Day 2 - Canopy Walkway Excursion

We meet at the boat at 6:00am. We had a beautiful sunrise. Still so excited to actually be on the Amazon River.

Sun rise on the Amazon River

The boat ride was short, only 5 minutes down the river. We got off at a town called Indiana. Apparently is was named after the state of Indiana because the son of the land owner went to med school in Indiana. He had such a good experience, that they renamed the town.

Indiana Peru

We toured a fish market and saw many fish from the river, including piranha!

Piranha.

The tour arranged for us to travel to the Napo River via Tuk-tuk. German referred to them as the Amazon Ubers. Tuk-tuks are modified motorcycles with a bench for people to sit on. The ride was an experience. The roads were glorified sidewalks, just wide enough for two Tuk-Tuks. Most of the concrete was in need of repair, so the ride was not smooth. Luckily it was not a long ride only 20 minutes. We saw, local life, dogs and what everyday life is like in this town.

Tuk-Tuk!

The Tuk-tuks dropped us off at the Napo River where we caught another boat that took us up river to ExlorNapa Lodge. The boat ride was almost 2 hours long.

ExplorNapo Lodge

Gateway to the Canopy Walk and lunch spot.

Since we got up so early, they provided breakfast at the ExplorNapo Lodge. This lodge is an educational center used to help educate students and teachers on the biodiversity of the area. The facility is pretty big, with lodging, and meeting rooms. Student plaques are displayed all over the ceiling. Many from the states.

Our hike to the Canopy Walkway started here. Usually there is a boat that will take visitors up a creek to get close to the walkway, but the rivers are low, so we had to hike 50 minutes to get there. The trail was your typical Amazon Jungle Rainforest trail with lots of roots and mud! Thank goodness they provided hiking sticks for all of us. (Bamboo branches.)

Hiking the Amazon Rinforest.

German provided information on flora and fauna examples, and found some frogs and centipedes to view up close. He also had a local native join us, and she showed us how to turn the palm fronds into thatching for roofs.. This thatching will last 3-5 years if done properly.

The canopy walkway was built in 1991 for scientists to study the Amazon rainforest. They recently opened it up for limited tourism to help cover the expenses of maintaining it.

The walkways were narrow. Only three people were allowed on the walkway at a time. Running and jumping were not allowed. We were even asked to wash our hands if we used insect repellant with deet as it is not good for the ropes of the walkway.

Canopy Walkway

The views from the top of the canopy were amazing. We were able to stop at various platforms to take in the views. The walkway loop was not long, but it took about an hour to walk the circuit. We ended up close to where we started and had another hour hike back to the lodge.

When we got back to the Lodge, lunch was waiting for us. We had fresh catfish cooked in a banana leaf, beans and rice, and radish salad and plantain chips.

After lunch, there was a presentation on the educational part of the Lodge. The preserve is about 1,00,000 acres. They have over 100 cameras located in a grid pattern throughout the preserve. Every 4 months, they change the batteries and SIM cards for all the cameras. They are able to record the amount and type of wildlife in the area. This has been a concern as local hunters have noticed a drop in wildlife. Happy to report that since the preserve was created, there has been in increase in wildlife.

Map of the conservation area with camera locations.

We also had a demonstration on the development of stingless honey bees. They occur naturally in the area, but they were not able to create hives for them. They can now keep them in hives (not cutting down trees to get to them) and harvest the honey. The honey is used for medicinal purposes only. The honey was not as thick as the honey we are used to, and tasted quite a bit different.

We had a two hour boat ride back to Ceiba Tops Lodge. This time we took the boat from the Napo river to the Amazon River (No Tuk-tuks) back to the Lodge.

We were able use the pool to cool down and relax before a typical Amazon rain storm sent us to the bar to enjoy location beverages.

Day 1 - Iquitos Peru

Today we met up with our tour group. There are nine of us for this portion of the trip. Sandy’s best friend from college, Amy, is joining us, Janet and Pat from Houston, Alba and Greg from Simi Vally, CA, and Doug and Judith from Farmington Hills MI.. We are the youngest in our group.

The Odysseys guide met us in the lobby and walked us to the airport and helped us check all our luggage. We have limited weigh issues for this portion of the trip (33 lbs), so we had to leave some luggage behind. They will deliver the left luggage to our next hotel when we return from the Amazon.

We caught an early domestic flight from Lima to Iquitos. Iquitos is the largest city in the world you can only reach by air or water. There are no roads that lead here. 1 Million people do live here.

Airport in Iquitos

We have a new guide for our whole time in the Amazon. German (pronounced Herman) met us at the airport and got us going on this next part of our adventure.

Our guide, German.

We took a shuttle bus to the Odyssey office that was located The Amazon River. We checked our bags and got onto a boat that will take us to our hotel on the Amazon River.

Our transportation to the hotel.

The boat ride was 45 minutes (23 miles) and we arrived at the Ceiba Tops Lodge where we will be staying for the next three nights.

Ceiba Tops Lodge and Resort

The Lodge was nicely set up with a pool, large dining hall, and relaxing areas. We got villa number 205 that was located near the pool and the main meeting buildings.

Once we got settled, German took us on a hike on the hotel lodge grounds. It was a short 30 minutes hike to a large tree. This tree survived logging because a business man offered $60 to buy and save the tree. Eventually a deal was made to purchase all the land around it as well. The tree was amazing. It looked like the Tree of Life at Disney.

