HOLA!!!!!!! the Amazing AMAZON!!

  I have just returned from a really really amazing trip to the Amazon,Machu Picchu and the Galapagos,really three trips in one. So I'll be blogging each section separately. I took almost 2,000 pix.....so,these are only just a few,believe me! I went with Overseas Adventure Travel,a fantastic company that caters to people who are over 50,well travelled and in decent shape,as there is LOTS of exercise involved!!!LOVED it! I have never,EVER travelled with a company that is so focused on getting you involved in the cultures of the countries and in peoples' lives. You'll soon see what I mean. I cannot recommend this company highly enough!

We are NOT in Kansas anymore!!!!

A rare sunny day in Lima,Peru

Color color everywhere

Fantastic paper crafting

The Amazon from the plane!

The frenetic,dusty,loud city of Iquitos,gateway to the Amazon;the largest city in the world not accessible by car. A cacaphony of noise,fumes,heat and humidity!

Family outing

"upscale" river houses

Explorama Lodge,our first home in the Amazon:hurricane lamps,no hot water,sharing your bedroom with the jungle!

Dugout canoes

These are 3-4 feet wide!

Wild parrots visited us often

Fishing for Piranha!!!

A piranha!

We ate our catch for dinner!

a Pink-toed tarantula.....fortunately NOT in my room,but in the lobby!UGH!

A jungle clinic's dentist chair!Yikes!

Note the red stripes of natural dye,worn as a sign of respect to the Yagua tribe that we will visit

Termite nests are everywhere

The Yagua Amazon Tribe performed ritual dances for us

Too hot to dance!

Me shooting a poison dart gun...hit it on the first attempt!!!

Kids are kids everywhere!

Grandma and grandson

We felt honored to visit these gentle people

...and to hold their pet baby sloth! SOSO cute,but watch out for her nails!!!

Look at this face on this little girl!!!!!Always smiling!!!

Village elder is sitting this one out

So cute!

I am loading sugar cane into a press to make rum!

Amazon mask

Explorama lounge

Makes me REALLY appreciate my washing machine!

Amazon sunset

Our home away from home

dugout

A "pocket monkey",the smallest monkey!

On the longest Rain Forest Canopy Treetop walk in the world! 17 platforms,up to 115 feet!

Wheeee!!!

Right out of an Indiana Jones movie!

                     
Made it! ( IN SPITE of Glen trying to shake me off!!!NOT funny!!!LOL)

What a view!

The Mighty Amazon 7  !!!!!

A visit to a shaman...I volunteered for a "cure" ceremony...figured it couldn't hurt! I felt distinctly lighter afterwards.....

Imagine my surprise when,at our second lodge,Ceiba Top,I saw HER outside my window!This is Cynthia,a wild tapir who visits the lodge a couple times of day.She owns the place!

So homely she is cute!

Native dance using a boa!

Oue second lodge,Ceiba Top,was luxurious compared to the first!

Bev and Glen...

Ruby and John...

Gloria and Max.....these 6 and I made up the" Amazon 7" !

We visited a monkey reserve,where dozens and dozens of monkeys roam free

naptime

No fear!

peekaboo

Will you pick off my lice for me?

Born free

These guys are in a cage for now,until they become more sociable

Nature's symmetry

They got along quite well with the monkeys!

Birds of Paradise...

...were everywhere!

We all relaxed in the hammocks every chance we got!

the lodge is named for this Ceiba tree----a gigantic beauty...

            ...that looks like  it is right out of the film "Avatar"!!!

We all rode these Tuk-tuks through jungle roads to see a couple of markets...

                            ...happy kids everywhere...

                        ...as well as hard-working people...

...and the colors...

...and more piranhas...

...and...ugh ugh ugh!!!

People come from all around to shop.

 We made an impromptu stop in a riverside school,in the town of Indiana...this gaggle of giggling kids loved posing for pictures and then seeing themselves!They would all giggle and run away,then go to another person to do the same.

 The teachers were very gracious to let us upset their lesson plans!

A trio of Trouble!!!

The Amazon makes the Mississippi look clear!

             
           

As we left our Amazon lodge for the last time,Cynthia ambled down the pier to say goodbye...after she went potty in the river!
Adios,Amazon....we are heading back to Lima,then on to Cuzco and the Sacred Valey and Machu Picchu!stay tuned!