Amazon adventure in Iquitos

We took a night bus from Huaraz to the capital of Peru - Lima. But we didn't plan to stay here for long, as our flight to Iquitos was scheduled to depart around noon. However, we were somehow rebooked to a later flight, which was also delayed, and we had to spend the whole day at the airport, feeling completely tired when we finally arrived in Iquitos.

Iquitos is the largest city in the Amazon region, only accessible by boat or plane, not by land - a perfect starting point for a jungle trip. The city itself is not particularly beautiful, but it's a bit crazy. Tuktuks roar through the streets all day long, crossing the roads is a challenge, the Belen district's quirky yet authentic market sells monkey and turtle meat, restaurants serve alligator meat (which actually tastes like chicken), and everywhere you go, people offer you Ayahuasca (more on that later).

There are numerous tour providers for jungle tours here, so it took us almost a whole day to decide on one. Tour operators harassed us on the street and even followed us. Eventually, we chose a four-day trip to a simple lodge, located two hours away from Iquitos - Amazonian Trips. The price was right, and the lodge was deeper in the jungle compared to most others. At 10 o'clock sharp, we were picked up by a tuktuk and taken to the extremely unpleasant and littered harbor. From there, we traveled to the lodge by speedboat across the Amazon River. Funny enough, there was an Australian guy in our boat whom we had met at a hostel in Montanita before (the travel world is small). The lodge was built on stilts, directly on a tributary of the Amazon, and consisted of multiple buildings connected by walkways. The rooms were very basic, with just a bed and a mosquito net. The shower was quite unusual, as only brown Amazon water was available 😱😂. The food was decent, at least we had clean drinking water and fresh fruit. From the cozy hammock area, we could listen to the sounds of the jungle. Our personal guide was named Pedro and seemed nice. However, over the course of four days, it turned out that Pedro appeared quite confused, maybe due to his age, or maybe because he smoked some kind of "jungle tobacco" and had been regularly practicing Ayahuasca for 15 years. He couldn't remember Bianca's name until the end, and it was actually us who spotted the animals in the jungle. When we wanted to get a closer look at a sloth, Pedro wanted to cut down the whole tree it was sitting on, and during the hunt for a snake in the undergrowth, he accidentally touched a poisonous caterpillar 🙈.

Ayahuasca followed us throughout the week in Iquitos and in the jungle. Ayahuasca is a psychedelic plant concoction that indigenous people in the Amazon drink during ritual ceremonies to enter a trance or altered state of consciousness.

The concoction is also believed to have healing properties. Eventually, Ayahuasca tourism developed, and "healing centers" emerged in the jungle. According to reports, everyone who takes Ayahuasca first has to vomit and then experiences various images in their mind. In our lodge, it was possible to drink the mixture under the guidance of a shaman, and initially, we were the only guests who weren't eager to try it. Luckily, a few other "ordinary" guests joined us later.

During the four days in the jungle, we went on some great tours: we admired the sunrise and sunset from the boat, swam in the Amazon, saw pink and gray river dolphins, and went fishing for piranhas. We actually caught one and ate it. We hiked through the jungle during the day and at night, encountered small poisonous frogs, large camouflaged frogs, giant ants, and monkeys. We went on an alligator hunt in the dark with the boat, and we also just relaxed in hammocks. It was a truly amazing experience, but after four days in the jungle, we were looking forward to a clean shower, food without rice, and fewer mosquitos.