TexasTrack Blog

I didn’t get a chance to write over the last weekend in Iquitos. Mary Isabel and I actually had some time to spend together for a change. The dinner with her family was changed several times as Mary was quite nervous about introducing me to her family since they did not know I was a foreigner. She may have even been more nervous than me!

On Saturday, she and I took a quick trip up the Maranon River to visit a jungle zoo which amounted to little more than a lot of animals in small cages. While it was interesting to see these exotic creatures, it was also very sad to see them leased to poles or stuffed inside their jungle prisons.

We saw a lot of monkeys, an anaconda and a boa (got great video of those two), a puma who was quite upset at being disturbed from his sleep, and several other animals. We were able to hold a pair of three-toed sloths who were quite interested in my video camera.

Afterwards, we spent some time at a large restaurant/club on the banks of the convergence of the Nanay and Amazon Rivers watching the light of evening sun slowly fade away in night. It was incredibly peaceful watching the simple lives of the river people play out before us.

Later that evening we met her family at a local chifa (Chinese restaurant) a few blocks form the hotel. Her father, a sister and brother-in-law (who I had already met), an aunt and uncle, and various cousins joined us for a very interesting dinner of grilled chicken and french fries. Though I never really relaxed completely, as the night progressed I felt more and more comfortable with them and they seemed to really enjoy getting to know me as well.

By the end of the night, Mary’s father had invited me to go fishing on the river with him upon my return to Iquitos. She told me later that he was quite happy with me, especially with my answers to his questions. When her aunt referred to me as her infant son’s cousin, I felt pretty good about things.

After eating we walked around the Plaza, got some ice cream cones, and headed down to the Malecon running along the river for a wonderful walk.

As you can imagine, I was very happy they accepted me. In fact, she emailed me this morning to say how happy they were, too.

I haven’t been home long and am in the DFW airport right now waiting for a flight to Albuquerque for a coaches conference the next three days. Seems like I’ll be traveling non-stop over the next three weeks, but I’ll write some closing comments about Peru when I get a chance this week.

To those of you who took a moment to write to me while I was there, it meant a lot. I really am blessed to have so many wonderful friends.

This has been an interesting week, though not in the ways I expected. A lot of waiting around for Mary Isabel -- is this what married life will be like? -- and a lot more time helping her prepare for classes.

Today we spent several hours wandering around the old part of the city taking video of the many historical buildings left over from the rubber boom that caused this city to explode around 1900. It came out pretty good considering I had to "edit" in the camera by being careful what I shot. Since I´ve become used to editing on the computer, it was hard to go back to the old ways of shooting video, but it was good because it made me really concious of every scene.

My sore throat is gone as are the cases of upset stomach which was followed by "Montezuma's Revenge" that hit me on Wednesday. I bought some more medication which didn´t require a doctor, but it apparently has affected my kidneys a little. From doing some research on the internet, it doesn't appear to be anything serious, but I'm going to discontinue use of the medication for now and see if there is a change before heading to the hospital for analysis.

We also visited the school where Mary teaches three days a week and I caused a bit of a commotion amongst the students. A typical Peruvian school runs with a certain amount of military style. The kids march and come to attention at times. Don´t think it´s boot camp because most of the time everything is exactly as in the U.S. My arrival really disrupted things as dozens of kids swarmed around me to ask questions and practice their very limited English while laughing at my poor attempts to speak in their language. (Actually it wasn´t that bad, but they laughed anyway!) While I had a great time there, I don´t think the faculty was amused.

I find the Peruvians here seem to be accepting me a lot more than the usual gringos who visit or even stay in their city. Because Mary Isabel is very well-liked and quite popular, people seem to be much friendlier to me. Gringos are not always truly welcomed to the city thought their money certainly is. I´ve had people help me out in many ways. One man climbed over a wall into the jungle below next to the river to retrieve the lens I dropped. When he climbed back, he wouldn't accept a thing except my thanks. That doesn´t happen in most places.

Another intertesting thing happened yesterday. Apparently our hotel is also occupied by the Costa Rican national soccer team. There was a big game in town and, as the team was preparing to leave the hotel, the girls' school across the street was getting out for the day. As I approached the building, hundreds of people were crowded around the hotel entrance and a mob of pre-teen girls were screaming for the players to come out to see them. It took the police to clear a path to the front door so I could go in while the kids were asking me for autographs and shaking my hand as they thought I was part of the team!

Tonight we must go to our friend Margarita's house to borrow her TV for the video tomorrow. Of course, we´ll have to carry it back on one of the tiny motocarros. Imagine a rickshaw crossed with a motorcycle and you´ll get the picture. I guess that means I have to get up at 6 in the morning and help carry it to the school before class begins at 7.

This is the most parade- and protest-loving society I've ever seen. Every day there are one or two of each. In fact, as I write it appears that a parade of school children is forming outside this internet shop. We watched a huge protest of university students pass at lunch surounded by riot police. The locals say things never get violent, but the riot police are always there because the remember the unrest of previous times.

Better get back to the hotel. Thanks for the words of encouragement, Laurie, but I still am going to be pretty nervous on Saturday. And Meme, I rarely drink anymore, but I did find a place with some expensive Mexican tequila. If I drank the stuff, it would probably kill all the bugs living in me!

I hope everyone is doing well back home. I miss you guys and will be back in the states soon. Thanks for the kind messages. You've done a lot to lessen the homesickness of this Texas boy. Until tomorrow.... chau!

