December 13th, 2007 by Farmer Dave
Swimming in the Amazon, missing our tour group and sandboarding down desert dunes. all within 24 hours
However, we almost didn't make it to the Amazon, due th the fact that when we landed and tried to get a taxi into town to get a tour out to get in amongst the jaguars, we were hounded by airport security raving about something? As we were accustomed to this airport behaviour we just ignored them, till someone interjected and said you are in the wrong city. Ah yes, the walk of shame back across the tarmac to our waiting 737 and all the other passengers, who weren't as eager as us to get into the muddy Amazon waters. It seemed our flight did a stopover in Aporto? which I thought just meant airport. Finally we made it and chose a lodge from the array of keen touts, which turned out to be one suggested by a friend from Lima. We only chose him as he was less annoying than the others? and so glad we did. Within half an hour of landing (at the right airport) we were jetting along the ginormous Amazon River, and were literally surrounded by the supposedly elisive Pink Dolphins
It was a dream come true and the dream only got better? our lodge was a stilted paradise just off the Amazon on Sunchicuy River, about an hour and a half from the civilised Iquitos, and to make it even more perfect we had the lodge to ourselves, with a dozen or so staff to answer our every need, we had none WE WERE IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?
After dropping our packs we immediately set off into the thick rainforest with our pint-sized Indian guide. You will have to wait for the video as words and I don't even think vision can transfer the reality of being there. It's like all those documentaries times ten. I mean, nothing prepared me for the sheer size of everything, the rivers, the trees, the ANTS though the monkeys and sloths were tiny compared to my expectations? but then again, against the foliage of the giants even we were miniaturised.
Adrian and I are both over six foot, double the Indians height, which was so weird as we came across them in their grass outfits in their stilted huts, and probably why we broke a few of their bridges with our weight.oops.
Though tiny, these little buggers knew how to get what they wanted. They showed us how to use their lethal blow darts, which is surprisingly easy so I am thinking whatever they set their eyes on they had for dinner.
To show our gratitude for their hospitality we bought a few of their handicrafts, all of which are very ornate and made from animals and plants we had never seen, and probably have no chance of getting back through Australian customs.
After leaving the little people, we set off to a Mezito township, the same one that the legendary Che Guevara holed up in for 9 months with the leaper colony (just for the record, he never swam the Amazon just the Sinchcuy oh and for the record so did I). We came across the most serene of communities, having all that they wanted there in the jungle even four discotechs? Not bad for having only 500 people.