October 11, 2011
Well on Monday night after my last blog entry I went back to the hotel and Jennifer and I had my coffee liquer and wanted to invite Orlando but he wasn't around so I invited the hotel staff to help us drink it (they supplied the glasses) since I am always trying to win the "heart and minds" of the locals (except for the few times when I shout my "fucken hola's" but that is very rare :)). Oh and just so my new spanish friends know about "fucken hola" you will have to go back to read my very first blog entry when I arrive in Quito at 11:30pm to understand where that comes from. I don't have a "patent" or any "copyrights" on that english/spanish phrase so anyone can feel free to use it when you get frustrated and you don't speak the language kind of situations.
Later on, Jennifer was hungry and I was really thirsty so a place was recommended to us and we went there. Jennifer ordered a ton of food and I didn't see how it could all fit inside her for being such a small person. She ordered a jug of juice and I drank it all in 5 minutes. While we were seated there was an American from Los Angeles named "Moose" (his nickname) and he joined us at our table. He could speak spanish so half the conversation was in spanish and english. Moose gave me some names and places to see when I get to Iquitos since he has just come from there. I had an early get up for my jungle excursion so had to leave the restaurant early at 8pm to get packed and go to sleep.
At 5:45am I met up with Orlando and he had his porter "Hoover" with him and we took a motorcycle taxi to another hotel since 4 tourists from Lima Peru would be joining us. We drove on a dirt road for awhile and then got to a conservation park area where we were on foot for the 2 hour journey to Orlando's hut compound. I was dressed in a muscle shirt and shorts with gum boots (I looked so cool!) and the 4 from Lima had pants and shoes and were dressed normally. We had to cross the river 4-5 times so they did get a little wet. I was just in shorts and I was sweating like crazy or just the humidity but had water pouring off of me. Just before we were to leave I asked Orlando where the Shaman lived around here that we would be doing the ayahuasca ritual with tonight and he pointed in another direction and said that the ayahuasca rituals are on every Friday at which point I said "FRIDAY?!!!!". He said yes, on Friday he will take me there and I realized we had a bit of a communication problem since I thought I was doing it tonight (Tuesday). At that point I decided I would not stay the night and would come back with the group in the afternoon.
We get to Orlando's hut compound and have some instant coffee (Which is OK with me when we are away from civilization) and a boar greets me at the door. He has 5 boars in his care and they each have names and when he called them they all ran across the river to meet us. He had the little monkey with him and there was the mother monkey that was on a leash like a clothes line so could move around quite a bit. Hoover took us to a waterfall where we chilled out for awhile and then came back to the hut. Orlando asked me if I would fill out his guest book and leave some feedback/comments about his place which I happily did and as I was laying in the hammock with both of my hands busy the little monkey jumped on me and I think it was experimenting on me as it decided to plug my nose and cover my mouth so I couldn't breath. I swear to god it was trying to kill me in first degree murder so I had to shake it off and continue writing again when it jumped on me and did the same thing again. The monkey was probably thinking "Hey, when I plug this white guys nose and mouth he turns red! Very interesting!". As I was writing, one of Orlando's boars comes up to me and demands a belly rub and his dog gets on the other side of the hammock below and begins rubbing its ass against me aggressively so pushing the hammock back and forth quickly. I guess he was using me as an "ass scratching post". My handwriting was worse than normal as these animals were busy around me.
Orlando works for the Peruvian government in looking after wildlife. He gave me the name of a shaman he knows personally in Iquitos for Ayahuasca ceremonies so I decided I would meet up with Eugene and Megan there and do it together since he is interested in doing it also. Moose also gave me a couple names for Iquitos as well. There were a lot of big blue butterflies where Orlando lives and we heard lots of sounds out there but I couldn't identify what they were. At noon we decided to head back out of the jungle and get a ride to the 4 Lima tourists hotel (Gabriela, Gladys, Manuel, and Chelio) since Gabriela said there was a guy named Lucho Romero at her hotel that did ayahuasca excursions (and he is also named in my LP book as a "trusted guide") but he quoted me 200 soles which is the same as all the other tour operators I checked out. Of course the ayahuasca is an unofficial tour that is not advertised so you have to ask. Lucho seemed like a good guy but I decided I would just do it in Iquitos and use Orlando's guy. Orlando doesn't have an email but I am sure anyone interested in checking out his wild life sanctuary can look up his name on the internet and get ahold of him since he takes people there regulary who me meets on his 1 day every 2 weeks to stock up on food.
