Leaving the US was incredibly stressful, since I was packing for Peru, packing some items to leave at my parents's house for my return to the US, and packing the rest for months-long storage in my (former) apartment's basement. In the end I just started throwing things into bags. Consequently, I have a lot of unnecessary items with me, like an absurd number of extra socks, underwear, and various vitamins, but I wish I had brought my comfy Ecuadorian "jungle" pants for lounging. Oh well.
I arrived in Iquitos on August 23rd. I flew from Boston to Miami, then Miami to Lima, Peru's capitol, and finally from Lima out to Iquitos, the small city in the rainforest we are staying in during our breaks. I was worried about the timing of my flights but everything worked out perfectly. I was supposed to meet a volunteer at the airport in Lima (before our flight to Iquitos), but her flight was cancelled due to the weather. I had no idea, however, since I had been traveling for hours beforehand, but by some miracle I ran into another volunteer for the project. I didn't know she was supposed to be meeting us at the Lima airport, but it was a nice surprise. Judit met us at the airport and we got settled into our hostel. Normally during our breaks in Iquitos we stay in Hospedaje La Pascana, a hostel which tends to be a hub for all the researchers who work in the rainforest around Iquitos. However they were full with a large expedition group from Britain, so we got displaced around the city.
Iquitos is the largest city in the world that can only be reached by airplane or by boat. It is near the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon, and about 100 km away is the city of Nauta, which is where the Ucayali and Marañón rivers meet to become the Amazon river. A lot of the food and goods in Iquitos have to be sent by plane over the Andes or by boat from the rest of Peru. Because you can't reach Iquitos by road (except from Nauta), their roads are not filled with cars but with... mototaxis! Everyone here gets around by motocar/mototaxi, which are motorbikes with a cart attached to the back that can hold up to 3 passengers. Scooters and motorcycles are also very popular. When driving around, it's kind of like a giant game of Mario Kart - there can be up to 5 vehicles next to each other in a lane, and everyone is trying to pass each other to get ahead. No one stops for pedestrians, and sometimes they don't even stop at stop signs - they just give a precautionary "I'm coming through" honk and blast right through. Oh South America.
When I arrived, I met our leader, Judit. She is a grad student at the University of Florida, studying tropical rainforest birds that are white sand specialists - they live exclusively in the nutrient-poor, stunted "varialles" forest. Anyone interested in her research (and my job description!) can look at her website: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/ordwaylab/judit/Home.html. When we left Iquitos for the first field site, at Kilometro 28, there were 7 other volunteers. We are a very international group: Judit is Hungarian, Oona is half-Japanese and half-Finnish, Phebe is from China, Dacil is from Spain, Angela is from Taiwan, Cristian is Colombian I am half-South Korean! James and Sean are American, but both have travelled all over to very exciting places. Everyone is very nice so far!
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