animals: turtles, snakes, a baby sloth and lots of monkeys swinging around in the house. We went on the the Butterfly and animal farm. This farm was started 26 years ago by a woman from Austria. She was our personal guide. We saw lots and lots of different kinds of monkeys, boas, and ant eater, a tapir, beautiful butterflies and a jaguar. One monkey, Tony, fell in love with Barbara. He wrapped his tail around her neck, sat on her head and groomed her hair. Tony was very jealous and when I walked over to tell Barbara something Tony went nuts and tried to bite me.

One the way back from the river we were in a motorcycle taxi (the same as a tuk tuk if you´ve been to Bangkok) when we ran out of gas. The cycle driver behind us with the family pulled next to us with his tuk tuk and put his foot on our bumper. He pushed us like this all the way to the gas station. It was so funny.

We walked to town to have lunch at 3:30. We ate at little place right on the town square. I had a lot of food left over so I asked the waitress if I could give it to a couple of boys who were watching us. A man also came and made the motions of begging for food. The waitress took my food and some from other people and split it three ways. She gave a plate to each of the boys and one to the man. I think he was either mentally unstable or drunk because he threw his plate into the street. One of the boys ran and picked it up.

We went back to the grocery store. One the way we stopped in a hardware store where I bought a "tube" to put one of my necklaces in.

When we got back to the hotel we walked across the street and did email. It must have been way over 100 degrees in there with no fan. I was soaking wet when I left.

We showered, washed our hair and repacked to leave at 5 in the morning for Cuzco.