Are We There Yet? A Journey To Iquitos

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Day 262 Friday 29^th June

The room of our hotel in Tarapoto has windows opening into a light shaft and our window does not close properly and the air-conditioning cord comes through the window. This all would not seem a problem until someone turns the TV on full blast at 3.00am in the morning and then they proceed to have a loud discussion screaming over the TV noise. Every sound echoed up the light shaft but most you could sleep through but not this noise. To remedy the problem we turned on the air-conditioning which was louder than all that noise and at least had a constant sound one could not call it a hum, but at least being constant we went back to sleep. We slept till about 6.00am when someone started hacking up a lung and this was louder than everything else the person really should see a doctor. We decided to get up and have breakfast which consisted of 2 slices of cold toast, jam, juice and instant coffee. We went back to the room packed and went back to reception to pay the bill, they asked where we were headed and when we said Tarapoto they arranged a collectivo taxi to come to the hotel so we waited in the foyer watching TV.

The collectivo turned up at 10.30am and after some negotiation I got a window seat, the people in South America are very friendly and when I say I am claustrophobic always make sure I am near the door. There were 4 other passengers plus the driver, one in the front seat, 3 across the middle seats (with me near the door) and in the backseats were Scott and another man. We have described the break neck speed the collectivos travel at and this one was no different, what made it interesting is the man next to me kept falling asleep. The poor thing had reached that point where no matter what you do you just can’t keep your eyes open, he tried a few times to put his hands on the roof to brace himself as we were flung around corners but the next thing he was asleep and his arms would just fall. This was quite amusing to watch although every now and then I would nearly have his head in my lap, but thankfully he always woke up in time. We arrived at Yurimaguas and were dropped about 2km from the centre which is never a problem because there are always dozens of autorickshaws around, although I would wish they would let you get out of the car first and not stick their heads through the window screaming to get your attention.

We arrived at a hostel we choose from the Lonely Planet call El Naranjo and asked what the room was worth unfortunately the number he wrote look like 140 sols which was way too high. I asked to see the room which was clean, a fan (which we found out later does not work) and no toilet seat. Back at reception I gave Scott the rundown and then asked the guy again how much and discovered in was only 40 sols. We are starting to get to be crusty backpackers as we accepted, you can’t expect a toilet seat for about $AUD15.00 a night, anyway it will toughen us up for the trip ahead. It is pity the fan does not work as the temperature is about 30 degrees we have gone from the cold mountains in Chachapoyas to the humid jungles of the Amazon border town.

Peru is an amazing country divided into three very different Climatic, Geographic and Cultural regions. The thin coastal region that is wedged between the sea and the soaring Andes is principally a desert and except for the occasional catastrophic El Nino receives very little rain. This area despite being some of the driest regions on the planet supports some of the largest cities in Peru including the capital Lima. The next zone is the mountainous Andes that remains fairly dry on the seaboard side but gets drenched on the Eastern flanks. This area is of course filled with the great Incan, Chachapoyan and other indigenous ruins and highland communities. The final zone is the Amazon, which takes up a huge area of Peru and is still being explored/exploited as we speak. It is not only the temperature that you notice changes from one zone to the next but the peoples look and dress do as well. Thankfully for us the warm friendliness of the Peruvians is the same no matter where we have travelled.

We did not do much in the afternoon just got lunch at the hotel restaurant which is interesting as the woman running the place wouldn’t let us choose anything and she seemed to be pushing us towards one dish so we ordered that, it was OK but on the expensive side. We rested and then called home to say “Hi” to our families. There is not much choice in this town for food and most of it looks dodgy but we tried a chicken shop called La Prosperidad and it was reasonable and cheaper than the hotel.

Day 263 Saturday 30^th June

We have assumed breakfast is not included in the price of the room so when we got the menu in the hotel dining room we decided on pancakes as we are both over scrambled eggs. The same lady as yesterday served us and she just said “No”, so we chose something else again we got “No” then pointed to two options both containing scrambled eggs. Why give us a menu get our hopes up and then just say “NO”, so we both had scrambled eggs, must try and find somewhere else tomorrow.