Our Group next to the tree.

Since the weather was good, German offered to take us out on a boat ride to watch the sun set. It was a fantastic sight to see. We also got to see a lot of the local activity on the river as well. There were large wooden boats that served as busses on the river. The river is the only source of transportation in the area.

Sunset on the Amazon River

The River bus.

Back at the Lodge, we headed to the bar for a few cocktails to unwind. We were still pretty sweaty from the hike, but a cold beer just seemed to hit the spot.

Dinner was served in the main hall. It was a buffet with fish, chicken, rice, noodles and many other interesting dishes that I could not identify.

German informers us of an itinerary change. We will need to meet at 6:00am at the dock for tomorrow’s adventure. Travel days can be exhausting, so we decided to call it an early night and go to bed by 9:00pm.

Pre Tour Day - Lima Peru

Day 1 - Today we arrive in Lima at 4:00am. We will need to get to our hotel on our own. We opted to make our own flight plans as I allowed us to fly business class, this was not an option with the travel company.

Wyndham Grand Costa del Sol Lima

We will be staying at the Wyndham Grand Costa del Sol Lima Airport hotel in Lima Peru.

After a quick nap, we headed down to breakfast before they closed at 10:00am. The hotel had a great spread. I had an omelet form the egg bar and a cappuccino. We have the whole day to ourselves. The tour does not start until tomorrow. Today is the day for all the people on our tour group to arrive.

Miguel, our concierge, helped us plan our day. He set up a private Gastronomic Tour for us and made dinner reservations at a Peruvian restaurant.

Our driver, Franco , picked us up at the hotel and drove us into the city where he picked up our tour guide Alexandra. She is from Chiclayo , a northern city in Peru. Such a coincidence, is sounds like Chicago when she says it. Our tour started at 1the Guarguero Restaurant. Here we stared with the bartender making us the local drink, a Pisco Sour. We got the whole demonstration and instruction. Very fun

Pisco Sours!

Next the chef demonstrated hot to make traditional Peruvian Ceviche at our table side. It had “Tigers Milk” (fish bones cooked with veggies), cilantro, red onions, seasoning and chili peppers. Presentation was just as important to the chef. She was careful to make sure it was “pretty” and had plenty of color. Then we were presented with Lomo Saltado. This is a Peruvian dish that is a fusion of Chinese and Peruvian culinary traditions.

Alexandra also told us of other traditional Peruvian dishes, such as guinea pig and alpaca. She used her iPad to show us pictures of a cute guinea pig, then scrolled to a cooked guinea pig! She also told us her childhood where her grandmother used a guinea pig to heal her when she was ill. There were no hospitals or clinics in her town, so they used old traditional medicines. Her grandmother would wave the guinea pig over her body to absorb the illness.. Then they would kill it and open up its guts to release the illness. I prefer modern medicine.

We also visited a Fishing Terminal where the fishermen would bring in fresh fish everyday. We were able to walk out on the pier to see all the old wooden boats. The fishermen here use nets to catch most of their fish. We saw many crabs walking about the rocks along the pier.

Next stop took us to a traditional farmers market. We were able to sample many varieties of fruits that I had never seen before.

We returned to our hotel and took a second nap. Still adjusting to the redeye flight!

After our nap, we got our free hotel drink in the lobby. You guessed it, it was a pisco sour!

Next we headed out to dinner to Huaca Pucllana Restaurant for dinner. Our concierge highly recommended this place and got a reservation for us. It is a unique traditional Peruvian restaurant that overlooks some Inca ruins. The food was good and the atmosphere was amazing.

Inca ruins at the restaraunt.

Departure Day

Today we leave for our trip to South America. We have been planning this trip for over a year and it is finally here. Our flight leaves O’Hare at 4:40pm, so we have most of the morning to check over our packing.

Living downtown Chicago heads given us the option of taking the train to O’Hare. We were able to catch the bus right outside our apartment and transfer to Blue Line that takes us to O’Hare. Such an easy process. It took us just under an hour, door to door. Not bad considering an Uber or Taxi would have been about the same if not longer and much more expensive.

O’Hare was fairly easy, except one hiccup. There is no Clear station in Terminal 3, so I was not able to use my Clear Pass to quickly get through security. On top of that, for some reason, my known traveler number was not on my reservation, so I was not able to use TSA Precheck. The lines were short and moved fast, so it not not a big issue, just annoying.

We had a 3 hour layover in Miami, so we decided to checkout the Centurion Club. I get a free access with my American Express. However, they were closing at 10:00 and we had just arrived at 9:30. We opted to go to the Admrals’s Club since we were flying business class, we get free access as well. Both clubs were near gate 14 and we arrived at gate 46. There is a tram that took us there and is was nice not to have to walk all that way. However, when we left the Admrals club at 11:30, the tram was closed, so we had to walk all the way back to our departure gate 42. Yuck! We had plenary of time to catch our flight, but saw many people running to catch their flights. We also stopped at Duty Free to get some booze for the trip. They had a new Hendricks Gin that I had not see before, Hendricks Amazonian. Seemed like a good sign, so I pickup up a bottle. Can’t wait to try it!

Our five hour flight to Lima from Miami was fairly uneventful with the exception that the business class seats did not lay flat. Sleep was difficult, but I managed to get a few hours of sleep.

We arrived at 4:30 am into Lima. Got our luggage and were able to take the short walk to our Hotel. The Wyndham Airport. We checked in and took a nice nap.