The Adventure Home

In some ways, the last two weeks of the trip were the most exotic of all. We had to figure out a way to get back to Nicaragua and we didn't want to fly. Machu Picchu ended up being the last official "place" we visited. From there we wanted to go to Iquitos in Northern Peru, but were told we would have to take a bus to Lima first to get there. Well, I looked on a map and saw that there was a road from Cusco to Yurimaguas, and then there was a boat that went from Yurimaguas to Iquitos. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that you cannot reach by road! So, even though we were told that we couldn't do it, I was determined to find a way.

In order to get to Yurimaguas, we had to take a bus from small city to small city. Each time we reached a city, we were told that there were no buses to the next one. But, we always searched around and we would find a bus! We went from Cusco to Ayacucho, to Huancayo, to Huanuco, to Tingo Maria to Tarapoto to Yurimaguas!!! It took a week, but we did the impossible! We went directly from Cusco by bus to Yurimaguas without going to Lima!

When we arrived in Yurimaguas at 11 am, we went to the pier and discovered that there was a cargo ship leaving for Iquitos in one hour! I had read that we needed to have our own hammocks, bowls and spoons. So we quickly ran around with a moto taxi driver to get what we needed and we got right on the cargo ship! It is an interesting ride. We went to the top level of the boat (there are 3 levels, the bottom for cargo, the next level for people and the top level for people). We were now in the Amazon and it was VERY hot, so we decided to go to the top level where we thought it would be a little cooler. Each person brings a hammock and hangs them up across the deck. If there are a lot of people like on this boat, the hammocks are practically on top of each other! This boat also had a room with a big table where you could eat or play cards with other tourists, which is what we did. But most of the people on the boat were from Peru, Bolivia or Brazil. The food was terrible. One night we had white rice and pasta. No sauce of any kind. Just white rice and pasta. We hadn't brought any food with us because we were told that food was provided, but we didn't realize just how bad the food would be. We met tourists from Israel, Australia, Belgium and Holland and we had a lot of great conversations and we spent the evenings teaching each other new card games.

We arrived in Iquitos, which is a large city and expensive because everything has to be brought in by ship or plane. We ended up finding a pretty reasonable hotel, but it looked like Dracula's castle! Our plan was to go from this city to Ecuador by cargo boat, then take a bus through Colombia to its border with Panama, cross over by foot and then get a bus or a plane to Panama City. However, when we went to the Colombian Embassy the next day, we were told by the Embassy that under NO circumstances should a person with an American passport attempt to cross that border! WAY TOO DANGEROUS! I figured if the Embassy was telling us that about their own border, it must be true. But I was bummed, because I wanted to do that and write about it afterwards since it seemed that no Americans had ever done it! The Embassy said that the border there is not really officially open (because of the danger of guerillas, drug traffickers, and crazies) and that you actually have to contract with a Panamanian "Coyote" to take you across! And they said the Panama side was just as dangerous! So now we had no choice but to go from Iquitos to Leticia, Colombia and then FLY to Panama City! Iquitos was an interesting place and had fruits and vegetables in their market that neither Josue or I had ever seen! We were looking for two things to try. Bat soup and the famous white worms that you've all seen on the Discovery Channel. We didn't find the soup, but we DID find the worms! They weren't really worms..more like big white maggots with their eyes still attached! You could eat them live, baked, or grilled. We chose grilled just because those looked better than the others. And forget eating them live! I ate three, Josue had two. They tasted OK (and not like chicken). We were proud of ourselves. Then...about 15 minutes later, our minds started working and waged a big battle with our stomachs. "What? You ate worms?" our minds said. "Yeah, they were OK, stop bothering me" said stomachs. "Ewww...worms....think about it" our minds continued. And it wasn't too long before we were both feeling kind of sick. Mind over matter they say.

To get from Iquitos to Leticia, we took another cargo ship, this time right down the AMAZON! It was amazing.....the Amazon is so wide and surprisingly, the water was brown, as it was in most of South America! Funny, I had a different picture of it in my mind. This time the ship was smaller than the other one, but they packed just as many people on! We spent our days and nights sitting in our hammocks, reading,Josue played the guitar, etc. The only tourists we met on this ship was a young couple from New York and Boston. Katlyn and Reed spent the next couple of days with us once we got to Leticia. Leticia is in the middle of the Amazon rainforest and the temperature was 115 degrees and 100% humidity! Almost too hot for me! Katlyn had a hard time the next morning when she fainted at breakfast! She hadn't been feeling too well for the two previous days and was severely dehydrated. Without an appetite and the hot weather draining her even further, she ended up spending the day in the hospital where several IV drips put her back in great shape! We went to a lake that they said had very cold water. Couldn't believe that anything would be cold there, but it was true!!!! It was actually part of the river but at this particular point, the water was very cold and a welcome relief to the hot, hot weather! We never found out how the shallow water could be so cold! We had a great piranha dinner one night and I won $45 USD at the casino and just spent $2 USD! Since we were in such an exotic place, I thought it interesting that they sold poison dart blow guns, so I got one as a souvenir. The natives here (we didn't see any) put needles through their cheeks as adornments.

The flight from Leticia to Panama City was interesting. It consisted of three flights. The first one went to Bogota, where we had to spend the night. The second flew to Caragena, where we had to spend the entire day. Not too bad, because we went to the old section of town, where we had fun eating sushi (yep! every now and then I get a craving for sushi!) and walked around. We were supposed to meet Katlyn and Reed here, but it didn't work out. Also, I wish I had had Tia Monica's number, but that was stolen along with all my other phone numbers and we couldn't call her. That night we flew to Panama City.

The next day we went to the Costa Rican Embassy to get a visa for Josue so he could take the bus back through Panama to Costa Rica to Nicaragua. Unfortunately, the nasty immigration people of Costa Rica would not give him a visa for the 5 hours it would take for him to pass through Costa Rica by bus! So he had to fly back to Managua and I took the two-day bus trip alone. But it was fine.

And now I'm back in San Juan del Sur, happy to be here. My house is rented right now, so I am renting a room in town in someone's house for the time being. I arrived on Sunday, which was mother's day in Nicaragua, and ran into Loli and Yader and Loli's family and we spent some time together with Donna and then went to Crazy Crab dancing! Finally I'm back in a country where they play the music I like and there are always people to dance with. After my fabulous GREAT SOUTH AMERICAN TRIP, I still like my Nicaragua, Nicaraguita best! Hope you enjoyed the trip as much as I did!!!! To view photos of this section, click HERE.