The reason we are in this town is to get a cargo boat down the river to a town called Iquitos which is only accessible by boat or plane, there is no road through to it. So we walked down to the port area looking out for somewhere to get information, as we got closer a tout approached us and said hello it is hard to politely get rid of touts because you do not want to burn your bridges unless you definitely do not need what they are offering as later you may need to get info off them. He (Walter) walked us the last block through the cattle, the fruit & veg and the trucks all loading onto the two boats in port. He took us on board one which on the lower deck was already full of people all crammed in with hammocks, we went upstairs which was better and asked to see a cabin. We had heard that they are stinking hot but at least secure and had toilets, well there is no toilet only a tiny room with bunk beds and no windows just grates. I think I must have been having one of those days because I took one look and said no I do not think I can do this, it was made worse when the only other two backpackers we saw did not even acknowledge us after we both smiled and nodded at them. The next problem the boat was sailing in 4 hours and we had no supplies and had not even packed. So we both said no thankyou and left, narrowly avoiding been run over by a bull that was running full tilt with two men with long ropes trying to keep control of it.

Feeling a little depressed and not sure what to do we stopped at a bar to get a beer and discuss what we should do next. We know there are no boats leaving on Sunday so we have time to make the decision and for the rest of the day we tossed up which way to go with no clear winner. In the afternoon we walked around the markets to see what supplies would be around to take on the boat if we should decide to go. The markets here are basic and the shops do not have much more so all I could see was fruit, I should mention that all meals are supplied on the boat but I am not sure of the quality as it is a cargo boat full of human, cattle and other stuff.

Had dinner at the chicken shop again where the staff are very friendly and by the end of the night we had no clear decision “To go or not to go”.

Cons

1. Sleeping in a hammock for two nights

2. Food possibly is going to be crap

3. Have to watch that our stuff doesn’t get ripped off, means sleeping with one eye open.

4. Toilets….god only knows how bad they are going to be

Pros

1. I guess it’s something different to do?





Day 264 Sunday 1^st July

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month, well a decision has been made “In for a penny in for a pound” we have decided to go for it, but only one way, and we will get a plane out. We skipped breakfast and walked back to the port to see if we could find out any info about tomorrow’s schedule. On the walk we passed lots of little shops all selling not much, but at least bottled water that we will need for the trip. The port was quiet today although there were still a few rogue bulls around giving trouble to their handlers who look more scared of them than me and I have been hit by a bull, but we kept our distance just in case they lost control of them. We looked for a store that is mentioned in the Lonely Planet that is meant to give the boat schedule but could not find any information and no one came up and offered any info.

We walked back to the centre town and on the way we saw a little girl about 8 years old with a monkey on her shoulder, not sure if it is the ideal pet? In the Plaza de Armas where there was a parade happening we are not sure if it is a weekly thing or for a special occasion, but it was a little adhoc and some of the marchers were very old. We think it was military and included the retired but we have only met a few local that speak very limited English about as good as our Spanish so I doubt I will find out. Then it was onto the markets to pick up hammocks, toilet paper, Tupperware containers for our food and fruit. The markets are very rustic maybe the worst we have seen including India a lot of the fruit and veg is nearly rotten and the papayas have mould on them so you have to look carefully. We got all the supplies but not much food so I hope the food on the boat is eatable it is only for two nights and three days so we may lose some of the weight we have gained. While walking around the markets we saw a baby caiman and turtles for sale, plus the usual chickens and fish all in the heat of the day.

We started to feel a bit peckish, I know how could we after the markets but if you think about it too much you would never eat. As we made a way around the plaza and down the side of the church we saw another café (Salon de Te – Mi Sabor) which looked newish and very clean so we went in and the food was good and the cakes looked nice but we did not try them. This café is definitely worth trying if you come here as there is such little choice. After lunch we went down to the pool area, the hotel has a pool and it is clean and shaded so we sat and read for the afternoon.

