Blogs from Ucayali, Peru, South America - page 5

Being fortunate to meet and connect with Laurance, Martin (alias LilMerlin) and son Tila from Switzerland during the conference, they invited me to come with them to Pucallpa after I returned from the jungle. Pucallpa is a jungle-city located about 1000km south of Iquitos and close to the area of the native indian tribe called the "Shipibos". For about 12 days we lived together in the "communidad San Francisco", a big Shipibo-community outside of Pucallpa (big means nearly 1000 people). Shipibo-curandero Daniel Arevalo (Sankunima) came from his far-away rivercommunity to work with us in San Francisco at the place of his cousin Mateo. The Shipbos are an amazing tribe, their culture deeply rooted in the world of the plants and their sacred Ayahuasca. One of the most stunning aspects was the ceremonial singing of the Shipibo-curandero ... read more

I guess its been about 2 weeks since I´ve been here in Pucallpa. The weather is mild, mostly cloudy...but when the sun is out it gets very hot. I guess I am getting use to the heat. I have been waiting for the past few days to visit the other lodges that Pablo is building...deeper in the jungle, farther away from civilization. Well, I finally got a chance, and half-way through the ride, I was regretting it. I was sitting in the backseat of a Nissan 4x4 pickup truck with 3 other people. My head was hitting the roof because I am so tall, and every time we hit a bump, I jammed my neck...and my leg started going to sleep, my arm was bashing into the door, and the "oh crap handle" was missing so ... read more

I wanted to drive during the coolest part of the day, so I decided to get a collectivo (car ride, s.45) from Tingo Maria to Pucallpa, a six hour ride by car or 11 hr ride by bus. I woke up at 3:30am to catch my ride at 4am which was ready and waiting for me ON TIME!! And we were off into the darkness of the thin morning air. With no street lights on the dark mountain roads we swerved several times just missing a dog, and children going to school in the early morning. Soon the sun came up and I witnessed the most beautiful jungle landscape, with waterfalls, and colorful birds everywhere. Then the heat began to set in, and we came to a road-block, then another, and another...There are a lot of ... read more

C'est juste pour souhaiter un joyeux Noel a tout le monde, et mettre quelques photos suplementaires. On part le 26 pour Lima et apres on verra bien... bises... read more

Last week we went to Saposoa, a much more friendly community. We exposed our usual Museo de la Salud, (literally means hygiene museum). This time Eliseo, a new comer in the project, added a part on agriculture, where he explained what fruits to grow and how. Our Spanish is improving rapidly and we’ve also learned a few words in Shipibo. The main event of the trip was another nocturnal tropical storm. This time we were better prepared since we had tents. I had borrowed one from ADRA but Pierre had insisted on taking his own. Unfortunately it could not be mounted indoors so when the storm broke out at 1.00 AM, I had a thought for him from my warm under-shelter bed, although I spent most of the night tackling a new form of "invisible-mosquitoes". At ... read more