Ricky Ricardo

Its a real pain to get up, turn on the light and start writing down my dreams with half asleep eyes. Back home I usually just voice record them on my phone, but since I don't want to wake up Blake, either with my horse morning voice or the light above our heads, I just write them down on my phone.In the morning we joined our new friends for breakfast in camp. We played some great games of 13 with David, Laura and Yuka. When breakfast was concluded and everyone either returned to the rooms or went off on a tour with their guides, Blake and I walked back to our hut through the jungle pathway, a stroll i've very much come to enjoy the last few days. It grows on you, being in the midst of constant danger and beauty. Just so long as it remains as a reminder of your mortality and not a harsh lesson of it that is.While in our hut we only ever do 3 things, kill mosquitos, read while killing Mosquitos, or sleep/rest in our beds to escape the Mosquitos... Id say we are attacked by an average of 2 mosquitos every minute, for at least 8 hours of the day. The worst times being right after a rain, which is nearly all the time being the rainforest and all, and just before going to sleep at around 7pm.Every time we fix a hole in the defenses of the house we notice another somewhere else. A few days ago Dennis nailed boards under every crack between the floorboards under the hut, some of which were an inch in diameter, more than enough to get in, not only for mosquitos but countless other creepy crawlers, winged menaces and slime secreting organisms. The names of which I could only guess at and the descriptions for which would no doubt, and have no doubt inspired any number of science fiction writers throughout the ages. No matter how many we killed, or how many patches we made, there was no reprieve, and out of this, but in addition to many other things, our frustration grew..Blakes reading "The Morningstar" a medieval fantasy tale, and Im reading "The 6th Man" a murder mystery involving the smartest man alive. We read until lunch time when we returned to camp and once again arrived too early and were left with our usual set of choices, sit and wait patiently (the least favored by far) or play cards. We went with the latter choice. The food appeared after everyone else had arrived and we were already halfway through a game, which we set aside to commence the sustainment of our Earthy vessels.During and after the meal we all got to talking more about ourselves. I talked about my interests in travel, writing, the arts and of course my long history of gaming. We discussed our favorite directors, I usually only talk about favorite movies or actors when discussing film, but I didn't have to think much about it, James Cameron for the win!We also talked about what musical instruments we played, currently or in school, I don't often look back at the 2 and a half years I spent in elementary and middle school fiddling about with the trombone, it was an interesting recollection to be sure.After lunch Laura, David and Yuka went camping and we continued to read.Ricky Ricardo was Antoine and Marilou's guide before they left. He was now assigned to us, and came to visit while we were reading in the living room. He knocked and entered through our front door, which had no door knob, is closed by a wedging a string between the door and the jam, and must be kept shut at all times, which it rarely was with so many people coming and going, lest the mosquitos have it any easier than they already did in getting in.Ricky found a place to sit on a mat against the wall and gave us a wide smile that was colored by the grief in his eyes. I knew this because Ricky had sat down with the us and the Canadians at dinner two nights passed and told us about his experiences as a Peruvian army commando. Fighting against drug cartels and political guerrillas in the jungles of South America back in the 80's.It had begun when he overheard us talking about ghosts and spirits in relation to ayahuasca. Thats when he came to the table and asked us if we believed in paranormal activity. He started out telling us the story of tracking guerrillas in the jungle