As we left the hotel in the evening there was heavy rain but we managed to keep dry running under the shop awnings. We had dinner back at La Prosperidad and at the next table sitting was a family of Mum, son, daughter and parrot all eating chicken even the parrot which was munching on a chicken bone and appearing to love it.



Day 265 Monday 2^nd July

Moving on today for better or worse, so first thing we were packing our bags. Once that was finished we again couldn’t bring ourselves to eat breakfast at the hotel so we walked the couple of blocks to the café we had discovered. Just went a plain ham and cheese sandwich with fruit juice, just to be on the safe side. Returned to our hotel and completed our packing before checking out. Got an autorickshaw (the Peruvians call them a Mototaxi) down to the main port, and as we neared our destination two port touts jumped onto the rear so they were there to badger us with their services. We are unsure how easy it would be to march onto one of these boats without the “assistance” of these guys, but if you plan on doing it ensure you are carrying a baseball bat. There role was to point out the boat we needed to get onto (knew that), Take us to the deck we could sleep on (again, we knew that), Show us the spot for our hammock, (didn’t like it so picked our own), Showed us where to pay for our ticket, (blind Freddy couldn’t have passed that point), got rope to string our hammock up with, (a shop across the road sold it and we paid probably double for it, 10 Sol), and finally hung around for a tip, (and of course had to pay it). These guys are such a part of the tourist industry and are difficult to fob off and you can get really annoyed at time by having to pay out for no help but then you are also helping employment in town and these guys (on this end of the trip) do it very nicely and the cost isn’t extravagant so it is easy to go along with it. We both sort of got the feeling to do it without their assistance would require the patience of Mother Teresa along with a baseball bat.

The guys also “helped” us with buying water (pointing out the shop they get commission from) before we started to settle in at our spot on the third (top) deck of the boat. The first deck was for cargo, the second deck was cheaper and is packed in a bit tighter and apparently our deck is for Gringos and the better off Passengers. The top deck is half hammock space and half cabins, and we were going to go cabins but they looked tighter than a Long Bay prison cell, were all steel with only a louver for ventilation, and looked extremely hot. The cabins were 180 Sol each, while the hammock space was 100 Sol each, so we ended up going hammock space and would later regret it.

As we set up Jacob a young American from Colorado came over and started to chat with us and we discovered that rather than the boat leaving at 2pm (in 4 hours time) it wasn’t going to depart till 10am tomorrow (24 hours)………shit. Should have probably just headed back to town and found a hostel to stay in but opted to stick it out on the boat. When we first arrived there were probably about twenty people on our deck so it didn’t feel too bad, but as the day went on more people arrived. The passengers were a really mixed group of Americans, Germans, a lovely French couple, Six Haitian men who we think may have been an American recruited missionary group on the way to the jungle, and of course heaps of Peruvians. We were wedged between the Haitians and a large Peruvian family who had 3 overactive young boys.

All day we kept hoping the boat would just leave but of course it didn’t, but it at least gave us the chance to watch the loading and unloading of our boat and the others adjoining us. The cargoes were a varied mixture of fruit, sugar and timber and all this work was done manually without the help of any machinery. The bags of sugar were marked as 50kg and each guy carried two on his back!!!!!! What I found more amazing was the lumps of timber the guys were carrying off one of the ships which were massive, and sort of guessed that some of them would have been pushing towards 500 - 600 kilos, (Dad see the photos and give me your guess on what they weigh). The guys didn’t stop all day and in fact ran most of the time, and one of the guys carrying the timber was missing a hand. The surprising thing was that you would expect that they would all be built like Arnie, but most of them weren’t that muscular or fit, some even had huge beer bellies and/or looked to be in their forties. Obviously no Workcover or Unions here but probably Hospitals and graveyards filled with broken men that pushed themselves every day for a pittance.

During the afternoon the temperature on the boat heated up as we were wedged between two other boats so there was no breeze just totally still and about 30 degrees and high humidity.

Towards nightfall we realised that we weren’t going anywhere today and so decided to head in to town for a feed. Jacob and the other Gringos said they would keep an eye on our bags while we gone and so we got a rickshaw down to our chicken shop for a quick feed before returning to our dockside prison. We had only been on the boat 8 hours and yet that hour away felt so good.

