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Published: July 26th 2008
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Plaza de Armas, Iquitos
My personal fave from the amazonian cities. Just made it to Yurimaguas after leaving Iquitos 4 days ago. Whew... such a relief. I have really enjoyed the landscape and local culture, but traveling alone and speaking as little spanish as I do has beentrying. In the past 4 days, I have only come across 3 people who speak English, often going days at a time speaking only spanish! I have found myself having the same conversation with all the locals, as my spanish is very limited. It has been extremely humbling, although frustrating at times. People speak so quickly, that it is almost fruitless to attempt to understand them at my level of understanding.
My initial plan was to take a cargo ship from Iquitos, get off in Lagunas for a few days and then proceed all the way to Yurimaguas... which is the first city that I would be able to catch ground transportation. The boat was scheduled to leave west from Iquitos at 6 in the evening on the rio Rio maraƱon (which turns into the amazon several KM east of Iquitos), but did not actually end up leaving until after 8:30pm. I made sure to pay extra for the top level, as it was
Iquitos
Tearing through the market on the back of a tuktuk. well worth it. The second level was packed full and smelled pretty bad. I was very thankful that I had my space up top. They have sit down meals up top, rather than the cafeteria style dining in the lower floor. I paid 100 soles for my trip to Lagunas (it would have been 50 for the lower floor).
After boarding Eduardo V, I immediately met an english speaking woman from Switzerland, whose name was Oti. She was working on her PHD through amazonian swamp research. She also spoke 5 languages! She was very nice, and brilliant. She was studying with another local woman named Julie that lived in Iquitos. She helped me to tie my hammock up in the boat. They ended up getting off in a remote village, about 12 hours before Lagunas. The scenery was beautiful. Cool lazy days spent reading in my Hammock capped off by spectacular amazonian sunsets. The food on the other hand... not so great. The one thing I learned is that Peruvian Transvestites (not a bitter exageration) are not good at cooking. I boarded the boat on Monday feeling great, and by Wednesday I was throwing up in the repulsive bathrooms.
My first pink dolphin!
Interesting statue in Iquitos Luckily, it was only one day of sickness. I felt much better after purging their nasty food. 'La Comida en la lancha es no bueno'... soon became my conversation starter with the locals.
The ride to Lagunas took about 50 hours. The boat stopped at a myriad of different sized ports, where a multitude of people who lived in these isolated villages would load and unload goods, anything from bananas and oranges, to roosters and pigs. Even more common at the stops were food venders, who swarmed the second level of the boat trying to sell fresh fish, aguajes, live birds, live turtles, etc. It was chaos on the lower deck. Fun to watch. I felt bad for the animals. They eat absolutely everything down here (including the turtles), and treat their animals pretty poorly. They also throw ALL of their trash in the river. I watched the small fish frantically feast of the sewage that was constantly dumped into the river.
The trip flew by, and next thing I knew, I was deboarding in a strange town of Lagunas at midnight... much to my dismay. Lagunas is a tiny, mosquito ridden town (only at night), with no
Border of Iquitos
No wonder there aren't roads... restaurants, no tourists, and no contact to the outside world except through at leats a 10 hr boat ride. It does have several cheap hostels, and 3 tour operators (none of which speak english). After learning this on Thursday, I decided to modify my plans to visit the reserva de pacaya samiria from lagunas to the bigger city of Yurimaguas in hopes of finding an english speaking guide... as I was already beyond frustrated with trying to understand spanish. Isolation is good, only up to a certain extent. It doesn't take long for that in the jungle either. The problem was, I made up my mind at 11am, with absolutely NOTHING to do in the city the daily boat arrived at 8pm! It was long day. I spent the next 8 hours conversing with locals who seemed to be very intrigued/entertained by my presence. I guess I would be excited to, nothing too exciting seems to go down in that town. When I got lunch at noon, I ended up having to wake the owner up to give me my check. They were all very nice, and I learned quite a bit about the local ways and expanded my spanish
Iquitos Puerto
Filthy, with rickety old boats. vocab to include mosqos (mosquitos) and luciernos (fireflies). To my horror, I learned that they eat monkeys! I told them in my scattered spanish that it was too similar to eating people, which they found hilarious. I was finally able to embark from there that evening when Eduardo II came to port. I bought my ticket for 20 soles to Yurimaguas for the local level. The boat was much smaller, and had no open upper deck where I had enjoyed myself on the previous boat. I spend several minutes just trying to find a place to squeeze in my hammock in the smelly quarters. Luckily, my discomfort was limited to 12 hours. I can't even imagine spending the entire 3 days on that deck! I got into Yurimaguas this morning at 10 and checked into a cheap hostel. Everything here is very cheap. I have arranged a treck to the reserva for the next three days, where I hope to catch a glimpse of a few animals.
This evening, I met my first Yurimagua friends. (spanish speaking only). There was a huge thunderstorm that came out of no where... and I was forced to take shelter under a cabana
Iglesia
The church in the plaza de armas, Iquitos bar. I decided to have a beer while I waited it out. I met two very drunk brothers there. They were really nice and friendly with me, which I found welcoming. A girl told me that she was attracted to me. The drunk brothers kept telling me me that I should take the girl back to my hostel with me, (at 3 in the afternoon) while she was sitting at the table. My spanish is terrible, so they had to play a bit of charades for me to catch on. Turns out she was a hooker... sorry ego!
After my treck, I will be headed up towards Ecuador via bus... which should take a couple days. There I will be meeting up with my friend Katie!
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