Jungle Adventures Part III

Surprise! It's only been a couple days since I posted part 2 and here is part 3! It's purely a photo update, but I would suggest not looking at some of the photos if you have a weak stomach or if you are eating. You have been warned

What happens when you fall asleep waiting for a boat to arrive with 3 of your interns

Lyndsay & Wes found this cute little sloth and snapped a picture with it
while waiting on our boat to arrive (the one we were on for a week)

Once we (Chelsey, Carolina, Heather & Mark) finally arrived in Iquitos, we met up with Carolina's aunt who treated us to some good, local food

This was the first time I've eaten fish when it's head/eyes are still attached...tastes the same!

These are the sleeping arrangements on the boat we took to Pebas (Pebas is a small village/town outside of Iquitos, and is the town where Lastenia grew up. Lastenia is a part of our church body and is studying in seminary right now in hopes to return to Pebas as a missionary). You might be able to notice that we were much more comfortable on this overnight ride, with each person having their own space to sleep rather than being stacked on top of each other

A more appetizing view of the fish plate we ate in Iquitos

Overlooking the town of Pebas

Arriving at the only place in Pebas that can serve as a hotel - a semi famous artist's home

We chose to sleep in hammocks at the "hotel" instead of the beds - it's much cooler and there are fewer bugs when you have a mosquito net

Our shower. We were a little worried after the first day when ALL of the buckets were empty after we took showers, thinking that they had been collecting this water especially for our arrival. However, the torrential downpours that night did the job and they were filled to the brim when we woke up the next morning

Pathway to the "hotel"

This is Lastenia - she's about 26 years old and is a huge help with the ministry here

Lyndsay kicking back to relax

2 headbands + 1 hat probably means we hadn't been able to shower in a couple of days

What we ate for breakfast one morning:  fried egg, rice, fried plantains, and beans. We paid no more than $2 in the market for the entire bowl and it was delicious!

Funny thing about the jungle is that people can offer you food and when you ask them what it is, they give you a name, but claim to not know what kind of animal it is (and really don't have a clue). We had eaten some type of pork-like meat two or three times and really liked it (we're talking it was probably one of our favorite things we ate), but could never get an answer for what kind of meat it was. Now...take note of the "paw" on this creature! This was our first clue as to what exactly we had been eating. We figured out when we came back to Lima that the "mahas/majas" we had been eating is better known as a "huge amazon rat".

I forgot what these are called, but they're similar to tamales

Hanging out with the mayor of Pebas and heading over to the clinic to see their setup 

We were in Pebas during the end of the Carnaval celebrations, and this is a tree of gifts (gifts attached to a pole) that they cut down when Carnaval is over. Everyone in the community comes and you get to take home whatever you pick up when the tree is cut down. On two of the trees we saw there were living turtles 

Part of the festivities is gathering in the square with music and throwing oil-based paint (that you wash off wish kerosene) all over each other, then running in a group around the square

A picture is worth 1,000 words

We tried to appear muscular and cool so nobody would "paint" us

Our daily place for smoothies, coffee and sugar (which so graciously included the sugar ants that were eating the sugar)

Success with the net

More success with the fishing net

Observing the Carnaval festivities

Lastenia's church

Getting ready for our game of soccer against the Peruvians

After the soccer game - we won, I think

Awwwww....Heather & Lasty hanging out in the hammocks

Visiting the church for their youth night

Where we played volleyball with the people from the church in Pebas. Seriously, the selvaticas (people from the jungle) were awesome at volleyball and we finally got to play a real, competitive game of volleyball that included long volleys, blocks, bumps, sets, and spikes. Then when we were leaving we realized why they're so good - across almost every street we drove down that night was a volleyball net strung across the dirt road, with all of the neighborhood joining in to play

Headed out to a smaller village

We made our way to the end of the village

As we were walking down to this river tributary, Wes and I saw one of the Jesus Christ lizards (their real, scientific name I'm not sure of...but, you know, the ones that run on the water?!) running on the water near a boat! We were super excited to have finally seen one in real life that Wes tried to give the whole running on water thing a try

Probably shortly before Wes fished off the side of our boat

If anyone knows where I can get one of these rocking chairs in the States, let me know! From the time we arrived in Pucallpa to the time we left to go back to Lima, we sought out these rocking chairs everywhere we went!

Better picture than the other? Can't remember why I put it in here twice, but I'm not deleting it now

At one point, Heather had to venture to the outhouse/restroom, and you will never believe what she found...
(If you are one with a really weak stomach, don't look at the next picture)

Maggots. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of them between the outhouse floor and the ground. 

Making a purse out of a fiber from the jungle. Jungle life is really intriguing to me....when you live in the super small pueblos like this one, your family practically makes up the entire village and you don't really need to be employed, because there's nothing you need to buy on a daily basis. They truly live off the land, and only have to occasionally buy clothes (or they might even just receive them for free, not sure) and medicine/medical care if someone gets really sick. 

A drink made from the acaí berry

Lastenia eating monkey

On the outside it looks like a coconut, but this fruit is called "cop-azul". It was SUPER sour. Can't really describe it any more than that, because I've never tasted anything similar before

Yep, sour and slimy...weird combo

Like a true Selvatica, Lastenia broke open the coconut-like fruit with her bare hands and a log...split it almost perfectly in half

The pet monkey we tried to play with! How does one acquire a pet monkey in the jungle? You kill it's mother (for the meat I'm assuming) and then realize she had babies, so you take it as your own

When this man saw us walking through the village, he stopped us and asked us if we could translate something for him. When he came out of the house, he brought two HUGE bottles of Tylenol with him that he had received from a man who used to be a missionary near their town, but now lives in the States. The only instructions the old missionary left in Spanish was that it was for the man's wife, who is suffering of arthritis pretty badly. The old couple did not know when to take the medicine, how much to take, nor what it was for, so we left them a paper of Spanish instructions

Leaving the jungle....yikes!