I got their email addresses and said I would meet up with them in Lima in a few weeks when I get there along with Jennifer. When we drove back to their hotel we stopped and they ordered some "Chicha de maiz" which is a drink made of corn juice. Because of my white corn phobia I wasn't going to get any but Chelo let me take a sip of his and it was pretty good so I bought a bottle. When I left their hotel and walked 4 blocks to my hotel dress in shorts and gum boots in the hot weather I had people laughing at me or staring with a big smile on their face and I could totally understand why since that was the first thing I did when I saw Orlando dressed like that in my hotel lobby. I felt like trying to explain to each and every one of them on the street that I had just been in the jungle and am returning and this is not the way I normally dress for super hot weather as a tourist but soon enough I had the "I don't care" thing going on. Go ahead, have your laugh at my expense since I do look silly. Some construction workers up a couple stories saw me and I saw their smirks and they waved and said something and I shouted up "Hola mis amigos!!" as I displayed my cool looking gum boots to them.
So I am staying another night at my previous hotel (same room) and Wednesday morning I will get up early and get a colectivo or bus to Yurimaguas to book a 3 day boat ride on a cargo ship so I will be 2 days behind Megan and Eugene and meet up with them in Iquitos.
I don't think anything terribly interesting is going to happen over the next 24 hours (but you never know) so if you don't hear from me by Wednesday evening then I will be on my cargo boat heading for Iquitos for a couple days and will write my cargo boat experience once I am in Iquitos.
As I am finishing off this blog entry at the cafe plaza at 8pm "Moose" the guy from LA has just popped his head in and wondering why I am not in the jungle. He invited me out to dinner but as soon as I finish downloading these pictures (which are taking forever BTW) I will be heading back to my hotel and going to bed and off to Yurimaguas early tomorrow morning.
Well on Monday night after my last blog entry I went back to the hotel and Jennifer and I had my coffee liquer and wanted to invite Orlando but he wasn't around so I invited the hotel staff to help us drink it (they supplied the glasses) since I am always trying to win the "heart and minds" of the locals (except for the few times when I shout my "fucken hola's" but that is very rare :)). Oh and just so my new spanish friends know about "fucken hola" you will have to go back to read my very first blog entry when I arrive in Quito at 11:30pm to understand where that comes from. I don't have a "patent" or any "copyrights" on that english/spanish phrase so anyone can feel free to use it when you get frustrated and you don't speak the language kind of situations.
Later on, Jennifer was hungry and I was really thirsty so a place was recommended to us and we went there. Jennifer ordered a ton of food and I didn't see how it could all fit inside her for being such a small person. She ordered a jug of juice and I drank it all in 5 minutes. While we were seated there was an American from Los Angeles named "Moose" (his nickname) and he joined us at our table. He could speak spanish so half the conversation was in spanish and english. Moose gave me some names and places to see when I get to Iquitos since he has just come from there. I had an early get up for my jungle excursion so had to leave the restaurant early at 8pm to get packed and go to sleep.
At 5:45am I met up with Orlando and he had his porter "Hoover" with him and we took a motorcycle taxi to another hotel since 4 tourists from Lima Peru would be joining us. We drove on a dirt road for awhile and then got to a conservation park area where we were on foot for the 2 hour journey to Orlando's hut compound. I was dressed in a muscle shirt and shorts with gum boots (I looked so cool!) and the 4 from Lima had pants and shoes and were dressed normally. We had to cross the river 4-5 times so they did get a little wet. I was just in shorts and I was sweating like crazy or just the humidity but had water pouring off of me. Just before we were to leave I asked Orlando where the Shaman lived around here that we would be doing the ayahuasca ritual with tonight and he pointed in another direction and said that the ayahuasca rituals are on every Friday at which point I said "FRIDAY?!!!!". He said yes, on Friday he will take me there and I realized we had a bit of a communication problem since I thought I was doing it tonight (Tuesday). At that point I decided I would not stay the night and would come back with the group in the afternoon.
