A Market and Jungle Animals to Remember

The busy streets, local faces and unknown places are all becoming very familiar. I feel this place has truly become my temporary home. In the past two weeks, I have become the official English teacher at the school, went to a market and floating neighborhood unlike any other, held Amazon animals and have more friends here than I can spend time with. I have become very comfortable with the constant state of intense humidity, the presence of insects everywhere (seriously everywhere), and making my way around town. Mosquito bites are completely normal, hot showers are unheard of and when I see tourists, I think of myself as more of a local.

Last week, Rylie and I went with our host mom, Mercedes and her 20-year-old daughter, Ulpi, to a place called Belen. They call Belen the ¨Venice of Peru¨ but the only thing Venice and Belen have in common is the fact that they are floating cities; everything else is like no place I have ever seen. This floating city exists only because the people who live here are so poor, they don´t have enough money to live elsewhere. It is too dangerous to be there at night and the conditions are so unsanitary you can smell it in the air.

Belen is very popular for its daily market and we went on a busy Saturday morning around 7 am. The market in on land and is the gateway to the floating neighborhoods. It was bustling with locals selling and buying all sorts of random and exotic things, such as strange fruits and vegetables, raw meats, cooked meals, Amazonian remedies and 2nd-hand shoes. The prices here are next to nothing. There were body parts of every animal available, chopped up and laying in piles right on the table surfaces (and next to fruit vendors...sanitary?). Some native animals parts for sale were crocodile tail, turtle legs, paiche fillets (a giant local and endangered fish), monkey heads, monkey arms, tiger pelts and anaconda skins. I don´t believe there is much of an awareness for the protection of local animals here if you can´t already see that for yourself. There was also every piece of pig, cow, fish and chicken in any fashion you could desire strewn about the place. The money and pig heads still had eyes in them. There was the warm smell of blood in the air and I thought I was going to vomit at one point. I´m pretty sure my vegetarian ways have now been set for a long time. I can still vividly hear the chopping of body parts from the hard and desensitized hands. Talk about a new experience.

Not only were the things for sale shocking, but the lack of cleanliness everywhere was beyond belief. I remember a small child, maybe 3 years old, running her grubby little hands all over a raw chicken for sale. People were touching raw meat with the same hands they were exchanging money with and eating with. Every heath code I have ever known was broken here and without a care in the world. I don´t understand how the meat vendors could sit there and enjoy a plate of rice and chicken surrounded by raw meat, meat juices and the smell. Mercedes thought our reaction to this place was hilarious and proceeded to tell us how great monkey soup and turtle legs were. I don´t think I am willing to find out for myself. Live chickens in crates sat next to dead ones laying in the streets of wood boards, concrete and gooey mud. The sections of animal/meat vendors was like a car accident, it´s so terrible but you can´t help but look.

Not all of this place was disturbing. In fact, I was really happy to see it despite the moments of grossness. After winding our way through the market streets barley wide enough to fit the hundreds of people constantly passing, we found ourselves a local guide for 2 hours all for $5. A guide was necessary for two reasons, to show us the city by boat and to keep us safe from getting mugged. The people here are so poor; they are driven to steal from anyone who looks like they have something of value, especially ¨gringas¨.

Our ¨bodyguard¨ as he called himself was a very friendly local named Lito. He led us though the streets to the edge of the water where his boat, narrow and made of worn wood, was stacked up against many other colorful handmade boats that looked similar in style. Our motorboat passed through the narrow ¨streets¨ of each neighborhood in Belen. Some of the homes were on stilts and most were floating. The unlucky homes were only half floating. Most were probably less than 15x15 feet and were built with scraps of wood and tin. There is a big problem with hygiene here because the very same water the children swim in and clothes are washed in is also where they go to the bathroom. There is no such thing as a sewage system here. The bathrooms are simply 4x3 foot wood outhouses with a hole in the bottom. They also dump their trash right into the river so you see large collections in the narrow columns between the homes. Because of the sanitation problems many suffer from parasites, malaria, dengue and other diseases. It is terribly sad that over 15,000 people (and a lot of skinny, hopeless animals) living in Belen call this place home.

After our river tour we made it back on land to walk through another section of the market; a full row of Amazonian vendors. They were selling things like beads, animal pelts and bones, perfumes and potions. There were potions for every kind of ailment including the well known ¨Jungle Viagra¨ (no need to explain here). For those looking for a hallucination trip, this was your place to get your stuff. A popular hallucinogenic, ¨Ayahuasca, ¨ is smoked by the Amazonian tribes and has been around since the beginning. Don´t worry Mom and Dad, I didn´t buy any.

Unfortunately, we didn´t bring our cameras because so many people told us not to. Therefore we are going to visit this place again with Lito, our ¨bodyguard¨ just so we can take pictures; it´s too incredible to not document.

Now for the ALIVE and happy animals...
Yesterday Rylie, Vivi (a friend and teacher at my school) and I went to a Serpentario. We had to take a boat to get there and our guides told us it was a zoo, but hardly a zoo at the least. It was more of a temporary care of rescue jungle animals mixed with scattered rustic rooms to stay in, all on stilts in the Nanay River. I was excited to see some animals and maybe pet them but once the owner handed me a sloth, my eyes became the size of baseballs and I couldn´t believe what was happening. I was holding a SLOTH! These are the most interesting creatures I have ever experienced. All 10 pounds of this sloth didn´t feel real. She moved very slow of course and did her best to cling to me as if i was a tree trunk. Seeing a sloth´s face up close makes your heart melt. They are so cute! And just when I thought it couldn´t get any better, we entered the cage of a young tiger. She was about twice the size of a normal cat and had a beautiful leopard coat. From the moment I held her, I felt like my life had become complete. While in my arms, she started sucking on my backpack strap looking for a source of milk. It was the cutest and funniest thing I have ever seen from a ¨wild¨ animal, although she is now domesticated. The other animals we visited/held were a capybara, an anaconda, boa, some agouti, Scarlet Macaws, a toucan, tortoises and prehistoric turtles. I kept asking the owner if it was healthy for the animals to be exposed to people and live here in captivity. He told me they are only here temporarily until they are ready to be released back into the jungle because they will not reproduce in captivity. If he is telling the truth (which I pray he is), this was the best $5 I have ever contributed. This place was a haven for animal lovers like me. On our boat ride home, we went to the mouth of the Amazon River. It became evident when the water changed from the color of straight up ¨coffee¨ to ¨coffee with milk¨. I’m excited to venture further down this river.

On a completely separate note, I am now the English teacher for the kindergarten and first grade classes at my school. The Peruvian teacher I was working quit so the responsibility has fallen into my lap until another person is hired. I really do enjoy teaching but 33 kindergarteners really suck all of my energy and sometimes my patience. Two weeks ago when I found out I was now the English teacher starting THAT day, I was really stressed. But now it has become normal and I like teaching English. Today was my first day with 2nd and 3rd graders and I think I will try to work with them more because it´s more like teaching rather than babysitting.

We are trying to spend as much time as we can seeing the last few parts of the city and hanging out with our new friends before we venture into the jungle for a three day tour starting on April 20th. Our time here is already coming close to an end but many more surprises await us around the next river bend.