A travel vlog by Nate Buchanan (with Kara and guide Josias) documenting their trip from an early-morning departure to Lima, then onward to Iquitos and the Amazon. The vlog covers logistics (very early pickup at 1:15AM, flight at 4:15AM), customs/drone tax handling, a multi-hour boat ride on the Amazon to Otorongo Lodge, a visit to a local sugar-cane distillery (including tasting and small-batch rum production), and arrival/check-in at the lodge (honeymoon suite). The video highlights local details (Iquitos described as an island-like city of ~500,000, traditional distillery equipment, and the lodge founder’s background).
Questions this video answers
1:15 AM
4:15 AM
Peru (Lima)
About $200 (refundable on return to airport)
About a city of half a million people (~500,000)
Chapters
There we go.
You're doing it. It's juicing.
Today's vlog is starting the night before the actual day of this vlog, because it's about. I'm not wearing much. 5:00pm we are going to bed dangerously soon because we are getting picked up for our flight at 1:15 in the morning.
It was the only one available with points. And like two months ago when I booked it, it seemed like a great idea. Now not so much. And so we've learned that if we're getting picked up really early in the morning for a flight, you end up watching like a two or three minute music montage, which with no earthly idea what's going on, because neither one of us want to talk that early. So we thought we would take this time to explain what was happening before the music montage starts.
So we're getting picked up at 1:15. Our flight is at 4:15, and we are flying to Lima, Peru, which is our 50th country.
And then from Lima to Iquitos. By this time tomorrow night, we will be in the middle of the Amazon jungle.
So we will pick up the vlog after we've had some coffee, maybe after our first or second flight. I'm not sure which one.
See you in Lima.
Hope we got everything.
Maybe the earliest we've gotten here for it in history.
The biggest thing that's happened this morning is we successfully got the drone through customs. Had read a bunch of stuff in Peru about like, having to go to this office in the city and get a permit. And then last night I came across this TripAdvisor forum, thankfully. So all we had to do was pay taxes on the drone, which was like $200, but then we'll get that money back when we come back to the airport. So got the drone through. Now we're about to head into the Amazon. Even though we're only running on three hours of sleep, I'm pretty sure as soon as we hit the Amazon, I'm gonna be like super energized.
Before they go, please. So carry on luggage with your head visa. Place personal items in the seatback pocket in front of.
Oh, welcome to the rainforest. I go to the. Directly to the. To the boat.
Okay.
After we landed at the airport in Iquitos, our guide, Hosias, picked us up and we drove about 30 minutes through the city. And now we're about to get On a boat that's going to take us to the Otorongo Lodge. It's going to take like two or three hours to get there. We're going to be.
Yes. In the middle of nowhere. Iquitos is so much different than I expected. Our guide, Hosias, told us on the way in that it's basically an island because the only way to get here is by boat or by plane. But it's still a city of half a million people. Like, it's a big city. And I think there's more tuk tuks here than there are in Bangkok.
They were everywhere.
All right, we're getting on the boat.
Yeah, he's on him.
Sam.
A little over halfway. The drive down the Amazon river has been so cool. I love seeing all the little houses and people that just live here. It's been amazing. We just made our first stop. We're at a sugar cane distillery. I think we're gonna get a tour.
Cool.
All these are a sugar cane. This is one of the most traditional and older machine that we have here. So actually this machine, it's come from the United States. It's from the 1909.
So I'll.
I'll be. In this case. I'll be the horse.
I think Kara should be the horse.
You have to see. Yeah, this is like. And then that's where they're gonna go.
Like, push.
Okay, it's stuck.
I gotta jump it.
Gotta push hard.
There we go.
They're working.
That's a more work.
Oh.
One more.
And we'll screen this and we'll drink later.
Okay.
To make the sugarcane rum, it has to be fermented. So from here it goes only this pins over here, this container.
So this is what we saw right over there coming out of the cooler container into the bucket.
Oh, it's strong, but it's yummy. I can't believe we just watched how this was made. What is this?
This is the juice. Salud.
Salud.
On to round number three. This one is rum with ginger from his garden and honey from the coolest beehive I've ever seen. That's right.
So the owner of this place, who lives here, makes about 40 bottles a week of rum and about 20 bottles of molasses and sells them to the surrounding villages. So we got a little bottle of the ginger and honey flavored one to support him.
Gracias.
Sa.
This is awesome.
Honeymoon house.
Oh, yes.
Love the hammock. So we just arrived at the Otorongo Lodge. We got checked in to the honeymoon suite and we met the founder, Anthony. He started this place 11 years ago. He is from New York. This place is awesome. I mean, we are like literally just in the view. Very middle of the Amazon jungle.
