Isula

On Thursday we left for a three day/two night trip into the jungle. Dr. Jose Cabanillos, a friend of Dr. Mckenna’s owns a 1000 hectare chunk of the rainforest that he uses for medical research. It’s about 2 hours up the Amazon from Iquitos. He built a small compound that can host about 20 people and we went to stay there to experience the rainforest. (tons of pictures of the compound – called Isula – on facebook.) Isula has several pets, a beautiful cat that looks like a miniature ocelot, two toucans, and a green parrot. All of them have free range of Isula, so they randomly appear next to you on a bench, or on the railing to your cabin sometimes. Not a big deal with the cat, but the birds scare you the first few times. It’s so hot out in the jungle, but there is a dock off which everyone goes swimming. A lot of us were timid(me included) about getting in the water because it’s very cloudy and we know there are animals in there. The doctor swears it’s not dangerous though, because the piranhas swim much deeper than we were swimming…. Real reassuring. The fact that they swim deep did not stop him from later taking a dead snake(poisonous one he found on the property btw), slitting its throat, and dangling it in the water to try and attract the piranhas… all while some people were still in the water swimming! That was the last straw for me, no more swimming; I’ll stick to cold showers. That night a few of us went piranhas fishing with some of the workers, but we didn’t catch anything. The water was too high and our poles didn’t reach down to where they swim. It wasn’t a loss though because the experience. We went in a handmade canoe that had been carved out of a single tree and used poles that were literally shafts with some fishing line tied on. The water and the sky were beautiful, and it was so peaceful to be out there without any noise or commotion.

On Friday morning we went on three hour walk in the jungle with Juan Ruiz, the plant expert. We all got dressed in full jungle regalia, long sleeve shirt, long pants, soccer socks, and rubber boots that come up to the knee. You want to cover as much skin as possible to avoid bug bites and scratches from foliage. We piled into canoes and took a 30 minute ride through the lakes smaller tributaries to higher ground. Now when I say small tributaries, I mean SMALL! We were sailing through maybe 5 foot water that was at most 30 feet wide. There were trees hanging over the water, and places where lily pads had completely covered the width of the water. (There are some pictures on fb) It was such a cool experience. It’s one of those places that you see in movies and read about in books, but I actually got to go there. When we arrived, we had to scale a 20 foot bank, and then we followed a rough trail into the jungle. We had 4 guides on top of Juan so luckily finding our way wasn’t an issue. Juan is a gifted man; he could name every plant/tree we passed, its scientific and common name, its herbal and industrial uses, and any notable compounds it contains. Juan is really at home in the rainforest so we learned a lot during that walk.

One time, Juan walked up to a tree and started telling us about it. He moved a branch on the ground and suddenly got a look of pure terror on his face. I heard a hum/buzzing sounds, and next thing I know our teachers are yelling at us to RUN! We didn’t hesitate; if Juan is scared, it’s definitely something we don’t want to be around. We ran for about 1/8 of a mile before we stopped to regroup. It had been a large ground nest of jaguar wasps, and enormous and very painful (as some of the group found out) wasp to encounter. No lasting harm was done, and we had first aid supplies and an epipen with us in case anyone was allergic to anything so we were prepared. This is one instance that shows how a group of pharmacy students is an ideal group to take to this part of the world – we’re always prepared for medical emergencies.

We got back and immediately stripped down to shorts and t-shirts. I don’t think any of us had ever sweated that much in our lives. All our clothing was drenched. We were going on a second walk that evening and hoped there would be time for stuff to dry but no such luck. When the humidity is chronically at/above 70% nothing ever dries. (No worries, it was raining when we left for the second walk so we traded wet shirts for rain jackets anyways.) The night walk was a shorter one through lower jungle to see an approximately 1,000 year old tree. Dr. Mckenna compared it to the tree of life from avatar. We set out on the trail and about 5 minutes in ditched the raincoats – we were wet from sweating so what harm could a little rain do? A few minutes later the trail turned to liquid boot sucking mud and we were thankful for our boots. A few minutes after that the trail became flooded (because we were in the lower jungle..) with progressively deeper water. At its highest the water came up to my waist… and yes we walked through it. So much for the boots keeping us dry, they were filled with water in no time. It was useless to empty them out too because just when you did, the water would get deep again and fill them back up. This sounds as if it would be miserable, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s one of those times when the situation is so horrible, that it just becomes fun. We were all soaked, and covered with mud, but who cares? We’re in the Amazon! The one time the water became not so fun is when the guide at the front got attacked by a sting ray! (I didn’t know they lived in fresh water, but nothing about the jungle surprises me anymore.) It surprised him, but he had a machete and quickly sliced/diced the ray to pieces. We were 2/2 on the day with guides who had been afraid in the jungle… not a good record. We proceeded with caution and when the next ray attacked, the guide was ready and took care of it with no problem. When we got to the tree, it was clearly well worth the walk there. The base of the tree was easily 15-20 feet in diameter and it jutted majestically up into the sky. It was sitting in the middle of a clearing in about 2 feet of water (high enough to fill our boots lol). The tree was so large that no other trees could survive within a 40 foot radius of it. The fact that it owned the space made it seem even larger. I didn’t bring my camera on this walk because of the rain but other people have plenty of pictures that will be posted later.

Saturday morning was supposed to be rest time, but the workers at Isula invited us to their village to see how they live. We got in the canoes again and took a 5 minute ride to their village. The people there were SO happy to see us. It seemed like half the town had come down to the water to greet us. We walked up to see the rest of their village and at the center of town was a soccer field. As I’ve learned to expect, they didn’t have a ball. The kids usually play with oranges, or ball up numerous plastic bags. Luckily, once again Frank had brought a soccer ball, which of course the kids got to keep. The guys spent the next hour and a half playing soccer with the little boys. For not having a ball to practice with, they are really good. While they were doing that, I was walking around the village taking some pictures. There was a shy group of children standing together, and I asked them if I could take a picture. Immediately after that I had a group of like 60 kids mobbing me. They rarely get to see cameras and love to get their pictures taken. They especially like the digital cameras because after I took the picture I could show it to them. I took some group shots, and then had an idea; why not take a bunch of group shots, friends, siblings, parents and children, etc…. print them in the states, and send them back down. That way they could keep them! I asked Frank and he said it was totally possible. When the villagers found out what I wanted to do, they went craaaazy, especially the kids. They wanted so many pictures taken. It was a lot of fun for me because the kids took me all over their town to take pictures, see things, and show me how they live. When we finished the photo shoot, we went back to the soccer field, and the guys were exhausted from running in the sun. They proposed that we play another game with the Peruvian women vs. our women. We accepted and had such a good time. We lost miserably, but had so much fun doing it, and we could see the villagers really appreciated us coming. Now thoroughly drenched in sweat (yet again) we went back to Isula, packed up, and went home.

Since we had Sunday off, a group of us decided to go out to a discotek. As usual, we all had a blast. With the exchange rate, everything is incredibly cheap in Peru, which means no guilt about spending money. The place we went was heavy into Salsa and had a live band and dancers that went all night. What was especially cool is that all the guys in Peru know how to dance. I danced with one person for the majority of the night and he taught me a ton of salsa moves. It’s really easy to pick up with a good partner. We are all glad to have Sunday off, after the jungle trip and a night out we are in the mood for some serious R&R.