From John

I met up with everyone in Atlanta last night around 10 pm. Everyone was eager to get this trip underway. After an all-night flight from Atlanta to Lima, we arrived in Peru around 4:30 am. Tthe flight was generally miserable as it was packed.

We cleared Peruvian customs and had a quick tour of the Lima airport before settling in to wait for our 6:30 flight to Iquitos. We did not really see that much of Lima as it was dark.

The TACA flight to Iquitos was much nicer - few people. We fought each other for the best window seat to view the snow-capped Andes. It was awsome this early in the morning.

We arrived in Iquitos at around 8:30 and were greeted by the Amazon-Ecotours staff who took care of all luggage and checks. By 9 am we were at the river with all of our gear loaded in the brand new Tucumari boat. Our port papers had us leaving at 10 am to begin the trip downriver so we had about an hour to tour the plaza and see some sights.

I headed to one of the Internet cafes to try my luck with a Spanish keyboard. With Internet Explorer in Spanish I did not make much headway.

I returned to the boat for a quick shower and change of clothes. By 10 everything was ready and we were underway.

We are headed down the Amazon river to the RIo Orosa. The trip will take ab out 8 hours. I managed a couple of hours sleep as we traveled. During the trip we got some brief brisk showers. They were most refreshing.

We did stop at one sand bar and try our efforts at a seine collection. Calling this a "sand bar" is a misnomer. It was a mud bar! I got stuck up to my hips trying to help out.

I'll let David describe the few fish we collected.

It now about 6:30 pm. It is dark. There was a very nice sunset.

We have made it to a channel which connects the Amazon River to the RIo Orosa. In about another 2 hours we will arive at the Madre Selva Biological Station where we will spend the night. We have our first chat session tonight at 9 pm.

I've taken about 20 photos so far. I'm now trying to figure out why this notebook won't recognize the Sony formatted disks from the digital camera.. I'll get something worked out so you folks can share the awesome beauty of the Amazon.

Till tomorrow...........

John