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Published: November 22nd 2007
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
The village of MaipucoAfter spending many days in transit we took a while to get going on our first morning in Yurimaguas. Our plan for the day consisted of finding a hammock for me, eating as usual, internet and finding a boat. It turned out to be in this order where if we were thinking logically it should possibly have been the opposite. Luckily though after spending a few hours wandering around we headed down to the port to see when we could jump onto a boat heading up to Iquitos. We arrived to find madness again.....many trucks full of cargo backed down towards the river front, people off loading the trucks, small shops selling everything you might need on your journey, people trying to 'help us' and all of this done surrounded completely by mud and water from the rain. Instantly we befriended some locals that could tell us all about the boats and of course get us a good deal. We had a look at a few boats but our choice was limited and we were suprised by what we found. Our expectations of the boats were not too high after hearing many stories along the way from other travellers. The boat
YURIMAGUAS PORT
The port in Yurimaguas where we boarded our boat. Lots of madness going on as all sorts of cargo is loaded by means of manual labour we were looking at had two levels, the first level was the cheaper option and was already jammed backed with people lying on their hammocks. The top level was more expensive, nearly double the price, but was way less crowded and more open to give you better views and a nice breeze and apparantly nicer food. We had asked to speak to the captain to make a deal with him, we thought we could pay to stay on the top but eat on the cheaper level. We thought that we had made this deal with the captain and thought that we were on a good wicket with the arrangements we had made. Unexpectantly the boat was leaving in a couple of hours, we had planned to leave the next day and were just checking out our options. Now we were on missions to get everything we needed and be back there before departure. In record time we got some food, just in case the boat food was inedible, water, other necessities and grabbed our bags and were back at the dock with time to spare before the anticipated departure time. Our friends were instantly at our moto on arrival at
YURIMAGUAS PORT
At port in Yurimaguas.....our boat is the one on the right the dock and were more than happy to help us with our bags through all the mud. Up we went to the top deck and set up our hammocks to claim our territory and then relax while we waited to head off. In this time there was mention by our friends that we could no longer do the plan we had arranged regarding the fare and that we had to eat as well as sleep on the top deck because we were vegetarian and there was no variation on the food downstairs. After showing some frustration with this news they quickly dropped the price a little and then asked for their tip.......at this stage we thought that all was sweet and that they actually deserved their tip. It didn't take long though to realise that we had possibly been had, what were we thinking we wondered......obviously not much!!!!! At this stage we had to wait for the ticket lady to come around and see us but regardless what we had to pay we were instantly happy that we had chosen the upper deck rather than the lower deck. People just kept squashing into the lower deck and it seemed that
YURIMAGUAS PORT
One of the workers who had to carry numerous packets of cement from the trucks onto the boats people were virtually sleeping onto of each other. We decided that there is no point going on one of these trips if the whole way you are uncomfortable and hating every minute. On our deck we had mainly gringos so we felt pretty safe with all our bags and as it turned out no one from the lower deck was allowed upstairs so that also took some stress away. So the departing time came and went and we didn't even look like leaving any time soon. More and more trucks arrived with huge numbers of cement bags, plantains and other cargo to be loaded. There is no machinery here to help with this process and everything is done by manual labour........many men carrying things on their backs down the hill from truck to boat. I was tired watching them but they were so fit and strong that some of them would be jogging or walking fast as they went.....definately a good way to keep the weight off and to keep fit. I think it was around 8pm when we finally left the port of Yurimaguas, what the Peruvians would call on time I reckon. Still we had not worked out
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
Our luxury top floor on the Eduardo IIV the fare situation and we were sure that we would have to pay more than first thought, this was all fine except that we had only brought a little bit more money than what we had expected the fare to be. After talking about it for ages amoungst ourselves and then with the American couple next to us who had also talked with the captain, the moment came to see what the story was. The American couple managed to get what they had agreed on, sleep up top and eat down below but it was a different story for us. Being vegetarian posed a problem as down stairs all the food was going to contain meat and they wouldn't be making anything special for us. Firstly they wanted to charge us the full price which we didn't have enough money for, we had decided we were happy to pay more but because we had been told something else were not flush with cash. The ticket girl told us a cheaper price and while Sharyn was telling me what she said she told us she would go speak with the captian. I had agreed with the lower price she had offered
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
A couple of locals coming into port in their wooden canoe but think she thought we were still not happy when Sharyn was explaining to me so that is why she spoke with the captain. This turned out to be a bad move because when the captain came back he told us we had to pay the full price and for a while we thought that we had missed the chance for a slight discount. After a few more minutes of conversation, or maybe you could call it begging, they let us have it for the slighty discounted price and finally everything was sorted and it was time to really relax. From this point onwards we were constantly happy with our choice to be on the quite luxurious, considering what we expected, top deck.