All day more people had boarded so that our initial 20 people had swollen to about 40 and space was starting to get tight. On our deck we had 4 womens and 4 mens toilets, each also having a shower over the toilet, along with wash basins. The toilets of course don’t have toilet seats, but were kept fairly clean and the waste baskets were emptied fairly regularly. This of course is no Queen Mary but considering where you are in the world it was okay. Peruvians as I have stated before are really lovely warm people, but they at times lack considerations for others. It is never malicious or intentionally ill meant but just that they don’t have that switch that says “Gee maybe I shouldn’t do that because it might upset others”. Several groups on the boat had Radios/MP3 players and they had them blaring all day, and then continued into the night long after everyone had turned off the lights. The continuing competing sound of three sets of music all playing just about drove us mad, and that is the other amazing thing about Peruvians…no one ever seems to complain. As guests in this country you always feel like you need to play by the rules and not to whinge, but we sort of expect locals to and we have always been surprised by what they put up with. Back in Australia someone making a racket after lights out would have had their radio kicked into the bay but here no one made a sound…at least what we could hear over the god awful music. And that was the other surprising thing with Peru…the music sux big time. You would think it would be all pan pipes but what we have been hearing is this weird pseudo high pitched Asian pop crap. It all sounds like a sort of Chinese Techno country western music sung at a really high pitch, it is about as appealing as hearing a truck load of bagpipes being put through a garden mulcher to the vocals of Keith Urban on speed singing in Spanish.

We went to bed/hammock at 9 along with everyone except the few that had the music blaring, and the racket continued till 1am when the power on the boat was turned off, thank god, but then the old boys turned up.



Day 266 Tuesday 3^rd July

With the music finally turned off we thought we could sleep but then a bunch of guys walked up onto our deck pissed as parrots and proceeded to stumble around falling over and shouting to each other. They went to the rear of the boat and had a long loud laugh filled conversation with someone before stumbling back off the boat, and then after 10 minutes returned again. As soon as they entered the boat you could smell the rocket fuel they had been drinking, these guys smelt like they had been swimming in a bathtub of rum and were behaving as if they had drunk it. Once again no one on the boat raised a voice in complaint. We both thought about getting up and marching them off or getting them to lay down, but then we can’t even communicate with them when we are sober so what chance did we have with them drunk. Eventually around 2.30 they finally crashed to the floor (literally) and the place went quiet and we got to snooze, till 3 when the power came back on along with the 3 music boom boxes, which woke up the drunks. They then decided they needed to go to the toilet one stumbled passed us to the front of section, note the toilets are at the back, and proceed to relieve himself over the edge. He then fell over and landed on a person sleeping on the floor who called out “No Senor, No”, so he sat beside them till he could get up again. Of the other two one just made it to the railing and over, but the other one just peed on the floor near the railing thank God we are not sleeping on the floor. Eventually they all crashed so we were safe again.

We tried our very best impersonations of sleeping till 6, but then gave up and got up along with everyone else. As we are not moving yet there is no food being served we had brought supplies of biscuits and fruit so we had enough to get us through. We watched them continue to load and by 10.00am knew we would not be leaving for a couple more hours, eventually at 12.25pm we started to move to everyone’s relief. The whole time we were in port the people kept piling on board and now there were hammocks down the aisles and people sleeping in between hammocks on the floor, I had three young men sleeping under my hammock and the one next to me. All night I had to remind myself to get out of the hammock the other side so I did not step on them, although now to go to the toilet was such an obstacle course I did not bother.

Now we are moving the scenery was beautiful which we could see while lying in our hammocks so the afternoon was taken up with watching the scenery go past. Late in the afternoon we got a glimpse of pink dolphins swimming past us, they are not as playful as sea dolphins and seem to keep their distance. I have no idea how they survive in these rivers with all the rubbish that is continually thrown into the river by people on the boats and from the small villages along the way. There does not seem to be any realisation that they are polluting the water that they drink, wash and swim in. We lost count of the number of times we saw someone chuck a plastic drink bottle overboard. At one point we watched as someone was throwing oranges overboard through the window from the lowest deck. I turned to Shelley and said “well I guess we should be grateful they are not in a plastic bag”, and no sooner were the words out of my mouth when 3 oranges went into the river inside a plastic bag…what do you do? At one of the stops at a village a woman walked up to the river bank and threw a large garbage bag into the river, whilst a woman below her on the shore line was bucketing up water, possibly for cooking.

