Blogs from Loreto, Peru, South America

I don't even know where to begin. My very good friend Adam sent me a quote today, and he couldn't have sent a more appropriate quote at this time: ¨Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. - Gandhi¨ I feel like everything is going wrong. Don't get me wrong, I know things don't go as planned on a trip, and they absolutely should not. And I have had some great times - partying with Ivette and her friends in Bogota, hanging out in Leticia... but I feel that I'm having a bad time with good moments. It shouldn't be like that. I should be having a good time with bad moments! I had one of many breakdowns last night. I've been feeling more ... read more

It's not all bad here. My hostal is the most lovely place. It's only 7 blocks or so from the centre, and it's name is Chuya Chuya. For anyone who may read this and be travelling to Iquitos, I simply insist you go here. It's between Napo and Pevas, Calle Teniente Pinglo #160. The owners are a lovely couple. Joel, from Switzerland, and Valeria, the very pregnant peruvian. In fact they thought the baby might come today! It's just a little hostal, and at the moment the only others there are Andi, from Germany, and her boyfriend Olly, from England. We're quite the group of different languages! This evening I got back to the hostal and chatted with Joel a while - as usual in our strange mixture of Spanish and French. Then I gave him ... read more

Hola Todos! I have spent the last week in the Amazon rain forest. It was great! Although originally I had planned to go with my friend César, he couldn’t go at the last minute… But there’s nothing wrong with traveling alone. From what I have experienced, lots of people chose to travel that way (but not necessarily to the jungle, haha). The city I went to was called Iquitos. It is in one of the northern-most provinces of Peru and is adjacent to the Brazilian Amazon rain forest. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that had no land route; or in other words, you need to take a plane or boat to get there. Although the boat rides are dirt cheap, I chose to go by plane. The flight was only about an hour ... read more

After our amazingexperience of the Inca Trail we continued our trip to our last destination on Peru... Usually you say last but not least but in this case I´m afraid it was so. We arrived at the airpost and as soon as the door opened a guy called our names, he helped with our bags and then he escorted us out to our guide Luis. Luis had a friend with him, Marden and he said that he would join us on our expeditions in the Peruvian jungle.And why not, the more the merier... We went to our hotel for the night and in the morning this friend of our guide came to take us to Belen floating Market. The place smelled very bad. We had to breathe through our mouth but the smell was normal bearing ... read more

So after a 12 hour up river speedboat journey where the boat was packed and I had an isle seat with chance of pics... I arrived in Iquitos to a SWARM of taxi drivers who would not leave me alone lol, all I wanted was a Cig and stand for 5 minutes! Nevertheless I picked one guy who would not let me out of his sight and we hopped in his motored rickshaw and headed to an ATM then to the hostel ( The Flying Dog ). It is very cheap to take taxi's here and the town looked like it died maybe 150 years ago it was a boom town, but now it is pretty dead. I got to the hostel and immediately felt good vibes, the manager Marcel is a cool guy who will ... read more

(Dit artikel is nog niet af en zal nog regelmatig bijgewerkt worden) Op maandag 16 januari, aankomst in Iquitos (Peru). Na een boottocht van exact 3 dagen wringde ons vrachtschip zich vandaag 16/01 rond 8h30 tussen de andere aangemeerde vrachtschepen in de haven van Iquitos. Iquitos, gelegen aan de beroemde Amazone-rivier, in het noordelijke deel van Peru, en één en al omgeven door Amazonewoud. De grootste stad ter wereld die enkel bereikbaar is per boot en per vliegtuig. Over vliegtuigen gesproken: een tochtje boven het Amazonewoud in een vliegtuigje is niet iets dat op regelmatige basis georganiseerd wordt voor toeristen, maar het kan. Kostprijs: S/. 2800 per uur, ongeveer 750 euro. Iquitos dankt haar inkomsten blijkbaar aan de petroleum. Die petroleumbronnen moeten zich situeren verder in de jungle, dieper het woud in. In de stad zelf ... read more

I have never been happier to leave a city. For those of you who have not read my previous entry, I had basically just spent eight days living in a hammock on a dirty, sweaty, noisy, smelly cargo ship to Iquitos - which I loved. Now, Iquitos is a crazy city lost deep in the Amazon Rainforest. It is only accessible by plane and boat - there is no road. If I'd known what was to come, I would've taken a leap into the river and swam through piranhas in a vain attempt to escape... I arrived with Marianella, Tansy and Ines and we checked into a fairly non-descript hostel. Fortunately, despite its complete lack of character, it was blessed with a luxury few people can truly appreciate, a hot showed with clean water. After 8 ... read more

We arrived in Pucallpa from Laguna Yarinacocha and went straight to the market where we each brought our hammocks/homes for the next several days. Tansy came away with a deckchair-ish red a white striped one, Ryan's was a bizzarely nice combination of every colour and mine was yellow with orange suns over it, something to keep me smiling if times got rough on the boat. My recent posts have been leading to the boat trip up the Amazon; and unlike previous entries, perhaps my desire to do this trip needs a reason. Why did I want to live in a hammock for several days, surrounded by strangers who speak a different language, eating food apparently so poor that guides advise taking prophelactic antibiotics whilst sweating in the heat and humidity of the jungle? A few reason, ... read more