It took us two nights and two days to reach Iquitos and for most of the time we travelled up the Rio Huallaga before heading into the famous Rio Amazonas. We slept in our hammocks tied up on deck which gave us a great comfortable place to not only sleep but to lazy in while taking in the views of the river and the jungle as we passed. Along the way we stopped at many villages
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
The lower floor of the boat was half the price.....one reason for that was the lack of personal space. It got even fuller before the boat left Yurimaguas where we either picked or dropped people off and off-loaded or took on more cargo. If there was just a few people to be dropped off or picked there was no need to take the whole boat into shore. In this case a small runabout boat would head off to shore as the main boat slowed down to wait for it to return. When it was a bigger village or it involved cargo the whole boat would pull into the village and the boat would be held against the shore while everything was done......no anchors or ropes here. I loved pulling into the villages as it seemed the whole village came down to met the boat including men, women and children. There were just as interested in us as we were with them and these stops involved a lot of staring on both parties behalf. At many stops we had vendors come on board to try and sell all sorts of things. Most of the time we were completely stuffed from our meals that we needed nothing, but the people in the lower deck thrived on this fresh tasty food. People would also pull up on the side of the
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
The helm.....extremely basic with steering wheel and that's about it......no navigation equipment at all as these skippers know the river like the back of their hands boat so they could sell their produce, it was mainly fruit like melons that were too big to carry on board. Basically there are no rules and people would just do what they want without having to ask the crew or captain for permission. We also took on other cargo at these stops including pigs, chickens, moto taxis, wood, rice and beer.....basically anything people wanted taken up river. My favourite stop was at a large village that brought many people down to the water front including a lot of kids. To start with there was four boys hanging together all of varying ages but with the oldest being around 10 years old. The other 3 boys would follow the older boys lead as far as whether they would kneel down, stand or move closer to the water front. We started out waving to them which intially made them smile and then I proceeded to pull faces at them which brought on much laughter. I kind of got carried away as they kept laughing and it was so beautiful Sharyn had to get involved as well. At this stage I remembered that we had some lollies we had brought to give
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
Our first view at the banks of the river and the jungle at sunrise.....you can see how low the river is, around about 8m below maximum height to kids on the bus, yes we know we could find something healthier to give but these kids don't get many sweets or treats often. So I started to throw the lollies down to the kids and did that cause some hectic times on the banks of the river. Along with lots of laughter there was lots of pushing and jostling to be able to get a lolly. I tried hard firstly not to thrown them in the water but also so that each child could get one. There was no fights in the end and it seemed that they all understood already that they had to share with everyone. At other villages we watched women doing the washing from their canoes at the waters edge, kids swimming and playing in canoes. This was probably my favourity part of the trip as we got to have a little look at how people lived in these isolated villages and to see their very basic way of life from a distance. Also cruising down the river we saw a few floating houses made on bamboo rafts which are actually people's houses. These things were practically oversided rafts with shelter made on top
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
Our first view at the banks of the river and the jungle at sunrise.....you can see how low the river is, around about 8m below maximum height and powered by nothing other than oversized oars. Extremely basic living and I don't think it would be an easy to live that way. The river at the time was at it's lowest point as we were at the very start of the wet season. Soon as the wet season starts the river will rise around 8-10m more. When this happens many people who live along the river don't actually have housing that can withstand all the rain and rising waters. For this reason they live in these raft houses or similar during the wet season.
A few things along the way did disturb me, mainly the littering that goes on constantly in these countries. There was a constant stream of everything being thrown overboard from the lower deck whether it be plastic or organic even though there is a big fat sign asking not to do so. I am forever heartbroken to see this and really don't understand how people can think that it is ok to do so.......especially in a beautiful place and particularly when so many people rely on this water for survival. It is to the extreme that a mother was handing her young child
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
Arriving in a village brings everyone to the water including people wanting to sell their produce.....these people are preparing to come to our boat to sell bits of ripped plastic so she could watch it fly away as she threw it over board.......there is no way a child is going to learn to do anything else. A friend told me that on her boat trip there was one bin for the whole boat and she made the effort to walk all the way downstairs to put her rubbish in it. Again there was a sign asking to use the bin, which most people didn't, but she was also heartbroken when she saw the cleaner emptying the bin overboard.......it's enough to make you cry. I also saw other disturbing things like people walking around with turtles found in the river, they are only small but should be in the water and not on a boat. Sharyn told me that she had seen kids with turtles that had string tied around their legs which would be used to pull them back after they tried to walk away. There was also many birds that people had captured and had with them on the boat.
