Good thing monkeys don't have souls!

Myyy did we have some experiences before we left the jungle. I'll start with the morning we got up and went down to the river to find a tour guide and a boat that would take us through the disgusting, piranha infested waters to a wild life place where we could hold and play with animals! Sounded fun!

 We got on one of these little thatch roofed boats with our tour guide (Roy) and headed out to the Amazon river. I believe we started off on the Nanay river and took it down to the Amazon river which was HUGE.

 A sorry little play ground right by the river.

 Roy and Bro. Nix.

 We walked straight down to the boats and hopped on!

 We wore our life jackets for a little bit, but they had mold on them and the back was rubbing against my neck and felt really gross, so I just took it off and left my life in the hands of the Lord. lol

 Roy told us we could go to a tribal sight and see some of the natives. We weren't going to go because of the immodesty, but Roy insisted that this certain tribal sight he would take us to wasn't that way. He also had been baptized (I believe in Jesus Name) and was some sort of "Christian." We decided to go since he insisted we wouldn't run into any of the tribal people that didn't have enough clothes on.
But first we headed to the wild life place!

 The boat was wooden and actually had stuff growing on it! An un named person stood up a leeeetle too suddenly and snapped one of the floor boards. The boat suddenly filled with water and hungry piranhas! Or not! No water came in, and we got a good over it. They put another board over the broken board and we sailed on.

 If you click on the above picture you will notice that the water color goes from a grey color to a reddish brown color. This is where the Nanay river meets the Amazon. The Nanay is a tributary of the Amazon River. The water in the Amazon is full of this reeeeally fine, thick, reddish brown clay and silt. If you fall in, your clothes will never be the same!

 I loved the thatch roofs! They're so well made and hold out the rain very nicely.

 Our boat pulled up to our destination and we got out and clicked up some rickety, steep, very slippery steps where we were met by monkeys! The first one immediately took to Paul and climbed right up him! They were all pretty into him actually. For some reason Paul attracts animals. It's pretty funny!

  I loved these little monkeys and could have played with them for hours!! They were a blast. But they also have a big problem...
It's true. Monkeys LOVE to steal! One of them grabbed my dad's reading glasses out of his pocket. Another one tried to pull my mom's skirt, and one swung down and pulled Paul's shirt pocket open to peek inside and see if there was anything inside that it's little heart desired.

 Here's a sloth I threw in the mix... Isn't he cute? Like, in an ugly sort of way. This guy was also pretty big on Paul. lol

 One of these little monkeys climbed up me and was sitting on my shoulders. I could feel him trying to get the chopstick out of my hair, but before I could reach up and block him he had snatched it out and jumped right off me so he could run away. I tell ya, this little dude knew he was stealing and that it was wrong. lol Thankfully we got my chopstick back!

 But don't they look so innocent? Ha! They're not. Good thing monkeys don't have souls... cause thems is BAD! The monkeys also recognize Inca Kola bottles and will steal people's sodas and drink them if they can. The pastor's wife from Iquitos told me that a monkey stole one lady's Inca Kola bottle and took a drink, only to find that she had refilled it with water. He wasn't too happy about that!

 Just chillin.' Ahhh, what a life.

 Then there was this guy, the Anaconda!

 I don't like snakes, but hey, can't pass up an experience like this!

 Here's the sloth clinging to Paul, like all of the other animals. Bro. Nix had to pry one monkey off of him and the monkey screamed and threw a tantrum. It was one of the most hilarious things I have seen! I wish I had pictures of that!

 I think I was more scared of this bird's humongous beak than I was with the snake! Just the thought of him pecking me in the eye... Ahhh.

 After a good while of holding and playing with the animals, we headed back down to the boat to go see the "modest" tribe.

 We saw several people fishing, but this guy had a huge net. Pretty cool!

It was raining again when we got of the boat and headed down this path. I was wearing flip flops and got my feet extremely wet and muddy. I saw a big hut type structure with another thatch roof ahead and headed for it since that's where everyone was going. Looked like a nice place to get out of the rain!

Wrong!

 

Apparently good ol' Mr. Tour guide had lied to us, because as soon as we saw the tribal people we immediately turned around and got outta there! I think the tour guide got the point that we weren't too happy with him after Bro. Nix let him have it! (In a Christian sort of way, or course. Hehe)

 We stood under a little covering and waited for the rest of the people who were on our boat and took wet family pictures. lol

 Yuck.

 We climbed back down the slick, clay covered, rickety boards to the boat. (I almost wiped out. Thankfully I didn't plunge to my doom.)

 We sailed back to Iquitos and pulled up next to a boat that was decorated with flowers. Someone said it was for a wedding. Interesting!

 We walked around through the markets a little bit before waving down some guys to take us to eat.

 Turtle eggs!

 There are mangy dogs everyone, but this one made me said! He looked so terrible and was digging through the trash.

 Skewered grub worms, anyone?

 Poor bananas laying in the street.

I saw a girl bite into one of these worms. Pretty disgusting! And look how fat their heads are.  Next time you want to complain about eating your vegetables, think of these. Heh heh.