At 5.05pm the dinner bell rang and everyone grabbed their containers and ran downstairs so by the time we got there the line was very long so it took ages to finally get to the food which consisted of a huge amount of rice, a small piece of chicken and plantain (which is like a tasteless banana) it was what it was, plain but filling. I must admit the rice here is getting a bit much it is dry and lumpy with no sauce, I love it with a curry but plain there is only so much I can eat. After dinner we went to the front of the desk and watch the sunset over the river before moving back to the hammocks to read. Later the moon was incredible not quite full but huge and shining across the river you just had to pretend you were by yourself and block the noise out and enjoy it. The lights started being turned off about 9.30pm but the music still continued the only good thing is there is no alcohol sold on board so the old boys did not act up tonight.



Day 267 Wednesday 4^th July

We stopped at about 3.00am at Lagunas where a few more people hopped on, one was Mark, a really nice English guy, who set his hammock up at the end of ours. Everyone started to stir about 6.00am to get ready for the breakfast stampede at 7.00am, we declined the offering of oatmeal drink and bread rolls. The morning started much as yesterday but today we stopped along the way to be met by canoes from local villages that loaded bananas on board bound for Iquitos. All this was done in the middle of the river and while we were stopped pods of dolphins went past giving us a better look at them, but still no good photos. A small boy in a dugout canoe was waiting with the larger canoes that were unloading and when another turned up and crowded him in he got quite annoyed and started trying to push it away – river rage. Today was made up with lots of stops either like this or docking at small villages and occasionally our extended dinghy would take off with either people or goods to a house along the river so we did not have to stop. We sat at the front of the boat watching all the goings on and chatting to the new arrival Mark.

We skipped lunch and dinner today, it was spaghetti mixed with rice and a piece of chicken and plantain and just had our fruit instead. If you are reading this do not think the food is terrible it is good given the circumstances and the volume of people they need to feed. The old boys and friends played cards the whole trip gambling with money and today brought some firewater that smelt so potent almost like a sweet sherry from the couple next to us. As the afternoon when on they started to get louder and this was only one small bottle thankfully when they came back to buy more the man shook his head and said NO, they tried a few times but he stood firm. So we should be OK tonight as they are only tipsy, it must be a gut rotting brew.

The sunset was again beautiful and we stayed at the front for ages where it is quieter to admire it and alone time with only about 10 other people. The other very annoying fact about this boat is people are allowed to smoke and they do it everywhere including while laying in their hammocks it is quite scary considering all the bedding and things on the floor that could catch fire, but rest assured there are plenty of life jackets. We when back to our hammocks read till lights out with one of the guys sleeping under me (that sounds a bit suggestive) occasionally whacking me with his knee as he turned over. By this stage there were perhaps 70 to 80 people on our deck, and would guess there were well over a hundred on the deck below which was larger. The photos you see on this blog were all taken earlier in the voyage and they actually don’t show it when it got packed.

At 12.00am the commotion started and lights when on for people getting off at a town called Nauta.



Day 268 Thursday 5^th July

We docked at the town of Nauta about 12.30am and about 75%!o(MISSING)f the people got off including the 3 guys sleeping on the ground beside me who nodded goodbye. We were surprised at this mass departure but part of the reason is to do Jungle tours from here (Jacob and another girl got off) and from this town there is a bus that only takes about 2 hours to get to Iquitos. We had decided that it was better to stay on the boat to Iquitos than get off in the middle of the night and hope to get a bus which we know nothing about. We said goodbye to Jacob and about 1.00am we were on our way again this was the last stop. We are now officially from this point cruising on the Amazon River. The boat was quiet finally until the Haitians decided they would sing gospel songs they had rhythm but terrible voices.

