Blogs from Amazon Rainforest, Iquitos, Loreto, Peru, South America

De retour en ville, le petit groupe que nous sommes va se prendre une bonne bière. Après réflexion, nous décidons à l'unanimité de reconduire une expérience dans la jungle, mais cette fois dans une famille. Une agence propose ce type de séjour, à la base pour 500 soles, mais après âpre négociation, nous l'emportons pour 300 soles. Nous prenons donc le bateau le lendemain matin, pour nous enfoncer encore plus profondément au cœur de la jungle. Arrivée à San Antonio, petit village très typique, dans lequel on compte une salle de classe, une petite église, une minuscule boutique et plusieurs maisons, le tout en bois. Notre guide/hôte Gilberto n'a pas tout à fait fini la sienne à laquelle il manque les murs, mais l'essentiel est là : nous vivrons ici à la dure comme nous le ... read more

A l'arrivée dans le port d'Iquitos, le bateau galère pour se rapprocher de la rive, on nous fait alors descendre en passant par un autre bateau, sur un chemin fait de tonneaux. Moto-crotte jusqu'à l'hôtel, qui dispose d'une piscine et d'une salle de bain privée : bonheur ! On sort ensuite manger un bon burger, et à la sortie du resto, une armée de rameuteurs d'agence se rue sur le petit groupe de touristes que nous sommes, jusqu'à s'embrouiller entre eux pour s'attirer nos faveurs. On trouve rapidement une agence qui semble correspondre à nos attentes : séjour aventure dans la jungle avec machette et camping sous les arbres. Le lendemain matin, nous allons poser nos bagages à l'arrière de cette agence, dans laquelle règne une ambiance très « parrain ». L'un des lieutenants nous tient ... read more

A life-long dream realized. I finally make it to the Amazon Rainforest and the mighty Amazon river. From the earlist days of watching Creature from the Black Lagoon where scientists were convinced that the earliest form of life appeared to reading in National Geographic magazine about this mysterious place that has gone largely unexplored for many years, I could experience it all from my base in Peru, by traveling to Iquitos by plane, just North of Lima. I love the idea of being able to enter the plane from the tarmack - is it called a tarmack? It's kind of a throwback to when traveling was an adventure, really classy, like the flight attendants of Peruvian Air. Wow. Anyway, it's only an hour and a half-long flight and seems to go quite quickly. I was met ... read more

I spent about a week in the Amazon jungle and it was a pretty amazing place. I had very nice accommodation considering it's the jungle. There were flush toilets, cold showers, meals prepared, and even laundry service! Though no electricity, no internet... which was good... but fortunately I still had my iPod! I couldn't have survived without listening to some of the music I love. In the clearings I saw countless butterflies and a variety of other creatures. In the jungle, it was a bit darker and, being non-native, I was kinda scared of just about everything around me. At one point there was a huge track of ants on the trail for about 100 meters. Others were bitten, but I was spared. Here are some pics of what I saw.... read more

After one final, and very heavy, night in Mancora, I was on a 9am chicken bus (bad seats, no air-con) outta there. Long story short, so as not to dwell on it (I just deleted this paragraph as it sounded to negative!) , this, the next 15hour night bus, and the taxi rides (more the taxi drivers - they are just bad people) made me somewhat irate - more than any other journey I had taken this tour! Anyway I arrived at Yurimagus, and more importantly, I arrived at the time I wanted to, which is to say, I arrived in time to catch the boat. I did not even know there was going to be a boat that day, nor what time it would leave, so Lady Luck was definatly on hand for that one! ... read more