and having to spend the night in a cemetery where he fell into a kind of trance in a collapsed grave while on watch.He told us he heard footsteps coming behind him, he wanted to open his eyes and look to see who it was but he was frozen in place, the foot steps got closer, Ricky was breathing heavily, trying as hard as he could to fight the paralysis or whatever it was and fulfill his duty as watchman and protect the other men sleeping in his unit, but he couldn't, and every step added another chill down his spine.As the steps reached his side he heard a hallow and yet sharp voice speak, "why are you here?" It said, and suddenly Ricky was smacked hard in the side of the head and he rolled out of the grave getting to his feet and yelling to the other men, who woke up and came over to see what was the matter. Ricky said there was a huge red mark on his face and everyone looked around to find whoever has hit him for over an hour. But found no one. After that it was Ricky's turn to sleep with the rest of the unit in the little abandoned hut on the hill just under the cemetery.When he finally closed his eyes and slept he was woken up immediately in the same place by another soldier, "no, let me sleep he said" but the soldier tucked hard at his collar, pulling him close to his face. It was then that Ricky noticed  he could not make out who the man was. Ricky was afraid he might be a guerrilla and screamed, "who are you!?"  no light shone upon him and Ricky grabbed his flash light from his gear and shined it at him. But it didn't do any good, for Ricky saw that the soldiers face was missing, blown away by a grenade or close range large-caliber gun shot. "Who are you!?" He said again. The dark and twisted remnants of the mans face moved and a clear voice could be heard, "I'm your friend." As he said this Ricky lost all patience and attacked the gloomy figure.This is where the other men of the unit are woken up by him screaming and throwing punches in his sleep. No matter how hard they shook him he wouldn't wake up, until the captain threw water in his face and Ricky sprung to his feet pulling his combat knife from his holster, sweating like a  frozen water bottle in Death Valley. "Where is he!?" Ricky screamed, "I'll kill him!" "It was just a dream Ricky," said the captain. "No! He's here! I was just with him!"The captain asked for the sergeants water bottle, which was always filled with liquor, and gave it to Ricky, he took a couple swigs and finally came to his senses. It was nearly dawn by then and the squad packed up and left. A few days later they found the guerrillas and pursued them further into the mountains.Ricky told us this the night Antoine and Marilou took ayahuasca. The next day we saw him teary eyed standing alone looking out into the jungle, and now he was in our hut, telling us more commando stories of which I wont get into. After he shared the next stories with us Ricky changed the subject and told us of his christmas plans to buy fruit cake and toys and make hot chocolate, giving it all out to the children of his village back in Iquitos. He invited us to participate and we whole heartedly accepted the offer. Ricky then told us of his past business experiences building a resort in the jungle, and that his partner was a drunk and very mean, eventually running it into the ground. Ricky then thanked us for everything and left.At dinner it was just us and Ricky, who in addition to being our Guide was also our cook, a very good one too. He taught us two new card games, one of which he calls criminal punch, but I'm pretty sure its just Jin rummy with a Peruvian flare. He continued telling us ever more gruesome and terrifying commando stories while we played criminal punch by candle light, adding a wonderful ambiance to the whole scene.The Argentinians, who had gone camping a day before and were supposed to be gone two more days, came back while we were about to go to bed, apparently it had been far to rainy and mosquito ridden for them. From some of the things Ricky told us, it seems almost childish to complain about such things, something I would have to remind myself of more than once in the days to come..