The breakfast bell went off at 7.00am and after this everyone slowly started on pack up leaving the hammocks to last as our ETA was about 9.00am. We sat and watched the small villages on the Amazon River (it makes it sound so much more exciting saying Amazon River), but it looks the same. In the distance we started to see the large town Iquitos which has half a million people and is the largest town in the world not accessible by road. This town founded in 1750s as a Jesuit mission and boomed in the 1870’s due to rubber which ended by World War One. The next boom was in the 1960’s with the discovery of oil, all of this has made an interesting town. Our initial view of Iquitos was the port area and the huge logs that we guess have been cut down from the Amazon. We pulled in at a nice part of the port with proper looking docks about 8.30am but this was only to check in with the port authority and this took half an hour then we moved to where we were disembarking, a mud hole. Before we could even get to the stairs leading to the deck below a tout started hassling us we had heard they are ferocious here and to watch our stuff. We walked the plank to get off with backpacks and bags not bad for two people with no balance, but we were motivated by the water and mud below.

As we climbed the embankment the touts where everywhere we pushed through and got a mototaxi and here the chaos started. The roads are a madhouse here, just make sure no part of your body is near the side or you will lose it as all the traffic squeezes past including buses. We got dropped off at our first choice a hotel with river views after looking us up and down we got a NO, I was so disappointed. Oh well we trudge 3 blocks to the next hotel and now were getting harassed by numerous touts one of which just would not take no for an answer, we pushed past him and into the hotel. Here we got the same look up and down and hesitation and then NO, we are not sure if it is the way we look or there are no vacancies. So onto the next one being constantly hounded by touts which was another 3 blocks away here they said yes. I asked to see a room and it looked good so we checked in, the only downside was we did not get the same room, we ended up getting one which is smaller. We could have complained but we got the room for a lot cheaper than is on the tariff board in reception and it has a bed not a hammock and also a toilet seat so we are happy.

We got settled and had the longest shower ever to wash all the grit off before heading out to get some lunch and walking around a bit to get our bearings. The café we chose was La Noche and it was overpriced and tiny portions, so we need to find somewhere else for dinner. We had a quiet afternoon and went out again about 5.00pm to look around and check out restaurant menu for dinner. We stopped at a bar overlooking the pedestrian area and river for a pisco sour and a beer to watch the street stalls and the people going by. We moved on for dinner to a pizza place which was reasonably priced but the pizza was very average so we will be looking for somewhere else tomorrow. The food in general is expensive here due to the transportation costs to get things here.

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Photos

Eduardo IV
Our Luxury Boat

Yurimaguas
Cathedral

Yurimaguas
The Sunday Parade

Yurimaguas
La Boca Port

Yurimaguas
Unloading timber at the Port

Yurimaguas
Loading sugar at La Boca Port

Yurimaguas
Cattle waiting to be loaded

Yurimaguas
Carrying timber off a boat

Eduardo IV
Our deck on arrival

Eduardo IV
Our neighbours

Eduardo IV
View from our hammocks

Eduardo IV
Our deck starting to fill

Eduardo IV
Shelley enjoying the view

Eduardo IV
The river

Eduardo IV
The cabins (prison cells)

Eduardo IV
A small village on the way

Eduardo IV
Scott resting in his hammock

Eduardo IV
Shelley trying to rest in her hammock

Eduardo IV
Sunset the first night of cruising

Eduardo IV
Loading the boat along the way

Eduardo IV
Don't crowd me in

Eduardo IV
Village houses

Eduardo IV
Sunset the second day of cruising

Iquitos
First view of Iquitos

Iquitos
Timbers in port waiting to be shipped

Iquitos
Iquitos Port

Comments

[traudy glasencnik]

Sleeping under stars!!!
Hey guys xx, sounds like a hellish boat ride given the company of some. sad about the littering, I see it here everyday, complete ignorance. Nice to have the dolphins around. You both look great in the hammocks shots, nice and fresh. Onward! Be good xx