Hey everyone!
Sorry it took us awhile to post, but we were still getting
settled in and trying to figure out where to find the grocery store! Our first
week in Iquitos just flew by. After a full week in the heat and humidity of
Iquitos, we are gearing up for what will be a frenzied foray, visiting house
after shanty in the still-flooded streets of Belen. Although we still do not
have permission to do our projects (fingers crossed for June 10), our training
begins this week with the arrival of Dr. Craft and visits by several of the
U.S. Navy personnel who have been instrumental in assisting us with our
projects. We are all very hopeful and anxious to begin the research portion of
the trip, conducting surveys and collecting stool and water samples. Derek and
Dr. Strosnider spent several consecutive (and exhausting!) days revisiting
households in Belen as a continuation of last year’s project. He will post
about their adventures in Belen soon. We anticipate perhaps even longer days
for the next couple weeks to come. In the meantime, us chicas have been getting
to know Iquitos and trying to find ways to make our projects go smoothly once
we do start work.
Our
very gracious hosts, Claudia and Ítalo (below) have made us very welcome
in their home. 
They have a lovely house with four floors and a patio to sit
on when it gets warm out (all the time!). Here is the view of their street from
the patio.
Their
neighborhood is nice and in a good part of town. It can be rather loud due to “motorcycle
gangs” (they’re not actually motorcycle gangs, just groups of people driving
by) like the one to the left, but that’s part of the fun! J
On Wednesday we visited the Centro de Salud clinic in Belen,
and on Saturday we enjoyed some of the most delicious grilled pollo (chicken)
at a barbeque fundraiser for the clinic. We also came prepared with our dancing
flip flops, which was good because our Peruvian friends had a few moves to
teach us. And these people can move! Latin America lives up to its reputation
in more ways than one.
During our downtime we have taken advantage of a few of the
local spots: swimming at the treehouse pool of La Casa Fitzcarraldo Jane and
Tarzan style; enjoying the local fare of ceviche and other fresh fish,
plantains, chicken, and cecina (except Sara—no jungle pork for her); and
visiting Laguna Quistacocha, a nearby lake, zoo, and fish hatchery with
excellent eats. We snapped some good photos of animals and food while we were
there, and wanted to share a few with you.
The animals above are a marmoset and an "anta." A
marmoset is essentially a cross between a tiny monkey and a gerbil, or maybe
just a ball of fluff. They love fruit and are very difficult to photograph
because they move their heads around so much—they’re very skittish. An "anta"
looks like cross between a pig and an anteater with a miniature trunk (like an
elephant’s trunk) that is very flexible for sniffing after food. They were
super friendly and loved to try and lick our hands and faces.
Meal Blurbs:
Hannah—For lunch, I had “chaufa con pollo,” which is Chinese
fried rice with chicken. It was very tasty, but my favorite part was the
“madura,” which are the fried plantains around the edge of the plate. They are
just a little sweet, so they were like dessert after lunch.
Jenny—I cannot get over how good the ceviche was at this
place. It’s impossible to explain in broken Spanish to the servers that I don’t
like fishy fish, so I just ordered the paiche ceviche and hoped for the best. I
was NOT disappointed. Holy yum. Fresh. Not at all super fishy. Almost melts in
your mouth. Behind the ceviche are these fried plantain medallions (can’t
remember the name for sure). Will be returning to Quistacocha for the food!
Sara—I absolutely love the
food here, especially the fish! I have had whole grilled fish twice now and I
am loving it- it is very VERY delicate, moist, and I don’t mind having to work
to get the fish meat off the bones. I don’t know what exactly it is that makes
the fish here so incredible- working at a seafood restaurant has made me
appreciate the finer taste of fish, and boy would this make the cut! I look
forward to eating more and more fish the rest of my trip despite my fellow team
lacking the desire to have to deal with the bones of these little guys! Love
love love it!
P.S. Apologies everyone, for the quality of the photos. We are uploading this blog post from an internet cafe and things are going very slowly, so we couldn't upload full-sized images and cutting and pasting into paint messed up the area around the photos. We just really wanted you to see them!