Insanely Political

New arrivals came today, as well as the books Wilder had promised us. Yuka from Japan, who works as a spare parts distributor to Dell and Ybon a Peruvian Chinese mix whose great- great grand father was sold as a slave in Peru way back when. We quickly got to know each other by playing cards and by the time lunch rolled around we were already getting political.We talked about 9/11 being a false flag operation. (meaning a covert staged event to blame an opposing political, economic, or religious group; well-known historical examples of which include, the gulf of Tonkin, Hitlers burning of the Reichstag, the burning of Rome by Nero to blame the christians, remember the maine. So on and so forth.)9/11 was most likely run by Black ops factions of several agencies and organizations, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad (israeli intelligence) but we may never know. Ybon knew a good amount about it all but Yuka was a deer in the head lights the entire conversation. She said she had never heard about any of it but was very interested, and also that she was sorry she couldn't communicate that well with us, which no one held against her, especially while on the subject of conspiracies, which no one considers polite conversation.Antoine and Marilou had made a deal with Wilder to have an Ayahuasca ceremony that night with Victor. Once we had finished dinner we walked together with them to our hut, and since we believed that you should only be present in a ceremony if you are drinking or interpreting we wished them all the best and excused ourselves to lay down. From what we could hear of the ceremony it was much different from the ones we had with Caesar. The ceremony went until 3 in the morning and we hadn't eaten dinner until nearly 9pm because everyone including the camp cook were partying for the 2nd round of soccer games in Liberta, so neither of us slept well.In the morning Antoine, Marilou and Ybon Prepared to leave. Wilder would be going back to Iquitos as well to get more Ayahuasca, or so he said, we've decided to keep his words in the fantasy folder of our trip until further notice.Before lunch was served a new boat arrived. Blake and I were sitting at the dinning room table playing cards, as we usually did before and after meals. I turned my head around to check them out and guessed out loud that they were German and French. One of the guides we knew from last week came in from their boat and said hello. "Where they from?" I asked him, "not sure, German and French I think," he said as he walked passed us into the kitchen."Howd you know?" Blake asked. The Germans were easy to spot, all wearing Birkenstocks, thin smart-looking glasses, sweat paints and well maintained emotionless gazes, totally textbook. The French were wearing much more relaxed and adventurous clothing, and the guy was smoking a cigarette as he got off the boat, it was a split choice really, between France and the US, I just went with what seemed the most realistic. Not wanting to go into all the details of my observations though, I just smiled and said, "lucky guess."After being shown to their rooms, each group entered the dinning room to eat and we introduced ourselves. Three of them were from Germany, 1 was from France and the other had lived in France, her father was French but her mother was Peruvian, but she grew up in Texas.. So I guess I was right either way. I didn't see the 2 other people at the back of the boat though, they were Argentinian.While eating lunch the first thing I asked David, the French guy, was about the proposed 100% tax rate in France. He said he wasn't rich so it wouldn't affect him, and he could give a shit about the French government anyways. The conversation spiraled out of control from that point on, no one but David, Laura (the french, peruvian American girl) Blake and myself even said anything, everyone else hung back and watched the spectacle.Before dinner Blake and I had yet another plant water sauna that we had helped Victor make. During dinner we weren't so chatty as before but we did play a number of card games with Laura and David. Getting to know each other outside of the political sphere, which is always nice. Blake and I started reading the books that came today and were happy for them.

A Future in Peru

•Dreams have a way of finding people who can bring them to life, but first you must believe that they can come true, and to do that you must work towards them as if they are already happening, one step at a time.In the morning we ate breakfast and played cards as usual, then joined Wilder, the cook and Moisess' son on a gorgeous boat ride to the largest and nicest village we've seen yet. Our mission was to, yet again, acquire fish and medicinal plants for the camp, for without new guests arriving, management deemed it a waste of resources to properly feed the workers, guides, Blake and myself. It would after all require them to send a boat from Iquitos solely to feed us, and we didn't pay for that kind of extravagance now did we?Anyways, when we arrived the son and the cook went their own ways while we joined Wilder on a stroll through the village, which had solid concrete pathways and better street lighting than Pacific Grove does, the town I live at in California.While we were walking Wilder told us he had a property before that he was growing fruits with, but a flood came during the rainy season and washed it all away, so he sold it. Then he told us that if he had $5000 right now he would buy the land he needed and start his own resort for tourists. This sparked the idea for us to start one ourselves, and the spark quickly became a wildfire of ideas and plans to make just such a resort possible.Blake, who I've been trying to convince for years now to return to Australia with me to work there for far better pay than in the States, surprised me by suggesting we go there to work and build up the starter money necessary to begin our retreat. Many more ideas came to us in the hours that followed, and we would continue to add more as time went on.Having scored a couple cat fish from one of the local fisherman we returned to camp and ate them for dinner. We played 13 with Wilder afterward, he caught on very quickly, I have little doubt that he's very skilled in card games. Yesterday I had been a little pissed at Wilder for not bringing the books a second time, so just to keep myself busy I decided to start writing my own damn book, more of a short story really, but something to write and read through while we wait for the books to come non the less. During and after dinner I wrote a couple more pages in the story as well.When we returned to our hut Wilder set up the most Jerry rigged sauna I've ever seen. It was a lawn chair with a 4 foot stick in between the legs, we were to sit down and then be covered by blankets. Then he put 2 pots of boiling plant water beneath the chair, one by our feet and the other by our head. I was the first to go, and it was worth the experience only because I get to say I did it and get to share it with you all here and now.When it was over Wilder left, Victor cleaned up and then continued relentlessly working away at clearing the brush surrounding our hut with a machete.There was supposed to be a big soccer match tonight that everyone was going to watch, except us of course because Wilder said the strong sauna would make us weak and semi delirious and it was for our own good that we were in bed no later that 6:30 pm. Non of that mattered though because the game was cancelled. Something about there not being enough policemen and security guards in Peri to protect the 190 players, Lol what a crazy planet we live on!

