Happy New Years from Iquitos, Amazon Jungle

I hope everyone had a wonderful new years. I had a most different one as I spent it deep inside the Amazon jungle dancing and drinking with a small jungle village and getting flour throw on me and painted all over my face as the New Year came about. I danced, sweated (a lot) and then ended the evening in a wooden canoe heading back with a jungle family to sleep in their home far from civilization. There house is just a wooden box, they sleep on the floor, they eat on the floor, the jungle is their bathroom and the river their shower.... The women cook and clean and the men fish and hunt. They speak very little to each other. When night falls upon the little home they put on the candles and get ready for bed and once the morning sun starts to ride the turckeys and chickens don´t stop calling and the house is up and about. It is surely an experience and a New Years I will never forget.

I learned lots during my time in the Jungle. I learned that at this point in my life my time to relax is when I run or bike or kayak etc. I like the hammock and I enjoy a good book but I need my drug (being exercise). The jungle is full of wonderful things like exotic fruit (all which are delicious..) exoctic flora and some pretty gnarly species... I think I saw it all from being out in the wild to visiting zoos.... The flies are vicious vicious insects and I must admit I was a little paranoid of the piranas when swimming... I also got to experience fishing with a branch and string, paddling a wooden canoe, dancing with jungle people, ayahuasca (jungle medicine), hiking in the night in search for snakes and tarantulas, night time paddles in search for kaimans, etc etc... the list goes on and the jungle goes on and on and on.

Iquitos is a crazy town....alex and i saw the band explosion one evening and went to a discoteque where i practiced my salsa.
All in all a abulous trip but during this time of holidays I do miss the people closest to me, my family. It was a strange feeling being so far away.



I look forward to my next adventure out in the mountains of the Cordillera Blanca with new friend Pedro. We are heading to Huaraz for a week full of mountain biking!




Live, Love, Laugh,...DREAM!
lina