I have finally arrived at the El Dorado Isabella Hotel in Iquitos after a 24 hour journey that should have taken only around 15 hours. The beauty of the sights and the city itself makes every second of the journey worth it. After leaving DCA with American Airlines, I was really dreading the rest of the journey with the same airline. However when we arrived at JFK in NYC, we were surprised to have a flight attendant waiting at the terminal for us to give us a new boarding pass, supposedly LAN which is a far superior airline is partnered with AA for much of South America's air travel. Before we could board, we waited in JFK for about 1.5 hours. During that time, Demetra wanted to split the money that we were given to cover all of our costs for the journey between us, so I waited outside of a restroom for her to split the money. As I waited, I noticed we were right outside the gate from Air Jordan, they had a direct flight to Amman, Jordan. All of a sudden, a short, fat, and ugly Jordanian man, tightly clutching his wife who was covered in the traditional Arab black Burka, dragged his wife into the woman's bathroom that Demetra was using. I was seriously shocked, as I have never in my life witnessed ignorance to that extent. When they were finished, Demetra followed them out of the bathroom with the most stunned facial expression, it actually made me laugh aloud, and the Jordanian man gave me a dirty look. Demetra told me, not only did he use the woman's toilets, but he starred down his wife the whole time she was using the restroom and washing her hands. Why do people like that even leave Amman, Jordan, where the culture is completely opposite? The billboards right outside the Air Jordan gate showed a rack of ribs, followed by big burly Black men, holding promiscuously dressed women. I wonder if that Jordanian covered his wifes eyes as well so she wouldnt see the poster.
Our flight to Lima was the most comfortable ride I've ever had, I slept for 5/6 hours, I only woke to have the 2 meals they served us. When we got to Lima, we picked up our suitcases and then the hell began. So the customs line in Lima is interesting, you hit a button and if it goes green, you can pass through, if its red, you have to go through additional screening and they will open your suitcases if they deem it necessary. Demetra had prepared me with what to say just in case, but luckily I got the green light. Demetra, on the other hand, was not as lucky. She got the red and got into the line for additional screening. I waited by the exit of the gate and watched the line. As I was waiting, she disappeared and then I had no idea where she had gone. I waited for at least 20 minutes there, wondering what had happened, since the screening process was all done publically in front of the exit, and she wasnt there. I asked a security guard, but the Peruvian gestapo were not very friendly and only told me to move aside. When Demetra came out, she told me the Peruvian gestapo had put her in a small room, and opened the chest which held the microscopes, supposedly we were supposed to declare them. Oops!! So we rechecked our baggage and left for the gate that would take us to Iquitos. Our flight was scheduled for 10:40, but we got to the gate around 7:45, so we waited around and just waited. At 9:45, right before boarding was about to begin, they called Demetra's name and told her to go to the desk. At the desk, we were told that the Gestapo had found a few lighters in one of our suitcases (we had lighters in every suitcase since we need them for sterilization of our blades and stuff). Demetra went back to the terminal to the interogation area while I waited at the gate for her to come back after getting rid of whatever they had found. 10 minutes later, they called my name to the desk by the gate, supposedly it was my suitcase they found the lighter in and needed to get in it since I had the key. At this point they were just about to start boarding, so they told me to run back through the security checkpoint to the interogation area next to check in. When I got there, I could tell Demetra was reasonably flustered, so they took me and the suitcase to the back room, which was a giant cage, locked the door behind me with one of the gestapo and made me open the suitcase. The Gestapo was a short fellow, only up to my chest, and he was reasonably friendly, he told me they had seen a zippo lighter and 4-5 regular lighters. So I opened up the suitcase, pulled out the lighters which he confiscated, and then told me Zippos are only allowed as carry on. This is funny, because I had put my zippo in check in because by TSA law, zippos with butane must be on check in. Anyways, by the time they let me out, they told us we would miss our flight, but they would reschedule us for one 4 hours later. So we went back through security, still wondering if they would find the other lighters right before boarding and give us even more hell for not informing them about it. So we went to the cafe', I had a Mate Coca Tea, which is made from the leaf of the plant which Cocaine is extracted, the leaf supposedly had medicinal properties as well, including a natural cure for altitude sickness. When it was time to board, we were freaking out, just waiting for our names to get called and potentially spend a night in a Lima Prison. Thank goodness we werent called and we boarded on time and flew to Iquitos.
When we arrived, the wet rainforest air had fogged all the windows of the plane. But the beating sun of the equator was something different to anything you experience in Maryland. The heat of the sun was so hot, I could feel it through my jeans. When we got to suitcase claim, our tourguide for the whole trip, Luis was waiting for us. He was very friendly, and we will be dealing with him the whole time were in Iquitos and in the forest. They picked us up in a massive bus made entirely of Mahagony, I'll upload photos of it, it was alot of fun to drive through the massive city. Iquitos is completely locked in by the three rivers that surround it, therefore all transportation into and out of the city is via air or boat. Inside the city, the main mode of transport is the little motorbuggies, the city has over 300,000 that pulse through the city streets. Although parts of the city are visibly impoverished, I could see the slums from flying in, and driving to our hotel, it is a beautiful city, full of many sounds, smells and sights. I cant wait to explore more tomorrow. Since I havent eaten a proper meal since yesterday, we are gonna go out to eat a nice peruvian meal. The Internet at the hotel, as expected is very slow, but the rooms are great, and the showers hot, so I really cant complain at all. Tomorrow we will be meeting the Peruvian botanist and doing some shopping for our research!
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