Repair crew

I opened my eyes to the sound of running water coming from the bathroom and Blake cursing, he was the first to wake up and had twisted off the sink knob while trying to wash his hands. We got Dennis, the camp janitor to repair the thing, while we went fishing with Hiener. I caught the largest sardine I've ever seem, which isn't that big but still a nice catch. I also got a tiny piranha and Blake got a bigger one than that.We returned to camp, played cards and then asked the workers if we could get nails and a hammer with newspaper, because at this point we were thoroughly tired of the uselessness of our huts defences against mosquitos. We got what we asked for and spent several hours patching the seemingly endless gaps and tears in the screens and between the wooden posts that made up the walls of our abode.Blake was also in no mood to use our dribble "shower" to clean up, so when the rain came down hard he walked out into the downpour and had a proper wash. I wasnt going to join him, but after a moment of standing and watching him soak up the Amazonian rain, I did anyway. After it let up a little we walked into camp and jumped into the river for our first swim in the Amazon. My foot slipped into the mud bank and I jammed my toe into a stick lodged there right off the bat. It didn't bother me much then, but it would later. The water was a medium dark chocolate-brown and it felt cool and refreshing.We got out and instead of going back to our hut for a pointless shower we went into camp and used showers of the vacant rooms, which to our surprise had a wealth of water coming from them, and dare I say, compared to ours, even water pressure!When we got back to camp Blake put the hammer and nails to work on yet another task, a pull up bar.. He took a sturdy branch from the forest and nailed it under the floor boards that hung out over the edge of the house. Then he took my swiss army knife and carved hand holds in the wood for a better grip.When that was done it was dinner time. It turned out to be our tastiest dinner yet as well, which we were both very happy about. The fish was hot and had a good deal of flavor, as much as could be expected with our diet restrictions. Also included in the meal was garlic mashed potatoes with a side of steamed beets and carrots. When that was done we remained at the table playing 13 for nearly 3 hours straight until the generator kicked off yet again.There are no other guests in camp now, we spent the day here alone, besides the workers that is. Wilder comes back tomorrow, with the books he promised us and some other things, we hope...

