The Stink Boat

Well we're back in Iquitos after the 3 days on the boat, 4 days of hospital and recovering in Iquitos and than 6 more days back on the boat. The time on the boat was one of the most amazing and challanging times of my life. Amazing included the sunset and sunrise in the Amazon, waking up to pink dolphins swimming beside the boat, hundreds of blue and gold macaws flying in pairs across the sky (not even exagerating.. ), seeing all sorts of animals in their natural habitat and the miles and miles of untouched rainforest. But I can honestly say I have never had such a love-hate relationship with something in my life as i had with the Lobo de Rio boat, which wound up with the nick name the stink boat (smell of the students withstanding). There were moments where you just wanted to break down and cry from the challanging living conditions and than the next minute you want to live forever on the boat. The boat was definitely the highlight of the trip. I will look back fondly on every part of the trip, even the times that I wanted to breakdown and cry. Such as the 45 degree weather where you stare longingly at the river that you are forbidden to swim in. Every meal that consisted of a plateful of white rice, plantaines and the odd piece of chicken or egg on the side (and rice has never been one of my favorite foods) or the stale bagels that gained the name of jungle doughnuts. The heat rash and mosquito bites that have managed to invade every part of your body taunting you with perpetual itchiness, secretly wishing you had a bathtub to fill with calamine lotion. I never throught i would grow a fondness for spiders, but the after the boat we fought over who got to sit near the spider web to keep the bugs away. The rainforest flashflood rain storms and the only space on the boat for the 25 students and teacher to hide was in a 20 foot by 10 foot screened room. And lastly my nightly performance of night terrors where i wake up the entire boat, which i blamed on the mosquito nets that engulphed my bed. Without those timee the trip definitely would not have been the same.

The two days back on the boat after the hostpital was the hardest for me. Everyone was extactic to see me at first, but after the novelty of my return on the boat wore off life went back to normal, and everyone was 7 days in and the boat had started to take a toll on their spirits. They were complaining about the heat, the rashes and moquito bites and all the work. They had us reading over 100 pages a day, with lectures, biology transects and having to keep 2 journals for 2 classes. Well with everyone being studious on the trip, it started taking a toll. Then I came back trying to catch up on the work I missed out on while trying to keep ontop of the daily work. I had 2 days to get all my biology transects done, and it was a marathon. I did piranha fishing the first morning (and caught 15 piranahs!), then afternoon macaws that afternoon, then caimens (and didn't even get to see one) that night.. followed by the terrestrial transect the next morning. That was the best part of the biology portion of the trip. The terrestrial transect was the only time we were actually walking through the rain forest. It is the flood season right now so most of the rainforst is flooded except for the 3 km transect that we used for spotting monkeys. Luckily everyone brught rubber boots because the water was up past your calf, but it was amazing! We didn't see any monkeys on that walk, but i saw them while we were on the boat in different times. Since the forest was flooded the fishing was done on a boat in the middle of the jungle too, but the terrestrial transect was the only time we got to walk through it. It was a busy couple days, and I was pretty run down with little strength after being sick and I started to get pretty homesick. I remember one evening i was sitting on the deck of the boat listening to music when two macaws flew by. Now macaws mate for life and they live for a hundred years.. so of course this gets me missing Ben and all you needed was a sappy love song and it would make for the perfect sappy movie scene... alll by my selllf... don't wanna be.. all by my sellf... you get the image right?.. That night we left where we were stationed and drove to a village called Bolivar where 2 of our crew members were from. We slept on the boat across the river and went into visit the town the next day. Everyone was a little apprehensive about all 20 of us appearing in a town of 100 people who clearly don't have much. But it ended up being on the highlights of the trip. We were in smaller groups and talked to osme of the locals and then a some of the men got out insturments and played their traditional music and the kids were pulling everyone up to dance. It was awesome! That afternoon we went to another village that was much bigger, but the atmostphere was a little but more different, like we were unwanted there. Probably because in Bolivar part of our crew was from there and it was their friends that we met with. We had another little meeting there with locals in small groups and then left. I unfortuntely didn't get any pictures from Bolivar and only a couple from San Martine because we dind't want to be whipping out our camera in front of poeple who didn't have much and whose homes were being threaten by the river. We donated out rubber boots to the two villages as a means to help them.

The next day we travelled allll day leaving the reserve and making out way up river. We visited another town the following day and wandered around, but it was more informal than the other two villages. It was pouring rain, and we played soccer with the kids and walked around the town picking up some local handicrafts. Once leaving that town we drove a little bit further down river to a pretty big town, where they had a bar, and that night EVERYONE, including the professors and crew was out partying. I was unfortuneately the only one who couldn't drink because i was back on antibiotics after getting really sick again 2 days back on the boat. But we danced and talked until they drank the bar of this small town dry (something that would never happen in canada that's for sure). Then today we woke up at 7 and were nearly to Iquitos!

We have 12 days here before i make my journey back home. It has definitely been an experience thus far, and will continue to be. Sorry this was so long, but i tried to talk about every little thing that has happened in the last 6 days which is pretty much impossible. It has been amazing and challaging and there is no other way to describe it. I must say everyone is happy to be back on solid ground, amongst civilzation and access to cold water and cold beer.