We get to Orlando's hut compound and have some instant coffee (Which is OK with me when we are away from civilization) and a boar greets me at the door. He has 5 boars in his care and they each have names and when he called them they all ran across the river to meet us. He had the little monkey with him and there was the mother monkey that was on a leash like a clothes line so could move around quite a bit. Hoover took us to a waterfall where we chilled out for awhile and then came back to the hut. Orlando asked me if I would fill out his guest book and leave some feedback/comments about his place which I happily did and as I was laying in the hammock with both of my hands busy the little monkey jumped on me and I think it was experimenting on me as it decided to plug my nose and cover my mouth so I couldn't breath. I swear to god it was trying to kill me in first degree murder so I had to shake it off and continue writing again when it jumped on me and did the same thing again. The monkey was probably thinking "Hey, when I plug this white guys nose and mouth he turns red! Very interesting!". As I was writing, one of Orlando's boars comes up to me and demands a belly rub and his dog gets on the other side of the hammock below and begins rubbing its ass against me aggressively so pushing the hammock back and forth quickly. I guess he was using me as an "ass scratching post". My handwriting was worse than normal as these animals were busy around me.
Orlando works for the Peruvian government in looking after wildlife. He gave me the name of a shaman he knows personally in Iquitos for Ayahuasca ceremonies so I decided I would meet up with Eugene and Megan there and do it together since he is interested in doing it also. Moose also gave me a couple names for Iquitos as well. There were a lot of big blue butterflies where Orlando lives and we heard lots of sounds out there but I couldn't identify what they were. At noon we decided to head back out of the jungle and get a ride to the 4 Lima tourists hotel (Gabriela, Gladys, Manuel, and Chelio) since Gabriela said there was a guy named Lucho Romero at her hotel that did ayahuasca excursions (and he is also named in my LP book as a "trusted guide") but he quoted me 200 soles which is the same as all the other tour operators I checked out. Of course the ayahuasca is an unofficial tour that is not advertised so you have to ask. Lucho seemed like a good guy but I decided I would just do it in Iquitos and use Orlando's guy. Orlando doesn't have an email but I am sure anyone interested in checking out his wild life sanctuary can look up his name on the internet and get ahold of him since he takes people there regulary who me meets on his 1 day every 2 weeks to stock up on food.
I got their email addresses and said I would meet up with them in Lima in a few weeks when I get there along with Jennifer. When we drove back to their hotel we stopped and they ordered some "Chicha de maiz" which is a drink made of corn juice. Because of my white corn phobia I wasn't going to get any but Chelo let me take a sip of his and it was pretty good so I bought a bottle. When I left their hotel and walked 4 blocks to my hotel dress in shorts and gum boots in the hot weather I had people laughing at me or staring with a big smile on their face and I could totally understand why since that was the first thing I did when I saw Orlando dressed like that in my hotel lobby. I felt like trying to explain to each and every one of them on the street that I had just been in the jungle and am returning and this is not the way I normally dress for super hot weather as a tourist but soon enough I had the "I don't care" thing going on. Go ahead, have your laugh at my expense since I do look silly. Some construction workers up a couple stories saw me and I saw their smirks and they waved and said something and I shouted up "Hola mis amigos!!" as I displayed my cool looking gum boots to them.
So I am staying another night at my previous hotel (same room) and Wednesday morning I will get up early and get a colectivo or bus to Yurimaguas to book a 3 day boat ride on a cargo ship so I will be 2 days behind Megan and Eugene and meet up with them in Iquitos.
I don't think anything terribly interesting is going to happen over the next 24 hours (but you never know) so if you don't hear from me by Wednesday evening then I will be on my cargo boat heading for Iquitos for a couple days and will write my cargo boat experience once I am in Iquitos.
As I am finishing off this blog entry at the cafe plaza at 8pm "Moose" the guy from LA has just popped his head in and wondering why I am not in the jungle. He invited me out to dinner but as soon as I finish downloading these pictures (which are taking forever BTW) I will be heading back to my hotel and going to bed and off to Yurimaguas early tomorrow morning.