Frog Poison Paralysis

We did not pass the night well, we slept true enough, but being surrounded by the spirit of death takes its toll on you in spite of the rest you may receive in its midst. We had not planned on doing the sapo before breakfast, but the guide Wilder sent us to do it arrived at 7 with the small wooden stick covered in a slimy crystal layer (the frog poison) and a wide grin on his face. His name was victor and he told us it would be better to do it before eating because it was likely we would be purging during the ceremony. I asked Blake if he wanted to try it and he rolled in his bed with a long painful sigh, a few seconds passed in silence as he considered the idea, then he said "sure, might as well" with a relenting grunt he got up and joined us in the living room.Victor told us we had to go back to camp to get the other victor, the young Belgian. We did and the German girl and the american boy joined to cheer him on and to witness whatever might happen.When we all returned to the shack everyone took a seat and the guide lit a small dry twig from the woods until it glowed red and then burnt 2 holes into each of us, Blake went first, then me and lastly the young Belgian. It took only a few seconds to take effect, my throat began to swell closed, as did my face, and a great heat seemed to flush out of me from every pore.By the time I started to feel it really coming on Blake was already curled over his puke bucket looking like he was incredibly sick. I was next to find myself in the exact same position. The Belgian puked a little but otherwise handled himself very well. I on the other hand puked out a large amount of terrible smelling yellow bile and all the while my hands were closing fiercely into fists completely out of my control. That scared me the most besides my throat swelling, because my wrists felt like they were going to snap due to the pressure. At this point I was in a spasming paralysis, I felt like my whole body was going to seize up and id be nothing more than a twisted crippled heap of flesh. Blake didnt throw up last night nor did he during this experience. The mans got a lead stomach for sure.Twenty minutes passed and we more or less felt normal again. Our young friends thanked Victor and us and returned to camp for breakfast. Blake and I sat down a little bit and then joined them. During breakfast the young American, his father, the Belgian and I discussed the fine points of linguistics.After breakfast our new guide Hiener, the one who told the ghost stories before our ceremony last night, took us on a walk through the woods down the same trail we had gone down alone a few days ago. He showed us a bunch of cool plants and insects, a 700 year old tree and then he took us to a neighboring camp that was much much nicer and just the same price per day as Renaco Lodge. We met a nice German lady who was the only person staying there, she was from Stuttgart. You can find their site here at Junglewolfexpeditions.com If you plan to visit this area of the Amazon and want a much nicer place to stay than Renaco I suggest this establishment. We returned to our camp by boat and had lunch, during which time we showed our new guide and his buddies the card trick that Ninoska had taught us in Cusco.Returning to our hut when they understood the concept of the trick, Blake tried to sleep and I finished reading an atrocious book about a pig living in a uptown hotel in New York titled Swine Not. We had noodle soup as bland as could be with stale crackers.We played a few games of 13, a fun card game in which the lowest card is the 3 of spades and the highest is the 2 of hearts, the person with the lowest 3 goes first and they can put down 1-4 3's or go up from 3 all the way to 2, in or out of suit as long as you have the cards, the next person has to put down just as many cards but a higher starting card, for example if they play 3,4,5 starting with a 3 of spades, you can play 3,4,5 with the 3 starting with a club, diamond or heart. If no other player can go you have control and can put down what you wish. Id you play a run, such as 3,4,5 or 9,10,jack,queen etc... it must be at least 3 in a row. There are other little rules but thats the general idea.Everyone had left after lunch so we played alone until the generator used up all the fuel and the power went out. We got our boots on and walked through the dark moonless jungle, with only my iphone light to guide us through. At the hut we had a philosophical conversation about how best to put as much love back in the world as we could. Blake pointed out that to start I should stop pointing out each and every negative thing around me all the time, he's so right.

A Deadly Snake

Supposedly we were going to make Ayahuasca today, but I guess we didnt have the materials to make it so after breakfast Blake and I went on an hour long canoe ride on our own down river. We turned back early because neither ofus brought  a hat or water and it was quite hot.lunch was ready when we got back and just as we finished eating 10 new people arrived. We waled passed them saying hello as walked off into the jungle with the rain starting to pore down. We stayed in the hut and I finished reading Psychology of the Transference and then starting listening to Steve Martins self narrated autobiographical audio tape, Born Standing Up. Blake then started reading the transference.At 6:30 just when the rain stopped we strolled back into camp and joined the new people for dinner. There was an American family of 3, a German, belgian, Brazilian, Brit and 3 Peruvians. We told them why we were there and the conversation turned over to the ayahuasca, the  psychedelic realms and then all of our travels before arriving and our plans for the near future.When dinner was finished Blake went outside to return to our hut and Wilder warned him to be careful of snakes, Blake turned to him and said, "you mean like this snake right here?" Pointing to the ground right next to the steps he was about to go down where there was a black snake with yellow and red stripes. Wilder looked over the side and then at Blake, "yeah.., this snake can kill you in 2 hours." He said. With that, Wilder assigned a guide to take us back to our hut through the woods. No Ayahuasca was drank today.

