En La Selva!

Being interpreted, it meaneth: In the Jungle.

We landed in Iquitos sometime after 8a.m. to being soon feeling warm and fuzzy sticky. Our taxi took us to our hotel where we got settled in and were lulled into a deep sleep by the continuous loud motors of the MotoKars.

A view from our hotel window. I must say, I loved riding these things all over town. They are so fun!

Here's another picture of the Amazon from the air!

A type of Peruvian ceviche. I am told that Ceviche originated in Peru.

Fresh Banana chips! They were so good!

Outside a restaurant near the water, a protest was held against the exploitation of minors. Sadly, it's a big problem in Iquitos.

                                                                      My family. :)

                                                                These little boats have thatch roofs and are fun to ride in! We took one of these one day, and that will be in a later post.

There are little kids all over and sometimes no parents in sight. Sad!

In the meantime, Paul and I decided to pray with the natives. Sadly, they wouldn't repent, but rather hung there stone faced and unmoved. lol

My wonderful Dad. :)

Lucuma ice cream

On Thursday night we waited on a nice little dock for a boat to pick us up and take us to a floating restaurant for dinner. It was a very neat experience.

Above is the boat - below is the restaurant!

This is the inside of the floating restaurant. I think we were there around 6 or 7, but hardly anybody was there because most Peruvians don't eat dinner until 9 or 10 at night.

Mom's food. I tried a bit and it tasted so good! Mine was good, too.

Some fresh Papaya juice at the hotel breakfast. I loved the fresh squeezed juices!

This was a view out on to some roofs from another window in our hotel.

Our second day in the jungle we took a trip to a local zoo, which was really cool! A heavy rainstorm hit very suddenly while we were at the zoo, and I must say, it was extremely...cool.

A guy on the side of the road. I was taking pictures of everything, but I was a tourist after all! :)

At the zoo entrance there were tons of kids! The jungle kids are so cute and sweet, and I love listening to them talk. They're little accents with their voices are so cute!

All these kids were watching a dolphin and shouting with excitment. Super cute.

An ant eater! And yes, that have some big, juicy ants for them to eat there!

A Capybara. These are the largest animal of the rodent family! (I think.)

My brother.

 

Okay, the above set of pics were from my phone, and the below are from a camera. Some may kind of seem like repeats, but I like a lot of these pictures.

 See how wiiiiiiide and browwwwwn the Amazon river is?  I can't explain how COOL it was to fly over the jungle. It looked so neat. Jesus is such an amazing God and Creator!

 Outside our hotel there were many vendors who made copies of keys. Kind of disturbing that they were allllll outside our hotel and people in South America lovvvve to steal. lol

 So many people on the streets and in need of God in their life. Pray for Iquitos.

 More pictures of the protest outside the restaurant.

 These people that live in these little houses right on the water wash their clothes in the same water they go to the bathroom in. To us, pretty gross and even saud, but to them it's completely normal.

 This little boy was playing and he was adorable. I probably just think all little jungle kids are adorable though. lol

 Some souvenir shops under thatch roofs. Thatch roofs actually work reeeeally and keep the rain out very well. We were under one when the rainstorm hit at the zoo!

 I loved seeing all the banana trees and bananas everywhere!

 These lady looks Apostolic! Although many women in Peru wear skirts and have longer hair, so they look pretty modest. It's actually really nice to see!

 Chicken with fried bananas!

 These ants were huge! And all over in the zoo.

 The jungle also has huge black beetles and banana spiders. I am terrified of spiders!

 The line of leaves on the ground are being carried by ants. It was so neat to see the ground moving with leaves being carried by aunts less than have the size of their burdens. Ants are incredibly song and hard work. Makes me think of the Proverb, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard..."

It was pouring like crazy at the zoo, so lots of people gathered under this covering and just sat around, ate, and then started turning out some loud, crazy music. So we decided to just get out and walk in the rain. We were so wet, and I was wearing flip flops. lol
I ended up taking them off and going barefoot. Afterall, who gets to run through the Amazon barefoot in a rainstorm?! It was a neat experience.

That night after we ate and got cleaned up we headed to the church for the first night of the crusade. When I walked into the little building the people were already praying and I felt the presence of God so beautifully. I raised my hands, and the tears began to flow. Next I will post about the most important part of the trip to Iquitos - the House of God. I am so thankful to be a part of the Church of the living God. You can go anywhere in the world and the people of God are your brothers and sisters; No matter the differences in culture, we have our own culture. We are Apostolic. We are God's people. We are blessed.