Day 6- Myuna Lodge (Amazon River) - Lima

The alarm is now almost going off before we go to bed. The small boat left at 5:30 with the French Canadians and Karen and I aboard and we headed off to look at the prehistoric lake. The remainder of the full moon was setting and it was a beautiful, clear morning. 

We walked for about 30 mins after the boat trip, through some quite thick jungle. Moises's machete is very sharp and cut through most vegetation with ease. There was plenty of wildlife including a rare red bird (hat zen), some of the nearest spider monkeys we had seen, and noisy swamp birds.

We arrived back for an 8am breakfast.This time the poultry variation was a tasty omelette. All local food served is pork and chicken being the main meats plus plenty of greens, rice and watermelon

We elected to finish with a visit to the local village of San Juan. It was only a couple of kms away and we took the books and coloring pencils for the school. We also bought bracelets and a Cayman tool necklace (5-10 sole each) making sure between all of us we purchased something from each seller (as suggested by our guide).

This village was 13 families and 96 residence with a state provided Mayor and infants/primary teacher. Usually the children and family move to Iquitos for high school.

The village also had a sharman, who has the recipes to brew up the medicinal plants.

The mayor has a 2*2m jail under his office. A sentence of 24hrs is not uncommon for refusing to work or being drunk. The village has a generator for limited street and house lights.

The night before a local mother was bitten by a snake walking the path between houses and the mayor had to radio to get anti venom. She was recovering the morning.

After an early lunch the departing guest took two smaller boats as the water had dropped since our arrival. We transferred to the fast boat at the main river and with the tide assistance were back in 3 hrs.

After collecting our big packs, we Transferred to the airport and caught up on emails, messaged Simon and Pat and had a long mobile call to Pat.

The flight was full and the departure area was busy due to delays in another flight. It's 1000km  from Iquitos to Peru over the Andes mountains, which is the main catchment for the Amazon (both snow and rain).

On arrival we had a car organized to drive us to The Hotel Antigua in Miraflores. It a few blocks from the one we stayed at 5 nights back, and is grand architecture.