So I´m about to embark on a six or seven day voyage down the Ucayali. I´ve got a cabin all to myself for this week on one of the main tributaries of the Amazon, at the front of the boat on the third floor. I´ve got five books to read, plenty of writing to do, even more thinking to do, and a decent case of Manco Capaq´s revenge working through my system.
Should be a blast.
Saying goodbye to the Northern jungle, Iquitos, and the Huasai, a restaurant here in town that I´ve been loving everyday. Today, for example, I had potato slices in peanut sauce, followed by rice and beans with a potato croquette of Paiche, the world´s biggest freshwater fish. It´s something like ten feet long. Washed down with fresh pineapple juice. All for about three dollars.
-Dank-
Now it´s tranquilo time. Catch you all on the flip side. Much love.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The storm
Two days ago the rain came, and kept coming, making the air seem composed mostly of water.
With the rain came a kind of bug that looks half reptilian - its head moves side to side like a lizard´s, and it has little hands, but also wings, almost like baby dragons.
These bugs were suddenly everywhere, all over the place, whizzing slowly through the air. One hit me in the neck and I stood up, with that look on my face like ´who threw that?!´
Another came out of my pocket when i was reaching in for money, making me drop my loose change in apprehension.
A third was hiding under one of the papas fritas I ate from my take-out dinner. Picked up the fry, popped it in my mouth, went for another, only to find it was a baby dragon body, sticking butts-up amidst the fried potatoes. Nice!
So my time here in Iquitos is almost at an end. Tomorrow I´ll board a boat heading up the Ucayali river, bound for Pucallpa. It will be a five or six day voyage...can´t wait to be in a hammock again!
I´ve found a contact for the Guato people of the Pantanal. He has lived amongst them, and his childhood hero was Sasha Siemel, a Latvian explorer who the Guato trained to hunt jaguar with a spear. His name is Terry, and he´s a retired airline pilot. He seems interested in possibly accompanying me on the trip, though he made it clear he hasn´t committed yet.
At the very least, he´s assured me that he will help me in any way he can with contacts and information. He told me of a system for evading the pervasive mosquitos of the Pantanal´s wet season, and, my interest piqued, I asked him to elaborate. The following is an excerpt from the email I got in response.
¨TR: No one hates mosquitos as much as I do! The only good thing that I can say about them is that they have kept the Pantanal from being developed. The system is: Permethrin treated clothes, Ultrathon insect repellent for the exposed skin, a specially modified Hennessee hammock that is absolutely mosquito proof, a can of Raid or equivalent to kill the mosquitos that get in the hammock when you do and an extra water bottle to piss in rather than get out of the bug-proof hammock before it is otherwise necessary. I have an extra hammock for you if I go on this trip. Obviously one can buy mosquito nets, but to me, if one mosquito bites me, that is too many. And after a month in the jungle, the bites really start to add up! FYI, when the locals say that there are "no mosquitos", that just means that you can see through them.¨
I like this guy already!
With the rain came a kind of bug that looks half reptilian - its head moves side to side like a lizard´s, and it has little hands, but also wings, almost like baby dragons.
These bugs were suddenly everywhere, all over the place, whizzing slowly through the air. One hit me in the neck and I stood up, with that look on my face like ´who threw that?!´
Another came out of my pocket when i was reaching in for money, making me drop my loose change in apprehension.
A third was hiding under one of the papas fritas I ate from my take-out dinner. Picked up the fry, popped it in my mouth, went for another, only to find it was a baby dragon body, sticking butts-up amidst the fried potatoes. Nice!
So my time here in Iquitos is almost at an end. Tomorrow I´ll board a boat heading up the Ucayali river, bound for Pucallpa. It will be a five or six day voyage...can´t wait to be in a hammock again!
I´ve found a contact for the Guato people of the Pantanal. He has lived amongst them, and his childhood hero was Sasha Siemel, a Latvian explorer who the Guato trained to hunt jaguar with a spear. His name is Terry, and he´s a retired airline pilot. He seems interested in possibly accompanying me on the trip, though he made it clear he hasn´t committed yet.
At the very least, he´s assured me that he will help me in any way he can with contacts and information. He told me of a system for evading the pervasive mosquitos of the Pantanal´s wet season, and, my interest piqued, I asked him to elaborate. The following is an excerpt from the email I got in response.
¨TR: No one hates mosquitos as much as I do! The only good thing that I can say about them is that they have kept the Pantanal from being developed. The system is: Permethrin treated clothes, Ultrathon insect repellent for the exposed skin, a specially modified Hennessee hammock that is absolutely mosquito proof, a can of Raid or equivalent to kill the mosquitos that get in the hammock when you do and an extra water bottle to piss in rather than get out of the bug-proof hammock before it is otherwise necessary. I have an extra hammock for you if I go on this trip. Obviously one can buy mosquito nets, but to me, if one mosquito bites me, that is too many. And after a month in the jungle, the bites really start to add up! FYI, when the locals say that there are "no mosquitos", that just means that you can see through them.¨
I like this guy already!
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