Dawn on the Amazon Captain’s Blog

Butterfly Farm, Iquitos Peru

I am going to take you behind the scenes of the Amazon Animal Orphanage and Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm in Iquitos Peru. Most people know a little bit about the Butterfly Farm. I have earned my insights studying and photographing at the Butterfly Farm.

First, let me introduce you to the cast of characters:

Tony Piraña thinks she is the star of the show at the Butterfly Farm. Tony is a White-fronted Capuchin Monkey, raised by street children in Iquitos Peru. Capuchins are considered to be the smartest monkeys in Central and South America, with many documented cases of habitual tool use. Tony uses tools. She uses sweaty gringos for salt licks, supplementing her diet with daily mineral licks. She is a talented pick pocket and a good photographer. Keep one hand on your camera and the other on your sun glasses.

Chavo is the boss. Everyone does what he says. How an endangered Red Uakari Monkey took over the Butterfly Farm is another story. Chavo nurtures and grooms the young monkeys, and carries them around on his back. He does not seem to care what species they are. He protects them all, so don’t attack any little monkeys, otherwise he will do the same to you. Something that he likes is to groom the guests, and then he wants you to return the favor.

Zeke and Florian are Saki Monkeys. If you are lucky they might let you touch their luxurious tails.

Junior is a Black Capuchin and is Tony’s pick pocket protégé. No offence to Tony but Junior is cuter, nicer and has much better manners. He likes to come and play with you and be coquettish, wiggling his eyebrows up and down, as he crawls under your shirt or blouse, ha, ji. Here the people joke that the man would like to be the monkey…

Rosa the Giant Anteater, is also orphaned and an endangered species. To me it is a great treat to see this animal up close. Until you have seen how long her tongue is, you will not believe me.

Gudrun is a human. Her job is just to work hard and make enough money to feed the animals.

Igor and young Argus are Red Howler Monkeys and are among the most polite characters at the Butterfly Farm.

Two new members of the Butterfly Farm family are Pauly and Wicky. Pauly is an immature Red Uakari. Wicky is a young Saddleback Tamarind.

All of the characters listed above are free to roam at will around the Butterfly Farm

Lucas is a tapir that lives in a large fenced in jungle pasture. He eats $1,000 worth of fruit and vegetables per year.

Pedro Bello, the magnificent Jaguar, lives in a huge cage that cost $10,000 to build, with a big pool of water, plus he eats $3,600 worth of red meat, chicken and fish, per year. I did not realize how large Jaguars get until I stood close to Pedro. His paws and head are huge.

Roblar is another human. Like Lucas, he rarely leaves his fenced in area. He works hard every day, leading tours and preventing the monkeys from eating the caterpillars and butterflies.

The monkeys forage for most of their food except for peanuts which they seem to love. The monkeys cost around $250 per year to feed.

Four macaws and nine parrots eat around $600 per year of fruit and nuts.

The manatee eats 22 pounds of lettuce per day for a cost of over $1,000 per year for a sea cow that only shows you its nostrils.

Add a few hundred dollars to feed the agouti, turtles, and caiman.

Had it not been for Gudrun’s and Roblar’s intervention, all of these other “characters” would most certainly have died long ago.

These two humans need help. I do not know how much the veterinarians charge them, or how much is spent on labor and maintenance, INRENA fees, taxes, and miscellaneous expenses, but I think it is a lot.

Don’t expect me to be unbiased about the Amazon Animal Orphanage and Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm in Iquitos Peru. Gudrun is one of my best friends in Iquitos. I know how hard she works. In addition to the Butterfly Farm she works at the University teaching German and English so she can afford to buy enough food for Pedro Bello.

I am going to reveal another behind the scenes secret. There is a new character in the plot. Gudrun and Roblar have saved an Ocelot. The Ocelot must have a larger cage to be happy, and to make Gudrun, Roblar, all the rest of us, and you happy.

I am not authorized to speak for the Butterfly Farm, but please, donate money toward a larger cage for the Ocelot, and to help with food costs. Do not ask to see the ocelot without making a donation.

In case you think a Butterfly Farm sounds boring, lots of exciting natural events happen here. Boa Constrictors slip into the Agouti cage for a meal, and then can not get back out. Giant larva, big around as a sausage, hatch into huge beetles with samari swords for pinchers. Pedro Bello hurtles after a monkey silly enough to get on top of his cage. When Pedro is very lucky he gets a live agouti turned into his lair, or a live fish released into his pond.

The Butterfly Farm is located in the jungle near the village of Padre Cocha, and the life and death drama of the food chain plays out here every day. I observe and photograph something new and unexpected every time I go to the Butterfly Farm.

Join me the next time Dawn on the Amazon visits the Butterfly Farm. There you will find a lot of what you came to Iquitos Peru to see in the first place. I didn’t even mention the 40 species of tropical butterflies and their host plants in the botanical garden.

Butterfly Farm, Iquitos Peru

Amazon Animal Orphanage and Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm, Iquitos Peru,

Bill Grimes, Welcome to Iquitos Peru , Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises

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1 large onion
½ Ripe red Pimiento or Ripe Red Bell Pepper
½ Rocoto pepper
2 Aji Dulce, green, thin walled sweet peppers.
1 Yellow Aji Mirasol pepper
A lot of chopped cilantro and parsely
The juice of 1 or 2 limes, or the golf ball size limones, (tart limes)
A small amount of olive oil, just a few drops
Salt to taste

Serves 5

Wash and soak all of the vegetables in pure water. Make a final rinse in fresh pure water. Slice all of the vegetables into long narrow slivers, not chopped. Mix with the lime juice, olive oil, and salt.

