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Published: October 26th 2006
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Travelling from Vilcabamba southwards meant that we crossed into Peru at the most eastern and more remote border post. Being off the beaten track had its advantages, one of which being that I got to practise my Spanish an awful lot, but it also meant that we had to be quite canny and organised as transport options were much more limited. We travelled for 3 days in a variety of cars, collectivos, trucks and minibuses, and I'm sure came close to breaking a few world records for the number of people that can be crammed into a single car, along the way. It didn't matter as the journeys were interesting enough. The scenery changed dramatically into lush jungle and the heat ratcheted up suddenly to become extremely hot and humid. One thing that didn't change though was the ubiquitous music. Same rhythms as Ecuador just different words (although quite alot of them being 'corazon'). There was one particular song I think I heard at least 30 times in those 3 days. We didn't see a single gringo during that time but all the locals were really friendly and helpful to us. Which was probably just as well since nearly everyone seemed
to carry a two-foot machete with them wherever they went!
The next leg of the journey involved a river ferry down a tributary of the Amazon and then onto the River Amazon itself. Notice I didn't say 'river cruise' as that may conjure up deliciously romantic images but this reality was a little more, er, functional, let's say. It was a 2 day, 2 night journey on a boat carrying cargo and passengers in open deck space. Most of the passengers just string their hammocks up and this serves as sitting and sleeping area for the duration. Having seen everyone packed in like sardines and feeling a bit nervy about possibly being the only Gringo women on board we decided to pay extra for one of the 6 cabins on board. As it turned out everyone turned out to be super-friendly and we weren't the only women, but it was still money well spent as people who slept out said it was too cold/windy/noisy/busy to get any real sleep. Again, cabin sounds possibly a bit grand for essentially a small metal box with two bunks in but it was perfect for sleeping and we spent our days out on
deck swinging in our hammocks watching the river go by along with everyone else.
There was not much to see yet there was so much to see! The sky and clouds changed continuously, the colour of the water changed and something about the light was fantastic. Every now and again we would stop at another small village with thatched wooden houses on stilts and we'd marvel at where there would possibly be space to put all those bananas that were being carried on board. But space always seemed to be found even if the 30 cows and numerous pigs looked a bit disgruntled at having their pen encroached on even further. Often at these stops grey river dolphins would splash around the boat. Three meals a day were included in the price of the ticket and each meal time all the passengers would queue up patiently to fill up their tupperware to take back to their hammock. I had been a bit concerned about the food as my guidebook stated helpfully: "Many people contract dysentry on this trip" but actually the food (rice, beans and varying meat) was good given the number of people being catered for and the
facilities in the tiny kitchen. So, thankfully, the journey passed without tummy trouble (you really wouldn't want to be ill in those toilets) but brushing your teeth in the tap water, that came straight from the river, would surely have been asking for trouble.
The sunsets were absolutely stunning and once it was dark fireflies would zip around the deck around and under hammocks. There wasn't a whole lot to do in the evenings; beer was sold on board but since a night-time trip to the only toilets at the other end of the boat involved ducking under the strings of 40 or so hammocks, it didnt seem worth the risk. Also having spent the whole day lying in a hammock we were exhausted by nightime!! So it was a very lazy couple of days but really different and interesting too. The captain and crew really looked after us and we were impressed at how well run everything seemed to be. Definitely a trip worth doing.
And so we arrived in Iquitos, a city in the Peruvian jungle, isolated except by river or air. There are some fairly incongrous things here such as a bandstand apparently designed by
Very Pleased With Myself!
And you should have seen the one that got away... Eiffel (the French guy) and loads of casinos/slot machines but generally it feels pretty seedy to me. There are no cars so the only way to get around is by moto-taxi, a rickshaw attached to the front half of a motor bike. But we didn't come for Iquitos, we came for the jungle....
It was great. We stayed in wooden bungalows and the only lighting was with kerosene lamps. Over three days we did a variety of trips either on the river or walking through the jungle and saw a huge variety of wildlife including birds, troops of monkeys swinging through the trees, caiman, frogs, snakes, bats, tarantulas (eek) and a sloth (although this was so far away it could have been anything to be honest) and loads more. For me there were two highlights; one was seeing pink river dolphins. They really are bright pink! Although they're also quite difficult to see as they don't jump out of the water they only surface to exhale but we caught a really good view of a very pink adult arcing its back out of the water. The other highlight was definitely piranha fishing. As soon as we put the bait
in the water (raw pork, if you're interested) you could see and feel it being gobbled. It didn't take long before I was able to pull one out of the water, teeth still gnashing. They were really beautiful but mightily viscious as our guide demonstrated by holding a caught one next to another fish and it quickly chomped its way through the scales. We reversed the balance by eating them for dinner that night, very tasty but not much flesh.
Interesting as it was, Im not sure that jungle life is for me. Far too many nasty, crawly, biting things for my liking. On one walk the air was thick with mosquitoes and as soon as you stopped moving you could see and feel them all over you trying to find a juicy spot. Unfortunately they found lots on me despite the fact that I was completely covered up and smothered in repellent. Little buggers! At least it made the malaria tablets worth the small fortune I paid for them I suppose! Then at dinner a flying cockroach landed on my hand which was just bringing a forkful of food towards my mouth. The shock caused me to throw
my dinner all over the table startling all the other guests! That night we went in a boat searching for frogs in the floating vegetation. We were trying to ignore the numerous unidentifiable things that kept flying into our faces as we sped along in the dark but it all got a bit much when I was trying to take a macro shot of a particularly colourful frog and it jumped into my face. I screamed and fell backwards into Fiona who was already contending with a moth the size of your hand that was flapping round her face. Cue lots of girlie screaming and lots of tutting from the two Hungarian guys who were with us! Then as we were about to get the boat to leave I leant on a wooden railing to steady myself and put my hand right on a huge preying mantis and nearly shat myself! Yep, it was definitely time to leave!
Right now I'm in Colombia as we're at the three way border between Peru, Brazil and Colombia preparing to head to the North-East coast of Brazil. Bring on those beaches! Anyone know any Portuguese?!
The condensed version: Fantastic lazy boat trip down the Amazon but, unsurprisingly, the jungle itself is full of nasty creepy-crawlies.
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joe and nos
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hi guys
hi both , the journey sounded great although looked longer than planned. Those tales of creepy crawlies are putting nos off the jungle a bit. Hope it smelt good. Have fun on the beaches. joe and nos