From Iquitos, a 3 hour boat trip 140 kilometres up the Amazon and then into a smaller tributary bought us to the Muyuna Amazon Lodge for a 4 day stay.  The lodge is built from bush materials on the water´s edge, deep in the jungle, and is lit at night by kerosene lamps.  Being the dry season, the water level in the river was low, but can rise by 10 metres in the wet, inundating the jungle.  The villages along the river banks take advantage of the exposed alluvial soil to grow rice and other crops between June and November.

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With Clider, our experienced local guide, we explored remote locations by boat and on foot, looking for plants, animals and birds.  We had fun fishing, visited Clider´s village, spotted a sloth high in the trees, saw monkeys, tiny bats, pink river dolphins and the giant waterlilies growing to 2 metres across.  There was still time to relax in the hammocks and listen to the strange noises all around us.

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