Life is grand

Right now I am in a city that should not exist. It makes no sense that so many people live in a place that is so disconnected. There is no road out of here, only boats or planes. It is an island in the middle of land, an anomaly of sorts. The town burst with the rubber boom of the early 20th century, and since then, has only grown. The houses that were built in the rubber boom only attest to the fact that money was in the form of liquid that came from the trees... they can´t compare to houses anywhere else- elaborate stone work and facades covered in beautiful tiles that were probably brought over from Europe. Of course, after the rubber boom ended, all was left to decay and now many of the houses are abandoned or run-down. The rest of the city was built with the resources that were around- wooden houses with palm thatch rooves. There are almost no cars here, only motokars, or motorcycle tricycles that serve as taxis. There are a lot of unusual fruits and TONS of fish.

I arrived here on Thursday morning, after spending five days on a boat called Tuky. The boat had three floors. The first was filled with cargo- anything from blocks of ice to pigs to bananas to furniture and building supplies. The second floor had a large room filled with about 70 people, with hammocks strung about everywhere (you just sleep and hang out in a hammock the whole trip), plus a kitchen that cooked for everyone and a large table and television that usually blasted loud music videos. The third floor had the helm, several cabins and another large room that was half full of cargo. I got a cabin, just since I had no where to put my cello and I was by myself. It cost $50 for five days, with three meals a day... a hammock spot costs $25. The trip was incredible. We stopped in small villages along the way to unload ice, which the fishermen use to store the fish they catch until another boat comes by to buy it (most of the villages had no electricity). The boat also unloaded things, and sometimes picked up bananas or animals to take to the city. Every day, I saw tons of pink river dolphins (bufeos) and lots of really cool birds. The people on the boat were really nice too. I wish that everyone could take this trip at some point, there really are no words to describe it. Here are a few pictures in a feeble attempt to do it some justice.

Logging. Makes me never want to use any tree products ever again. Huge sections of the rainforest, CLEARCUT and nobody bothers to reforest:

A phenomenal sunset EVERY night:

Did I ever mention that I love my life?

Typical houses in the Amazon:

This was somebody´s big oops... might have to do with the depth finders on the boat. They can´t use regular depth finders because there are too many fallen trees and branches in the water, so they have a rope hanging off the side of the boat with knots on it and a weight on the end that they drop into the water. They also have a dingy that goes ahead of the boat with a large stick that they measure the depth with. High tech. As you can tell, accidents happen. This boat will sit here for three months until the rainy season begins again and the river rises. (The difference in water level between rainy season and dry season is about 16 FEET!)

People come in their dug out canoes to the small villages to stock up on supplies and sell their fish and fruit.

And watermelons... in one village the boat was bombarded with people selling watermelons, including this kid who got tired:

Village along the way:

Dropping off blocks of ice for the town to store their fish. This was incredibly surreal.

Another boat in port... check out the hammocks on the third floor. (I think the picture gets bigger if you click on it!)

Kids in a port town:

My favorite crew guys:

They let me drive the boat!

Some times the weather changed from this...

to this, in ten minutes. Impressive walls of rain:

And then back to this at the end of the day:

Arriving to Iquitos. It was a zoo.

Some street art in Iquitos. ¨Time is not gold. Time is art. We are in the street.¨

Bob, an Australian friend that I made on the boat, who is traveling around South America on a bike, decided that it would be a good idea to try to hijack a motorkar. In the back is an Argentinian friend, Luis, who I knew from Cusco and ran into here on the street. On his right is Juan, who is from Korea and lives in his hotel here. We had a great night out on the town and then a trip to the zoo/lake/beach the next day.

Typical floating houses in Iquitos:

Tomorrow I will be getting on a boat that transports fish, which will take me three days to the triple border- Peru, Colombia, Brazil!