On Tour!: The Amazon and Lima

The wild man of the jungle!!!
Ben sporting his first (and hopefully last!) ever beard (since removed!)!

The monkey and the condor.
The impressive Nazca lines as seen from above.

Judy from the jungle!
This lovely lady saved us from school children in the Amazon and
introduced us to salsa!

Ben and Chris proving they don't have two left feet (each!)
at a Cuban Salsa lesson in Lima.

The Larco Mar at Miraflores in Lima at dusk.

The Plaza Mayor in Lima.
Early November 2006.

The varied lotions and potions of the local Iquitos market.

Ben and Chris doing the tourist thing around Iquitos.

More sloth - complete with Beatles haircut circa 1963!

Ben gives cuddles to a young little woolly monkey!

'He's a bit grumpy!'
Ben holding on tight to the potentially lethal
and lawsuit-inducing rainbow boa!!

Smile for the camera!
Chris stuggling under the weight of the stinky snake!

What a whopper!
Yes, the snake!! This is a ten foot, bloody heavy yellow anaconda!
Los Boas.

Ben and one of the rescued sloths from Los Boas,
near Iquitos, end October 2006.

Ben and Chris and (short!) guide Segundo.

One of the local families from one of the small river communities.

The big tapir we found wandering around Ceiba Tops one night.
He was twice the size of little Nelly and drank water from the bottle!

'Juane', a local dish of rice, chicken and eggs cooked in banana leaves.
Looks delicious doesn't it?!

The gang at Indiana! Our guide Segundo (far left) took us here to meet
his friends and buy them all very cheap beer!

Chris posing reluctantly at the splendid Ceiba Tops pool and waterfall!

'Look at me ma!'
It's not just us humans who smile for the camera!

A young and very cheeky howler monkey.

A shy black and white saki monkey.

Woolly monkeys getting fed.

"Ingles" the uakari monkey and the
bane of Ben's time at the Monkey Island!!

This was our taxi to Ceiba Tops luxury lodge!
If you think it looks low in the water with just the driver imagine it with
5 more passengers plus luggage!

Heavy lifting at the small village of Indiana's quayside!

A local Ribereno 'thatcher' plaiting palm leaves for roofing.

A huge cloud of butterflies attracted to a salt lick on the river bank.

We weren't kidding! They're not called giant for nothing!

The giant Victoria Regia water lilies at a black oxbow lake.

A baby caiman (named Dandy of all things!) rescued from the cooking
pot of a local family by a couple of Explorama guides.

Ben being 'cleansed' by the local shaman at the ReNuPeRu botanical
gardens near the Explornapo lodge.

The lovely Charlie! Biggest capybara ever!
Explornapo Lodge.

Gigantic elephant ear palm leaves at the
Amazon Conservatory for Tropical Studies (ACTS)

Hey, it's a rainforest! It rains!!
(Attractive plastic ponchos, huh?!)

The view over the Amazon rainforest in the early misty morning.
(Taken from the Canopy Walkway's highest point.)

One of the bridges of the Canopy Walkway.
Up to 115 feet high above the forest!

One of the beautiful margrove streams off of the Amazon
where we went piranha fishing again.

A very large (about the size of a girl's hand) and very hairy
yellow-legged tarantula near our lodge on a night walk.

One of the troupe of cheeky tamarin monkeys
who played near the lodge.

A beautiful and tiny (about 2 inches long) Poison Arrow frog in the
leaf litter on the jungle floor.