Not quite Indiana Jones, but I try.

Another sloth!!!  Run away!!!
   

We did manage to get out of the boat and do an actual hike into the jungle in the afternoon.  However, the mozzies decided to tag along.  Even with long sleeved shirt, pants and enough Deet to kill a horse, the mozzies relentlessly attacked us.  They buzzed around our ears incessantly. At one point, I actually yelled at them "For the love of god, can I have one minute of peace???"  Nikki was sure she got bit on her eyeball.  Another time, we had to save Nikki as two mozzies pinned her down and a third attempted to drill right through her breastplate into her heart.  OK, I might be exaggerating. 

The minute we got out of the boat, he hightailed it out of there. I wonder why?

Happy times just prior to the mozzie attack.

Apparently, squished termites makes a great mozzie repellant.

You don't want to get bitten by these guys.  They're apparently quite painful. I decided not to test this. 

Everything is large in the Amazon.

OK, maybe not everything.

Just a small tree.

OK, cut the vine and pure cool water comes out, but nobody looks cool drinking from it.

Leaf-cutter ants (the little guys carrying the pieces of leaves...go figure) are so numerous and persistent in their work that they leave tiny little beaten paths criss-crossing the forest floor.

My guide on the lookout for more monkeys.

Forget Indiana Jones, now I'm Tarzan!

This is actually a leaf-cutter anthill.

Probably the coolest flowers I've ever seen.
 
When we got back from our jungle excursion, we found two American brothers had arrived while we were gone. That evening, we all went out caiman hunting.  

I was expecting a man-eater, damn it!!!  Might have to give this one a few years. 

Together we gazed at the tapestry of stars that lay before us. 

The lodge's mascot, Spidey.

Despite our warnings, the American brothers went on a jungle hike wearing shorts and t-shirts. They returned with welts all over their bodies. The next day, they went to the other extreme to prevent any more bloodletting.  

At one point, our normal path to the Amazon was choked with plants, and we had to hack our way through the bush to get by.

Pulling weeds out of the motor.

We went on a tour of a local village and hung out with the locals.

And you thought these only existed in pet stores.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Local kids out having fun.

Local kids up to no good.

Not quite an anaconda (Jennifer Lopez was nowhere in sight, either).
 

Nikki left a few days later, but she was replaced by more and more tourists.  Pretty soon, I was longing for the "good old days" when there were only a handful of us there. 

Next on my itinerary, the Americans and I went on a day-long trip deeeeeep into the jungle on my last full day there.

We went fishing for piranhas.  You could hear their little teeth snapping when you caught one.

On a dare, I kissed one. I only required a few stitches.
On our way back, we ran into a thundershower that thoroughly soaked us. That, I didn't mind so much.  For a rainforest, it really hadn't been raining that much, so I welcomed it.  But then, the engine quit and wouldn't restart.  Our trip turned into a bit of a real adventure as we had to paddle most of the way back to the lodge (which was downstream, thankfully). 
We managed to get ourselves to my guide's friend's house, who generously towed us back to the lodge. 

A few not-so-bad attempts at some artistic shots.

This nocturnal jungle rat had all us tourists oohing and ahhhing.  We forgot it was just a RAT!

Check out the pair of hooters I had in the rafters of my cabin!

This guy soundly kicked my ass in chess on more than one occassion. 

I was teaching our chef how to swear properly in English.
My trusty guide and I just before I got on the boat for the trip back to Iquitos.  Once there, I hopped onto a plane back to Lima where I met up with Steve and his son Zach before we flew on to Cuzco (coming soon!)