Landon of the Jungle!

Well I’m pretty sure you were all looking forward to an email being sent from Iquitos, but there were some more crazy transfers……………..just kidding, but it came close. Wed morning we woke up at 2 in the morning to catch our plane that left at 4. It’s about a two hour flight from Lima to Iquitos and once we got right over Iquitos, they informed us that we weren’t able to land and that we were returning to Lima. They were having some unexpected thunderstorms and we weren’t able to land. So we went back to Lima and didn’t arrive in Iquitos until 9 o’clock that night. But I AM IN THE JUNGLE!

So a little bit about Jungle Life: The only way to get to Iquitos is by boat or by plane, so it’s really an island in the middle of the country. Yes the houses are made of wood or tin and the roofs are made of leaves. The people have a lot more trust in one another here because their houses are always open and never locked up. Unlike Lima where everyone locks up their houses with locks and chains and bars. They don’t really have a sewage system, so what they have done is dig a ditch down every street and from there people dump their waste and then when it rains is flushes everything down. So far it has rained every other day and I LOVE IT. It never rained in Lima so it’s great to get soaked. We still work in the rain and its so much fun. We are always drenched from either the rain or our sweat, because when it’s not raining it is freaking hot and humid. The people here are also very distinct. I don’t think I know of anyone as laid back as these people. It’s easy to make contacts because everyone allows us to talk to them and they are always sitting in lawn chairs in front of their houses. They also talk with a really funny accent. It’s like the south in the United States, but is really funny how they talk. I will try to mimic it on a tape or something.