After working with many skippers over the years I am well aware that a lot of them like to do a lot of nothing.......all
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
Melons for sale while we stop at a small village of you skippers know exactly what I am talking about! The captain of this boat though takes the cake for the laziest captain in the world. Not once did I actually see him driving the boat!!!!! In fact I saw him doing nothing other than feeding his face in the dining room.....obviously he had the best job on the boat. The other staff members on the boat though seemed to be working most of the time and we definately got looked after on the upper deck. Three good meals a day that left us stuffed for many hours. Without eating meat our meals usually consisted of the basic staple foods of rice, beans, potato, plantains, white bread and salad.......more carbs than you can poke a stick at. Not bad grub but by the end of our boat trips I was definately glad not to see another bean for a few days. I am now a big fan of mayonnaise which needs to used in liberal quanties to give flavour to many meals. At meal times we would look to see what the poor people on the lower deck were eating....most meals consisted of soup with a little meat and some
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
Arriving at another village it seems the whole population has come to met us and put their produce on the boat to be taken to Iquitos stale bread - again thankful for our choice to go upstairs. For those people eating chicken there was no mistaking the fact that it was fresh meat. The reason we knew this is because the chickens were kept live downstairs until it was time for dinner. Along with the chickens there was a turkey that gobbled constantly and a rooster that would let us know when dawn was upon us. I never got used to hearing the rooster in the mornings considering I was on a boat! There was also a litter of puppies kept downstairs, very cute as per usual, but I never worked out why they were on the boat.....yet another mystery of Sth America. We also noticed that there was quite a lot of camp staff members and also some which you might class as she-boys/man. Extremely femine and obviously camp in their actions and there was a big hint when some of them wore make-up. Over the few boat trips that we did we noticed that it was very common to see this with the staff members, something that I hadn't seen anywhere else yet. Some of the staff members were very young boys. One of
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
Arriving at another village it seems the whole population has come to met us and put their produce on the boat to be taken to Iquitos them we befriended, a 12yo named Carlos from Iquitos. He worked hard with his friends to help load and off load cargo, this included carrying extremely heavy items on his back and you could really deem this child labour. He seemed to like his work and enjoyed being with his friends on the boat and told us that he works 6 days a week travelling up and down river and then visits his family in Iquitos while he is there. It's a different world when you have to send your 12 year old son off to work instead of sending him to school.
Other than the people side of things which I really enjoyed over the trip the actual river and jungle we saw was amazingly beautiful. Most mornings we had overcast conditions but as the day went on the sun came out and made everything seem more alive that before. The river was brown but we managed to see many grey and pink dolphins as they played. I tried to spot at least monkeys in the jungle when we were close enough to the edge, even though I could hear them I never saw one. I did see
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
The people were very interesting to me and we stared at them as much as they stared at us lots of different birds as we passed and heard many animal calls. Initially the river was not too wide, which was great for us to see the jungle better, but as we headed into the Amazon River it became a lot more open. At times the water was running very fast and great big eddies were caused by the fast current. I was impressed with the people driving the boat as the waters on these rivers can be dangerous and hard to navigate. They must have years of experience and have probably grown up on the rivers as they had no navigation equipment at all to guide them......just simply the steering wheel and the gears. I spent hours just sitting there gazing out taking it all in and was hardly believing that I was where I was.....especially when we started up the Amazon River.
Finally after a couple of days we started to see civilisation ahead, meaning Iquitos was not too far off. I really had enjoyed my time of the boat and would have been quite happy to stay longer as it was completely relaxing. Pulling into Iquitos was exciting as we were now arriving in the biggest
RIVER TRIP TO IQUITOS
Passing a bamboo raft that was large and someone's home town in the world that is only accessible via river or air. On first glance it seemed to be very industrial and pretty ugly, but we had to give it a chance as we were arriving at the port a place that is never nice in any town. The boat docked and as expected we were hounded by touters for hotels and tours but luckily for us there were many other gringos more interested than us so it allowed us to make a quick exit off. After passing by the massive pile of rubbish on the banks of the river and the absolutely foul smell that went with it we found ourselves a moto taxi and were quickly off into the absolute madness of Iquitos.
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