We started our day with pancakes, eggs, fried buffalo cheese and papaya juice for breakfast.
Shortly thereafter, Randy and Edison took us out on a final excursion to look for wildlife. Once again, some of us ended up knee high in water, and had to empty our boots out.
Edison Emptying his Boots
Oran, Peru
One of the interesting parts of the Amazon rain-forest is that there is no topsoil. While we're used to fertile topsoil in the States, in the rain-forest there is just a layer of organic material sitting on top of the clay that gets reabsorbed too quickly to compost out.
Notice the lack of Topsoil?
Oran, Peru
We didn't really see much wildlife this time, and headed back to the lodge for a while to relax and pack up.
Wild Parrots outside the Hammock Room
Oran, Peru
Our final spectacular lunch was chicken in red sauce with spaghetti, rice (very Peruvian to have both), fresh veggies, and of course, fresh squeezed juice.
Anthony delayed our departure by insisting we meet some of his pets. The most feisty being one of his caiman.
Smiling Caiman
Oran, Peru
We said our goodbyes to the staff at the lodge, and Edison joined us on our trip to Iquitos, his hometown.
Randy, Mark, Edison, Jenny
Oran, Peru
On our way back to Iquitos, we passed the Peruvian coast guard attempting to right a ferry that had capsized earlier in the week due to overloading. It had approximately 250-300 people on board.
Capsized Peruvian Ferry
Indiana, Peru
Edison took us around an open air market in Iquitos, and after that we met Ivy for some ice cream made with the local fruit. Edison dropped us off at the airport, and we made our way back to Lima.
Once safely back at the convent in Lima (or so we thought), Sister Catharine attacked our sunburns with fresh aloe. We took the assault in stride, and percolated as much as possible.
The next morning we hung around the convent. Sister Josephine took us on the roof where we took some pictures of the surrounding city.
Lima, Peru