Visions of Shadow and Light

I had many dreams in the night and in the morning the first thing I did was copy them down as best I could recall in my dream journal. It´s a great practice to have. You can surprise yourself almost every time when looking back on dreams you´ve had in the past. You´ll go back into your old journals and read one you can´t remember at all and wonder, ¨wow, I can´t remember this at all, but it happened to me!¨ The words spell out a fantastic experience that you swore was realer than anything you´ve ever experienced, yet now it´s as though it never happened at all. Sure it was just a dream, but dreams can be just as real as when your awake, and how many dreams have you had and forgotten? How many memories have we all lost in the course of our lives, either real or within our subconscious? It makes me wonder about reincarnation and such, having entire lives before our current ones, then forgetting them completely as we begin the next. Ponder it for a minute...Because we didn´t sleep well the night of our first ceremony, Blake and I decided to sleep in and catch up on our rest. Eventually we got up and walked out of the hut to get breakfast though, which was just a little fish. It doesn´t ever take that long for Blake´s stomach to overcome any other bodily need he may have, I could have just laid there and starved a little, but oh no, not Blake. He´d tear the head off of a mother bear to get the last piece of salmon on the table, only if there was nothing else left to eat that is.When Breakfast was finished Blake was getting antsy to get out and look around. We told Wilder we were going for a walk and he warned us to be careful and not go to far. With that we strolled off alone into the woods, and as we walked into the jungle, I thought of how best to heed his advice, keeping in mind how little I really knew of this environment, and it´s many strange and truly dangerous inhabitants. We took several pictures right away and moved further on down the trail. As soon as we left camp an army of mosquitoes coordinated a massive attack on us from all sides. Blake kept moving down the path taking pictures while I fought of as many as I could. Soon we were a good distance from camp, still within screaming distance but far enough to lose track of our bearings. ¨These mosquitoes are killing me here Blake¨ I said. ¨Yeah me too, but lets keep going a little further.¨ he replied. So we did.When he was done taking pictures with his GoPro, we turned around and realized the path we had taken led us into a three-way intersection, neither of us knew which path was the original, so we took the one furthest to the left, which would keep us closest to the river and logically the best way to return to camp. It was quickly apparent that we were on the wrong path and were going into thicker and thicker jungle, so we turned around and chose the middle path, which thankfully was the correct one and we were soon free of the woods strolling into camp with the mosquito legions trailing fiercely behind us.It was lunch time at this point and we sat down with Rachel, Lisa and the Spaniards. All of which were going back to Iquitos after they finished eating. I told Rachel id email her about the shamans she told me about as soon as we returned to the city. Midway through the meal a new couple arrived on the boat that would take everyone away. I thought at first they were from Spain, based on their rugged looks and dark hair, but they were actually German. We struck up a conversation and it turns out the guy is from Baden-Baden, the same area of Germany that my mom is from. He works as a tour guide in Hamburg now and suggested I visit there when I go back to Europe, Hamburg along with Berlin, Munich and the German Alps.When lunch was concluded and all but us and the Germans remained I decided to get some reading done in the only book I brought along with me, which is The Psychology of The Transference, by CG Jung. It´s a crazy book, I got it because Terrence McKenna suggested reading it to learn more about the Archetypes of mankind. You can find it here on Google: http://books.google.com.pe/books/about/ThePsychologyoftheTransference.html?id=7G2UPwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

After a few chapters we went back to the lodge and at Wilder's suggestion went out fishing with Caesar and a boatman. At first I was the only one getting any bites, but I caught zipo, nothing, nada. Blake caught a silver dollar sized piranha that fell off the hook as soon as we lifted it out of the water to show everyone, that was worth the laugh. Caesar caught seven 6¨ or so piranhas, Wilder got 3, not sure how many the boatman got more than either of us that's for sure. When nobody caught anything for a good 5 minutes we pulled our lines and went bird watching. We saw two Tucans, lots Raptors* brown falcon/Hawk like birds, King fishers, crains, monkeys and all sorts of other things. We tried to get into a beautiful lake surrounded by tall exotic trees that had thousands of birds chirping and screeching from within, but the way was still blocked by the low water, jungle water lilies and other water plants.

We came back to the lodge and prepared ourselves for the second ceremony in the jungle. When it came time to drink I asked the spirits to give me visions, repeating the request over and over in my mind, concentrating only on that. We drank and after 2 hours the visions came. I saw a deep water pool, with the shadows of palm leaves and water lilies lining the edges. A humming-bird with spectral color wings glowing brightly swooped back and forth over the water and disappeared into the shadows. As this happened my thoughts darkened and I again felt the pain of my family and friends at home, with this my heart wept for them, and as it did my thoughts turned darker still, to the police state that the United States has become. What will become of us under their control? I thought. 

And then I saw a massive tower, with an unbelievable blinding light shining from its top. The thing was so huge it would probably reach space. With this the visions ended and so did the ceremony. Caesar gave us a final blessing and we returned to our beds. Both Blake and I laid awake for several more hours still racing with thoughts and feelings, but unlike the previous ceremony, this time we were able to sleep.

