Johnny, our guide, mapping out our planned trip
Lima
Lima park outside of Archeological Museum
On the way to the Archeological Musuem
Dante pointing out the Museum
Motley OAT's group. Jeff taking picture, Ken observing Jeff.
Flowers in garden of Archeological Musuem
Museum art piece
Early Indian pottery piece
Early Indian art work.
Early metal work.
Gold Breast Plate.
Gold art.
Breast plate.
Gold artwork
Ear Rings.
Carved Llamas
Lois checking out the Indian artwork.
Trumpet flowers
Pay phone inside shop but accessible from the street
Plaza in Lima.
Pissaro says either stay with me and prosper or go back to Spain with nothing!
Cathedral in Lima, Peru
Police protection for changing of the guard at Capitol Building.
Waiting for the changing of the guard at Lima Capitol Building.
Federal building in Lima
Park with Shanty Town in the background.
Early Indian pyramid building. Note building blocks layed vertically to provide flexibility for earthquakes.
Building a “gift” for the Gods.
Vertical bricks have allowed pyramids to withstand over 1000 years of wear & tear, earthquakes.
Bricks made from stomping on mud mixed with sea shells.
Mud is formed into bricks and left to dry for 3 or 4 days.
Final bricks ready for construction of pyramid.
Pyramid in Central LIma built 400 BC.
Pyramid about 300 feet tall.
Lois on top of pyramid. Archeologists found several bodies that were mummified.
David, observing Lois!
Our gude at the pyramid (very knowledgable).
Peruvian hairless dog.
View of “better” neighborhood from on top of pyramid.
View of downtown Lima, Peru from top of pyramid.
Downtown Lima from top of pyramid.
It rarely rains in Lima (almost never according to guide).
Flowers near the pyramid.
Early morning view of outdoor restaurant at the Lima fish market (at the docks).
Mural at the fish market.
Repairing damaged fish nets.
Fishing boats at the fish market.
Part of the fishing fleet.
Pelicans looking for treats at the fish market.
Man selling fishing line, hooks, etc at the fish market.
Flounder and anchovies.
Take your pick!
Nice layout.
Our guide, Johnny, with his son Giovanni, at the fish market.
Stone crabs in foreground.
Typical local market near fish market (early morning).
Local market.
Lots of fresh fruit all over Peru.
Guide Dante (orange shirt) showing Nancy (far left) goods at local market.
Mom with child at Level 1 (lowest level) at Shanty Town.
Folks coming to accept our gifts of food for “Soup Kitchen”.
Our food gifts to the Shanty Town for soup. Nancy far left, Bill far right, Jo in blue, Christof in gray, Johnny holding potatoes.
Shanty town kids.
Shanty Town boys looking for trouble.
The boys found trouble while little sister looks on.l
Hard to grow trees with little water, but it's an attempt in Shanty Town level 1.
Shanty Town level 2 mode of transportation, motorcycle with rickshaw configuration.
Locally called a “Tuk Tuk”.
Modern “Mall” on the oceanfront in Lima.
Artcrafts shop in Mall.
Ocean view from the Artcraft shop.
Weavers demonstrate weaving of tapestries.
Artcrafts.
View of a Mall restaurant.
Restaurant view.
Saleslady at the “Indain Market” in Lima. Note high cheekbones and black hair.
Saleslady at Indian Market
Mother and baby at Indian Market (look at those eyes).
Iquitos street scene, many vendors in shops and along the streets
Street scene in Iquitos.
Iquitos street scene. No automobile access from anywhere.
Lois at a park in Iquitos with our first view of the Amazon basin
Amazon Basin. The difference in the low to high level of the river is 30 to 35 feet. At low level, this would all be ground w/no water.
Amazon basin view from Iquitos
Iquitos salesman: “What's your name, Lady? Lois. Glad to meet you Lois, my name is Hector”. (Shakes hands w/Lois).
Pizza delivery vehicle in Iquitos
Street vendor at Military parade in Iquitos. Plantains, Yuca, Rice with eggs and cilantro.
The stuffed fried Yuca was delicious
Iquitos Military parade. Every town has a Plaza of Arms (as in munitions).
Army troups.
The female contingent.
Iquitos farmers deliver fruit and vegetables to the local marketers.
Where did this truck come from?
Bags of charcoal for sale (very cheap)
Green fruits are oranges and peel similar to a tangerine. Deliciously sweet!
Iquitos local market.
Main crops are potatoes, corn and bananas.
Our guide, Segundo, offers us grilled monkey brains (a seed that tastes like a cashew)
All Peruvian indian kids are beautiful, happy and friendly (most are shy but not this young lady).
Iquitos fish vendor.
Student doctors and nurses march in a rally at the Iquitos local market.
Segundo, our naturalist, with wife and one of his 3 children. Segundo grew up in an Indian village and rose above the village life to become a naturalist.
Father and son observe me from their home in Iquitos
Our first view of the Amazon basin from our cruise ship, the Arapaima.
Amazon basin. Water is brown due to silt from trip from the Andes. A bucket of the river water turns normal after standing about 2 hours.
Village on river. Each village is about 18 to 22 families. Most families have 4 to 10 children.
