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Published: December 3rd 2010
After my first night ever with a very necessary mosquitero (mosquito net), I awoke in Doce de Mayo. Where I had watched a firey sunset over Lago Imiria in the night, I now saw a sparkling and immense lake under a partially grey sky.
I left the structure where three of us had slept to search the others and see if I could help prepare the next boat ride. As it turns out, most of the things were already loaded, and I added my backpack to the mix. In the late morning, with everthing packed and all the bellies filled, we arranged all of the people. And, for a small-ish peki-peki, there were many of us. It was Alejandro, Brayan, Ácido, Pelau, Tío Lucho, Tío Pedro, Ireny, Carlos, Artemio (the father-in-law of Pedro), and I. And also three puppies from the litter of one of the dogs of Ireny´s family. And a whole bunch of cargo! I got settled in somewhere in the middle of the boat, on a tarp.
Everyone found their respective spots, and, once we pushed off into Imiria, there we would sit for quite some time. The journey, though epic in beauty, was long. The only people actively doing something were Pelau, who was steering the peki-peki, and Carlos, who had a wooden pole at the ready for pushing us off the bottom when we got stuck. Considering its size, I was surprised that the lake is only about two-and-a-half feet deep. I know this because once we hit a log, and Ácido and Carlos fell in. We were all laughing, and they stood only waist-deep as they awaited the peki-peki to turn around and get them once again.
For me, the journey consisted of a lot of sunscreen, a dorky hat for shade, and watching the incredible changes in lanscape under a poofy-cloud ringed sky. From Imiria we passed through little passageways in the grass to more river-like lakes. It went on like this for some time. Some of the banks were lined with large ferns and odd little trees with beautiful yellowish leaves and scaly trunks. Some waters had islands of muck from which grew grass and in some places small trees. Other places were covered in flowering lily-pads, and the deep-blue water was only visble in the narrow paths left by past peki-pekis.
Eventually, we passed into the Río Nishia, the waterway we would follow to the encampment. It was a shallow little river harldy wider than our peki-peki. The high banks betrayed that this was, indeed, the dry season. As we continued up the Nishia, stopping often to clear the grass from the motor´s propellers or to switch to pole-ing up along or even pushing manually when the going got shallow. Which itself happened quite frequently in the last stretches. We also became enshrouded in the dark shade of many vine-covered and interesting trees, which felt like travelling through a tunnel of jungle. Right before dusk, we reached an opening along the side of the river.
Up the slope, there was a large tambo (open-walled structure with a thatched roof), a roofed outdoor kitchen (basically some crude wooden shelves and a fire pit), and also several large portions of tree-trunk scattered around. I was happy to stretch my limbs, and unhappy to find out how itchy my feet were simply from the night in Doce de Mayo (Blasted Zankudos!!!! Stupid Flip-Flops!!!!). We ate dinner, the first in a long succession of rice, beans, and a little meat. I went to sleep happy and realizing that I would be living outside in the jungle here for two whole weeks (or so I thought, more on the time issue later).
The next day, Tío Lucho informed me that we would be walking to the next encampment through the jungle. Ok! Thank goodness my hiking boots for the sierra are just as functional for the selva! In order for the boat to float better, several of us continued on foot that day. It was Lucho, Pedro, Alejandro, Artemio, and I. Our first stop, however, was in the opposite direction than the logging camp. After about a ten minute walk, we came across a good-sized field of coca. This coca chakra, like many others, is somewhat hidden in the Amazon, probably illegal to grow, and probably used to make drugs. However, it is stewarded by others who, like my companions, use the leaves in the traditional way (chewed or in a tea) as a nutritional supplement and aid for heat or exhaustion. So I got to learn about how it grows, its harvest season, chewing technique, etc. Don´t worry , I didn´t do drugs!!! On our way back to the place where we slept, Alejandro spied a yellow and black-striped culebra. Ack!! Thus commenced very masculine freaking out on the part of Lucho, Perdo, and Alejandro. Artemio is way to wise in the ways of the jungle to get scared about some snake. Lucho then went about shooting and killing the snake, which was long and drawn out, and pretty horrifying, to speak truly.
From the encampment we took another trail and, not being loaded down by cargo, I had a lovely time wandering beneath tall trees, through swamps, and over hills (my first since I arrived in Pucallpa!). There were monkey sightings, new plants taught to me, and water drank from very clear and delicious little streams. I am completely enamored with walking through forests, and something inside me clicks when following a trail though the woods, anywhere from the Amazon to the Hoh Rainforest. It was in this both alert and trance-like state that we continued until reaching a very open, plantain-lined meadow.
Here there were also wild cucumbers, lime trees, a couple of papaya plants, chilis! On the far side were more tambos, and the rio Nishia! Our compañeros had arrived, and had almost finished cooking dinner. This site was utilized by many a maderero group, as a stopping point before reaching the ¨real monte.¨ We slept soundly that night, and awoke early to begin the hike to our camp. All the workers lugged their little sacks of clothes and giant bags with the rice, the oil, and other supplies. I just carried my big backpack (they wouldn´t let me help with anything else).
I hiked with Alejandro for five or six hours to reach the new spot. It was eye-opening and very humbling, as well as super hot and humid. We passed a couple of empty camps on the way there, with some fruit trees and abandoned, collapsing tambos. Our camp was not exactly pretty on the eyes at first glance. A few tambos, a kitchen with a fire-blackened roof, and many stumps and debris of cleared trees. However, this would be the place where I would call home for about a month, and learn about the lives of the loggers.
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NOrth
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I am working my way through your account of the Peruvian jungle experience. Thank you for giving us more about this experience. The boat rides sound faerie-tastic. I have never spent more than fifteen minutes on any river, let alone an enormous one. The characters in your account are interesting to me with the little I have read so far. I want more about the people who do this. But I have not read it all yet. I am working on it. Miss you, Sus! Happy late Thanksgiving! Happy early christmas! Every store on the West coast is playing old christian materialist favorites and tasteless covers of the same songs! Yay for X-Mas. Not my favorite holiday.