Salsa Criolla compliments cecina and tacacho, and all fried foods like fish and potatoes.

This recipe is different than a salsa from Mexico or the South Western US.

Part of what makes it different is the rocoto, or locoto (Capsicum pubescens). The Rocoto is one of the oldest domesticated peppers, from 5000 years ago in the pre-Incan Andes. The walls are thick like a Bell Pepper but hot, I would say very hot. Do not handle with your bare hands…

The Aji Dulce are pepper related to and shaped like a habanero, without the intense heat. Instead they have a wonderfully unique mild sweet smoky flavor.

The Aji Mirasol pepper, Capsicum Annuum, has a fruity apricot taste and smell. It is mildly hot.

Dawn on the Amazon Recipes of Peru Cookbook, Marjorie’s Special Salsa Criolla

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Water Level is Dropping, Iquitos Peru

You might be interested to know the water level is now dropping one foot per day. My sonar shows the water level in the flood plane of the Itaya River dropped thirteen feet in the last two weeks.

We moved the boats to slightly deeper water a couple of days ago. Early tomorrow morning, I plan to move the boats around to the other side of Iquitos at the Hunting and Fishing Club on the Nanay River.

In two more weeks, farmers will be planting corn and watermelons where my boats are now. Soccer games will last till dark.

The Amazon River can rise and fall approximately forty feet every year. The water level usually starts to come up in October or November, crests in January or February, and stays very high till May.

That dramatic rise and fall has little to do with how much it rains near Iquitos. A ten year average shows that Iquitos receives approximately the same amount of rain every month.

The “dry season” is a myth. June is considered to be in the middle of the “dry season”. During one 10 year average, more rain fell in June than any other month.

The Amazon River rises and falls in response to seasonal rainfall on the east slope of the Andes, as well as snow, and glacial melt.

The high water season and the low water season affect the way we live, from building houses on balsa logs that float, or on stilts above the expected high water level. We retie our boats hundreds of times per year and move them a dozen times because of rising and falling water levels.

On the chart below the green line represents the record high water levels for each date, the red shows the record low water levels, yellow is the average, and the blue line is the actual water level from a few days ago.

Water Level is Dropping, Iquitos Peru

Bill Grimes, Welcome to Iquitos Peru, Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises

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A Good Cup of Coffee, Iquitos Peru

I am drinking a good cup of coffee, watching the sun rise over my boats anchored 100 yards from my window. Most people think they can’t get a good cup of coffee in Iquitos Peru. Every morning I prove that is not true.

Coffee is not a big part of the culture of Peru. It is more a source of income than a beverage to be enjoyed. We export 95 % of our coffee, including most of the organic, shade grown, high altitude specialty coffees that bring premium prices on the international market.

Most Peruvians do not drink coffee, and when they do it is usually instant. The only coffee culture I am aware of in Iquitos is at wakes before a funeral. Usually corn meal is added to ground coffee. Big pots of this mixture are boiled at 9 p.m., midnight, and another at 3 or 4 in the morning. It is called poor man’s coffee.

I used to bring half a suitcase of French roast and filters when I came to Iquitos. When that ran out I prowled the huge market place to find and sample the small shops selling fresh ground coffee. Some of that coffee was good, but not roasted.

We moved 18 blocks from the main market and tourist center for a year. A couple of blocks from my home was a “grocery store” owned by a couple in their 80’s. You have probably never seen a grocery store with fewer supplies to sell.

I noticed a faded wooden sign I could barely read that must have been 50 years old. It said, Se Vende Café Molido, or Ground Coffee for Sale.

I asked for a quarter kilo. The old man opened a tin box as old as the sign, and a wonderful aroma was released into the room. The coffee was roasted a dark chocolate brown.

Even though it was afternoon and I only drink coffee in the morning, I hurriedly stumbled home with the bag pressed to my nose, brewed a pot of coffee, and have not wished for French Roast since that day.

The old gentleman grocer buys green beans from a special coffee grower in the hills above Tarapoto. He roasts the beans himself in the back yard and grinds a small batch every couple of days.

This is a good cup of coffee, strong but not bitter, full bodied, with a delicate cocoa-laced sweetness. Like finding a diamond in the coal bin, a Peruvian jewel.

Join us on a gourmet Peruvian cuisine cruise through the rainforest. Unless the old grocer couple passes on to coffee heaven, we will drink some of the best coffee in the world, brewed just before sunrise. Don’t forget, we are called Dawn on the Amazon.

I am sure you will agree, “This is a good cup of coffee, from Iquitos Peru.”

A Good Cup of Coffee, Iquitos Peru

Bill Grimes, Welcome to Iquitos Peru, Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises

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For when you want a taste of Peru but can’t fly down to see us, Dawn on the Amazon is compiling recipes of Peru. What a gourmet, Peruvian grandmother would serve to her family when she wants them to remember it’s special.

From this modest beginning, over time, will come a list of recipes of Peru and then a Dawn on the Amazon Recipes of Peru cookbook. This is our first recipe.

Cecina con Tacacho:
Tacacho is green bananas (platano). Two per serving. Sauté, boil, or bake until they are soft enough to mash. Mix a with little pork fat, or palm or olive oil, and small pieces of cooked pork (optional), just enough to make the pieces stick. Form into a baseball sized ball and cook over charcoal until heated through. Serve with the best ham-like cut of pork you can get, no fat at all, cured, dried, and salted, called cecina. It makes a very good meal. To impress a girl from Iquitos with a special meal you would either buy her ceviche or cecina with tacacho.

Dawn on the Amazon Recipes of Peru Cookbook, Cecina con Tacacho.

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