My friend Marc and I spent 5 days in the Amazon jungle and had an amazing time. We flew to Iquitos, which is in the heart of the jungle, in the north of Peru, then got on a boat and went down the Amazon to the Explorama Lodge. This lodge is where my school takes the entire 8th grade for a class trip in December and I had heard great things about it. The lodge was fabulous!! We had the same guide, Orlando, with us the entire week and he was great! We spent 2 nights at the lodge, then went to another lodge the company runs, Ceiba Tops. Ceiba Tops is essentially the Disney version of the jungle. Our first lodge had no electricity, no flush toilets and only cold water showers. Ceiba Tops had all the amenities, including air conditioning, and a pool and jacuzzi. By the end of the week, it was actually really nice to just hang out in the pool and jacuzzi after being sweaty and hot for 4 days.
As much as we enjoyed Ceiba Tops, both Marc and I liked the lodge better. It just had a great vibe to it. I felt like I was at Wanakee, but in the middle of the jungle. We met some interesting people and hung out with a really fun couple our age from Wisconsin. Everyone else was much, much older - lots of retired people on a South American adventure. The grounds at the lodge were absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect. Amazingly enough, it didn't rain in the rain forest. We had sunny, hot, humid weather the entire time - it rained for about 10 minutes while we were on a covered boat coming back from the Canopy Walkway.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was the second to last day when we saw tons of animals. We had been seeing different birds and bugs throughout the week and our guide was great about pointing things out. But at the end of the week we went looking for pink dolphins. They are all over the Amazon and are pink because of all the shrimp they eat. We found a bunch of them and sat in the boat for almost an hour watching them play and jump around. It was so amazing. Then we went to see a sloth and an anaconda, which were both pretty cool. And we finished out the day by going to Monkey Island , where we got to play with the monkeys. There were tons of monkeys running around and they were very friendly. We had fun holding them and just watching them play. It was great to be able to have such close contact with the animals.
Overall, it was a fabulous trip. Orlando was a great guide and Marc and I had a lot of fun. It was a trip I never expected I would take. Who knew I would ever be living in South America and be able to go to the rain forest and see the Amazon. How crazy!! I'm so lucky. It is really
amazing to be able to see the different parts of Peru - Lima in the desert and on the coast, Machu Picchu in the middle of the Andes, and now the jungle and the Amazon. This is an amazing country!
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