A Nice Day in Iquitos

Carolina picked us up in a motor taxi near noon taking us to her house. It was once a laundry mat as well as their home but now the machines are only for the family. While we sat and talked with Carolina her mom made us Patarashka cooked in large banana leaves, or something like them, and served the meal with yuka, a potato like tuber with only a slight natural taste of sugar. In a bowl on the table was a coconut mango sauce to use as a spread. Wilder and his wife, Carolina's brother, who was hung over from a long night of partying, and her father also joined us for the meal.When we were finished, her brother called his buddy taxi driver and he took us to a pond some miles away outside of the city. On the way the motorbike stalled and overheated, we had to wait a little for it to cool down, but the we were already on a slope so we just coasted slowly with the motor off until we slowed a good deal and he started it up again. After a few miles we slowed down for an accident that had just occurred, a man was being carried from the ground to a car, his arms, chest and leg bloody, I think I saw his bone popping out of his leg but I can't be sure. He looked pretty fucked up.We arrived at the pond where many cars and taxis were parked, we had to pay the 3 soles fair each to get in and walked across a narrow planked path to the other side of the decent sized swimming hole. We dove in one at a time, our driver joining us as well since he knew the family, and gave us a discount on the drive since he wanted to swim too. When the three of us guys were in only Carolina was left sitting at the waters edge, she said she couldn't swim but eventually got in and did just fine. What she meant to say was that she wasn't really a good swimmer and wouldn't attempt a river or a larger body of water. Blake and I balanced one foot on branches hidden under the dark surface, bouncing up and down, having a good time, but I quickly lost interest in swimming and returned to the ledge to dry off, we had no towels after all and sitting down in a motor taxi with a wet ass isn't such a pleasant thing, especially for more than an hours drive on a bumpy road.While I stood there I watched as Blake took the huge beach ball floating nearby and spiked it passed kids on a barge who were all acting as goalies, with every successful hit passed them he would yell, "Golazo!!" just like the Sports announcers in every soccer game do all over the Latin world. It was a fun thing to watch, The little kids all kept yelling at Blake to play more with them. Blake made one last goal and had enough, throwing his hands in the air and yelling, "Golazo!" three times in succession as the supreme victor of the small tournament he had created. As he walked off they all screamed at him, "No, gringo! Gringo!" and jumped up and down on the floating platform. But Blake had already escaped beneath the dark waters and could no longer hear their pleas. It really reminded me of similar experiences I had in Mexico back in 2003, how nostalgic.After that we were all ready to go and returned to Iquitos, some of us more dry than others. Carolina had to tend to some business and we returned to our usual internet cafe to surf the web. When we were finished with that we decided to get some food, but instead of going out to eat we thought we would safe some dough and make our own dinner. Looking around we found a small super market and bought some carrots, onions and tomatoes, at another place we got a bag of pasta and a 7 liter jug of water, all totaling about 8 soles, a real bargain for dinner considering we've been spending almost 50 soles each for a meal at Texas Rose, their patarashka is good, but 39 soles is steep for a little steamed fish considering what you can make for yourself or even get from a street vendor for that price.We weren't the only people in the hostel cooking though, so we had to share the stove with 3 guys who had just returned from the same lodge we are going to. They were there for 4 days and told us that it was nice but that the mosquitoes were terrible there. They were cooking pasta as well, only with canned tuna and tons of salt and spices. At this point we have already been on the special diet for 4 days. Which as you may already know, restricts us from any salt,  sugar, oils, spices such as pepper or anything spicy, and sexual activitydue to its ability to lower a persons energy.We finished our meal and then joined them in a good conversation. All three of them were from Slovenia, they were cool guys and even invited me to stay with them if I ever made it to their country, a possibility and an opportunity I could very well take advantage of at some point, I am an avid traveler after all. But many people have made such offers to me in the past, and you never really know who would appreciate the visit in earnest, that however is a bridge to cross at another time. We got up and thanked them for the conversation and the invitation, for they were heading out for a night on the town and we were heading to our beds for a full night of rest..