We board the Aripaima, 12 staterooms, 20 guests, 8 staff. Skiff attached with 2 x 100 HP ourboard motors.
Amazon local business
Amazon plant, ginger I think.
Weaver bird nests (officially the Oropendulum bird)
Sunsets on the Amazon
Breakfast is served
Jo and Henry from Virginia
Segundo, our naturalist, introduces us to the Amazon Basin
Ken brought along his Polaroid Camera and gives natives pictures of themselves - they are tickled pink!
Bananas are one of the staples of the native Amazonians.
Beautiful kids here, look at those eyes.
Big brother takes care of little sister.
Papaya tree
Villager kills a poisonous snake - a Fer-de-lance.
Fer-de-lance fangs
Hangin' out
Masamoto a Peruvian alcoholic drink made from yuca root mashed, then chewed by female indians who spit it back into tub. Four days ferminting and it's done.
Native indians raise chickens that run free around their homes.
The village mayor's son with his first machette.
The village chief's daughter with her baby (Ken just took a Poloraid of her which is in her hand).
Cute kids
Chief's son harvests bananas for us
Sixteen year old Lila hanging out with us - very curious...
Sixteen year old Lila's foot looks like 60 year old's foot.
Jungle explorers
We visit a school and a steer is on premises.
Young lady curious about us as guests
Like I said, Peruvian natives are beautiful.
Mother and daughter at school.
Little scamp!
Close up of scamp
Happy school children
Our guide presents our gifts to school kids as we guests look on
Handing out gifts.
Children seem happy
Scamp again...
I was taken in by scamp!
Scamp's sister.
Scamp again!!!
We leave the school and another steer is on the premises
Jeff pets the steer
The steer wants a piece of Jeff
David settles the steer down
Go ahead, “Make my day”
Our one and only rainy day
Rain blows into the ship
Later, we leave the mother ship on a discovery mission
Lots of pretty flowers in the Amazon
Village
Wine cup mushrooms. Feel like plastic.
Lois and David at foot of monster size tree.
Red mushrooms.
Heliconia in bloom
Natives try to sell goods to staff member
Dug out with a motor that drives through a 8 to 10 ft. pipe with a propeller on the end.
Boats are handmade dugouts
Typical village scene, mom taking a pail bath.
Mom gives us a smile
Just another pretty sunset on the Amazon
Sunset
Later
Nite time brings lots of bugs
Weaver bird nests. They like to be away from other trees so monkey, lizards & snakes can't get to the babies.
Dumbfounded! Or, is it chagrin.
Wasp nest
Pretty yellow flowers on the river surface
Bromiliad plants everywhere
More bromilliads
We found a mouse that skittered across the water and climbed into this plant. It could move very fast along the surface of the water.
The villagers don't have refridgeration, so they make slits in the fish and pack in salt. The will keep for about 4 days so they can take them to market.
A good catch by uncle and nephew
Uncle and nephew break camp. Our guide bought some of their fish to give to the crew.
Our guide shows us a fish whose tail has been bitten off by a piranha that eats fish tails (go figure!).
Notice that nephew is considerably taller than uncle. Most of the older indian men are about 5' 5” tall.
We are invited to lunch by an indian family. Building on the right is kitchen. Left is living area and bedroom.
We are treated to a home cooked lunch at a villager's home. This is the kitchen. Floor is made of bamboo. Mom and daughter are doing the prep.
Fire pit has clay bottom and sides so the fire won't fall through the floor.
Mother is scraping the peel off the plantains.
We are served in style. Yuka front left. Wild roasted boar in bowl behind plantains.
Child admires her gift.
The host's family
After our lunch, we visit the village market of souvenirs
Segundo and I hold a caiman
Exploring for birds, animals, pink dolphins or ????
Pink dolphin spotted but missed the shot...
Ditto
Ditto, again.
We finally see a monkey
Another monkey
And, another monkey
A rare bird
A wolf spider on the wall (with one leg missing)
In Nauto we visit the town market. Nauta is a town of 14,000 on the bank of the Amazon River. Note pig head hanging on wall.
Nauta market.
Chickens for sale at Nauta market
You can also eat at the Nauta market. Talk about fresh food!
Another cutie
Young boy at Nauta market
Fruit bar at Nauta market
Young boy hanging out of window from street side store.
Mily Cyrus underwear for sale at the Nauta market.
Adidas and Lacoste knockoffs too!
We hire a Tuk Tuk ride in Nauta
Off we go
We stop for a photo
David checks out Tuk Tuk in Nauta with Lois enjoying the farce!
Peruvian street vendors never give up - your new best friend for life.
Amazon River
Inside the ship this is the water purification system using Amazon river water as the source.
In the “hold” this is where the crew sleeps.
The ships “stores” at the end of the cruise - not much left.
The ship kitchen
Kitchen
One of two electric generators on the ship
One hundred ninety horsepower Catarpillar engine powers the Arapiama
Sunset on the Amazon
Arapiama silouette in sunset view on the Amazon
Amazon sunset
The crew doubles as a band for our entertainment before dinner.
The “Band”, aka, the “Five Iguanas“. The band wishes us “Vaya con dios” and a safe trip home.