Yesterday was terrible. The day started okay. Mary Isabel and I spent the morning working on materials for an experiment her students are doing today on erosion. It was fun, but by noon my throat had worsened and my cold had gotten significantly worse, too. So, while I went to get her lunch and some tea for me, she went to the pharmacy for some medicine. I thought she was going to get cold pills or something similar, but instead she came back with something that probably only a specialist prescribes in the US.

After taking the pills and mixing some other stuff with the tea, I laid down in the bed and promptly began my visit to hell. Within 30 minutes I felt terrible and my body was wracked with pain. I asked her if the medicine was supposed to help my cold and her response was "Ï don´t know." That sure made me feel a lot better! After about four hours I could feel the tea trying to come back up along with the few pieces of mandarin orange I´d eaten.  Finally I headed to the bathroom and proceeded to empty my stomach of just about everything. It took a couple of hours to get everything out and it was a most unpleasant experience, but it made a difference. Now I just needed a good night´s sleep -- something I hadn´t had in weeks. I tried a little caldo de pollo which is a kind of chicken soup with huge pieces of chicken -- sometimes whole pieces. It wasn´t what I needed as I had a tremendous urge to eat fruit. She bought some grapes, apples, and oranges which I nibbled at whiel still afraid of not being able to keep it down.

The rest of the night was uneventful. Poor Mary stayed up until about 12:30 working on today´s lessons. (Things aren´t much different there for teachers.) She´s in class now and I´m trying to find out just how much better I really am. So far it´s pretty good, though I haven´t had but a few bites to eat in 2 days and am pretty worried about eating more. I´ll probably go to the pharmacy this morning and get some Cipro to kill the local bugs that <I think have taken up residence in my digestive system.

Saturday night is the big family get-togetherwhere I meet her father, to of her sisters, and various other relatives for the first time. Needless to say, I´m pretty nervous, especially since she hasn´t told them she´s marrying a gringo! I can imagine the looks on their faces when I walk in! Of course, all her friends have accepted me unconditionally so I take that as a positive sign.

I´m off to try some coffee and shoot some video of the Belen market before Mary returns around 12:30 this afternoon.

Keep your fingers crossed. If you have any questions or comments about the trip and this pleace, please write me at phil@texastrack.com. Being this far away from home, I´d really like to hear from everyone back there.

Hope this isn´t a bad sign, but I woke up this morning with a little soreness in my throat. I´m not sure if I want to get sick down here, but at least there are enough people I trust to point me in the direction of a good doctor, if necessary.

Last night Mary Isabel and I walked down to the Plaza de Armas and the Malecon -- the boulevard along the Amazon River. I was amazed at the hundreds, maybe thousands, of people filling both on a nice Sunday night. We saw everything from a Michael Jackson impersonator to two Indian girls dressed in over-the-top jungle outfits and dancing with boa constrictors. It was, to say the least, VERY interesting. Unfortunately, I had neither camera or camcorder. While Mary Isabel is spending the morning teaching school, I poured down a lot of coffee and visited with friends I´d met on previous trips. It was fun to catch up on what everyone has been up to and who has left town. Talking politics -- both local and national -- is always fun, too.

Tomorrow I´ll probably head down the river for a few hours to visit some village along the Amazon. It just depends on how things go as to where I end up. The fun of being adventurous here is pretty intoxicating. This is a world unlike anywhere else I´ve ever been. The feeling of being VERY remote from the rest of the world permeates everything here.

The first two days here have been great. The trip down finally went great with absolutely no problems. In fact, LanPeru Airlines upgraded my seat to a better one. So now I am once again in Iquitos, Peru in the middle of the Amazon Basin.

Yesterday we took a long walk in a very poor neighborhood until evening. We snuck some a few sunset pictures in a restricted area along a tributary of the Amazon. I thought the security guards were going to have us arrested, but we managed to get our without further trouble. I had a great time walking aroun with Mary and three of her friends.

Today I watched a flag raising ceremony the morning in the main plaza. Many people turned out and it was a big occasion in the city. A parade of military units followed a flag raising ceremony. It was a colorful ceremony with a brass band playing and assorted local dignitaries involved.

In the afternoon we went to Lago Quistococha. We took a quick walkthrough of the zoo there then went swimming in the lake. Despite having to watch our bag filled with clothes and my video camera, we had a great time splashing in the jungle lake and playing on the white sand. Afterwards, we had a nice meal of ceviche which is basically raw meat somehow cooked by putting it in lemon juice. It sounds bad, but tastes great. The meat consisted of chicken, fish, shrimp, crab, oyster, and crocodile. Yes, crocodile meat.

Tonight we had a couple of ice cream sundaes at our favorite parlor before heading to this internet shop.

Tomorrow Mary Isabel goes to the university early and I´ll have the morning to be a tourist. I´ll try to upload some photos somewhere, but so far I´ve been busy taking lots of video of this beautiful place.

Later today I'll be heading out for a week or so in Iquitos, Peru which is deep in the Amazon basin. This will be sixth trip to Peru and fifth trip to Iquitos in the last 14 months. As you can guess, I really love it down there. The only problem is it takes a LOT of middle-of-the-night traveling to get there and I won't arrive until 7:00 am tomorrow morning. Three long flights and some waiting around in airports, but I'll be in one of my favorite cities in the world in about 24 hours.

Check back here daily (hopefully) for some reports from the jungle. I'm hoping to do a lot of exploring while there and will try to post some pictures, though I'm not sure that'll be possible since uploading photos may be an issue from there.