Last two days in Iquitos

     Our last two days in Iquitos were fairly relaxing. After a chill afternoon reading and lounging in hammocks, we went to dinner with Betsey, Sandro, and Mike. We decided to go for local fare and went to a place called Ari's with open seating right across from el centro. Me, Chels, and Sandro had ice coconut beverages straight out of the husk which was fun. Our food arrived and it was so delicious but the portions were gigantic. We all shared our plates since it was so great but we were insanely full after. With the heat though there was definitely room for ice cream, so we all enjoyed a cone on our way back to Camiri.      We all hung out at the hostel for a bit and then went back to el cumpleo one of the local dance places we were at the night before. It was fun but basically the same and more packed so we left after an hour or two to get some rest.       Yesterday we mostly hung out at Camiri again reading and enjoying the sunshine while Lizzy swam. Chels and I are a bit too sketched out by the water ha. We had a late afternoon lunch with our friend Anna from Poland who we met the night before back at Ari's. We were smarter though and shared one platter between the three of us this time. After another ice cream to beat the heat, (at 1.5 soles who could resist?) we visited our tour guide with Harry and Mike to see what we would be doing in the Amazon. They're joining our tour which will be fun! We walked around Iquitos for a bit to get a feel for the town and the went back to Camiri and made some friends who just got back from a spiritual cleanse in the jungle. Three were from Texas and two from Kentucky. We bonded over our love of books and spent a couple hours chatting before a quick bite to eat at the hostel.       We spent the evening hanging out with our friends at the hostel and were joined again by Matt and Alfredo. They took us to a local bar that specializes in liqueurs made from local roots. They all tasted pretty similar but it was an interesting experience. We went back the el cumpleo for night three but it was more of the same so with our tour in the morning we didn't stay long.        We packed up this morning and hopped in some motor taxis to meet up with our boat to the amazon. On the way one side of my backpack's hip belt got caught on the wheel of the cycle and ripped clean off. We stopped and once he retrieved it from the spokes we were off again. Oh the adventures of travel.       We're now on a boat on the amazon heading to our camp for our tour. Excited to see what's in store!