Day 8 - Iquitos - June 17th and Day 9 - Ceba Tops, Amazon - June 18th

Today was just a travel day. We left Puno at 9 am and drove to the Juliaca airport. We flew to Lima, had a few hours lay over. While in Lima we got lunch and then flew on to Iquitos. As soon as got off the plane we could immediately feel the humidity. It was a tiny little airport, and huge beetles were everywhere. Josh accidentally stepped on one getting our bags. We then took the bus to our hotel. It has only one bed and Josh does not feel comfortable sharing it with me, so he is sleeping on the floor. Today has been an adventure and it’s just beginning. We started off the morning with a short walking tour of Iquitos. We walked along the river and there were several shacks along the amazon where poor people lived. It was sad to see. We saw a building made of all steel that was shipped here from Paris. There was some ceremony going on in the main square as we went by, that happens every Sunday. Our next activity was the boat ride down the Amazon. We boarded a boat called the Amazon Queen and went 25 miles downriver to our lodges at Ceiba Tops. It took over an hour. It was pretty cool to be on a boat on the Amazon. Once we arrived, we checked into our individual houses and had a buffet lunch. After a little bit of free time, we went on a jungle walk for about an hour. Our guide pointed out different trees and vegetation, also many bugs. He took us to the huge Ceiba tree that is over 300 years old. After our walk we got in the pool. It was just Josh and I at first, but by the time we left, about half of our group was there. There is a fun little water slide that we went down several times. We then had a couple hours to rest until dinner. On our way to dinner we saw a huge frog that was as big as 2 of Josh’s fists, and there was as a jumping spider in my bed!