Blogs from Amazonas, Peru, South America - page 13

Ben Sorry for the break in posts. The dune boarding was great - firstly the bits in a dune buggy, which was basically a free-form rollercoaster ride. The dunes there are massive (several hundred feet high apparently), and you kind of loop up and down them - shooting up the side until you lose speed and then shooting back down. The fact that the driver was muttering prayers before we set off just added to the thrill. The dune boarding itself was a bit slower - principally because most of it was spent lying in the sand. I'd either fall over because I was rubbish, or do well enough to pick up speed and then fall over because, well, too much speed can be a bad thing. Later on we evolved to body boarding down - ... read more

He is sitting on two big boulders along a soggy dirt road waiting for his bus to pass. He is roughly an hour from Chachapoyas, the nearest town, on a dead end road in the Andes and it is sprinkling. There is a makeshift café next to him under a blue tarp serving various grilled meats, potatoes and coffee. The hood of an old blue clunker of a car is acting as a table. It is getting chilly and dark and he still has two hours until he is supposed to catch his bus. The reason for this situation is that he went on a tour of pre-Inca ruins in the morning and wasn’t going to make it back to town in time to catch his 6:00 bus. This intersection is the midway point between ... read more

Well the jungle…what can i say?? I think firstly the most important thing...I am now known as Queen of the Pirahnas. Yep! Crowned by our jungle leader himself. Let me explain…. We went pirahna fishing in the Amazon Jungle (how cool does that sound!?). And I, Queen of the Pirahnas…or the Pirahna Queen if you prefer, caught the most pirahnas AND the biggest!!! Yep! Ben only caught one…but i caught 6 and i caught the biggest!! Did i mention that already? (insert your own gleeful little cackle here). Our jungle leader Ráphael (a.k.a Shrek) was most impressed…and seemed to be quite upset that we couldnt take them home with us, but alas we were fishing, quite illegally, in a nature reserve so we had to throw them back…and we couldn't mention anything to do with fishing ... read more

I´m in an internet cafe in Iquitos right now. This place is pretty interesting. It´s a lot poorer than i had imagined, it reminds me a little bit of Jamaica in the way the houses and buildings are built. We flew into Iquitos this morning with about a 2 hr delay, which was terrible when we already hadn´t slept all night. We got here eventually though, and the lodge that we booked met us at the airport. They were amazing and set us up with a hotel and took us there for free. They´ll be back around 9 tomorrow to pick us up and take us to the lodge. This city is very neat despite the ramshackleness of it all. It seems that the only form of transportation is these front wheels and motors of motorcyles ... read more

Note that as is with anything, words can not discribe an experience, that goes double for this blog as I try my best to remember and recollect all that I have experienced while in the Chachapoyas area. My first memory of Chachapoyas is arriving in the morning before any light and talking to the kid who walked me to my hostal about the area, and hearing for the first of many times how safe and tranquil the Chachapoyan streets are at all hours. Needless to say this is a good sign, and the fact that I stayed at the nicest hostel I have been in for half the normal price was also a perk. Of course coming in the low season also can backfire, since this means lots of rain, but what is a jungle trek ... read more