On the road to Tarapoto.

Drying cacao

"I am exhausted, can't even write" I said. It's been 4 days since we left Lima into our new adventure: Amazonas. Deep now into the jungle, after so many windy and disastrous roads. Road with curves and curves, never 20 m flat; roads with holes as big as craters, gravel roads, roads where we had to stop for 1 hour at a time just to allow some work, roads with trucks and motorbikes and tuc tucs, mud roads, cliff narrow roads no guard rails, mosquitoes, mountains and forest, high altitude again (4,600 m), freezing conditions and then hot and humid- going from 9 to 30 degrees from one day to the other. And we haven't arrived yet!

The amazons experience

It all started in Tarapoto. We left SalSolcito and took a shared taxi up to Yurimaguas. The route, 2.5 hours of constant turning, glad that it was driven by an expert...it would have taken us 5 hours...by the end of it, the humidity and heat...we were really sick. Arrived at the port and of course the “slow boat” is leaving this afternoon! BUT it was empty and the men have barely started loading. Two days later we finally left to Iquitos. There is something mesmerising about sitting on a deck of a boat, on the river, 15 km per hour, the jungle at both sides....By this stage, the boat was packed! hundreds of people (mostly locals) sleeping on hammocks, all crunched up together; plus the chickens, fruit, vegies, a parrot, thousands of eggs, sacks of flour, sugar and salt, and even a moto-taxi on top of all!

We rented 2 hammocks and a “cabin”...well, more like a confined prison cell. Just a rectangle, no windows, 2 bunk beds. But it came with “privileges”. One was that our food was given to us rather than queuing and the other was being on a different floor just for us “cabin people” instead of being with all the rest. There were 3 toilets/showers and a large sink with bars to wash your teeth. At 6:00 am a huge bang on the door (a thick metal door with a huge lock) and a shout “breakfast”!!! A cup of hot soup rice? and 2 breads. It confirmed that we were in a prison! Lunch was rice and dinner was rice...For 2.5 days we were in the boat. Every so often the boat will stop in a very isolated village to unload some provisions and beer! And at the same time, loads of women would come up to the boat selling fish, fruit and even gigantic turtles! It was life, such a different life to all we know. We absolutely loved the experience!

Not very impressed with Iquitos, which is just a big city with lots and lots of motorbikes. We arranged quickly to go to the jungle the following day and that afternoon we spent a great day in a hotel with swimming pool. Luxury!

We were very certain that we did not want the “touristic” tour. The show, the animals, the tribe. It is really a pity that is not possible anymore to be in contact with an “intact culture”. I would have loved to be sitting around a fire and learn about the jibaros tribe. But is all so very commercial today that I don’t know if to feel sad or ashamed.

It took us 2.5 hours by speed boat to arrive at our camp. A very basic camp in the middle of the jungle. No electricity or hot water, shared showers outside the bungalows. And for the next 4 days we just walk and walk and also took the canoe for expeditions. And just “au natural” we had some interesting encounters: giant termites nest, a huge and scary boa, coral snake, ugly tarantulas, lazy bear, caiman, mosquitoes in quantities, huge ants, beautiful plants and yummy fruits. We walk day and night....stepping into the unknown, muddy terrain; sometimes our guide just making the way with a machete...and we even swam in the Amazonas River and fished! Perfect, just perfect.

Chachapoyas was the next region we visit. Driving now in between jungle and mountains...again those heavy routes. We like the city, all white. It was very different to the other places in the mountains. From here we took a cable car (the first one in Peru) to cross to Kuelap a pre-inca archaeological site. The view is magnificent, especially when the cable car is hanging above the canyon at 1000m above! Another day we did a trek to the Gotka waterfalls- they said the highest in South-America. My legs could feel that it has been over a month since our last walk! It was pretty intense, up and down for 4 hours; but totally worthy it when we arrived at the bottom of the waterfall. And 60 km (gravel once again!) to do another trek, the Yumbilla waterfalls. But this time, it was so pleasurable, like walking on an enchanted forest.

After 3 months in Peru we are ready to part, to explore new countries. What surprised us about Peru was the different landscapes- sea, jungle, mountains, forest-; how big it was, how tranquil and how many towns with such the very basic needs we found. We only saw big, nice and expensive houses in Lima and Arequipa...most of the country lives with just enough...we saw plenty of natural foods- fruit, vegies and fish everywhere. Plenty of little kids roaming around in roads unaware of the big trucks passing by so close. I can’t say I fallen in love with the culture. There is an air of seriousness about it, little joy. People don’t seem to move much or to do much exercise. It is very rare to see people jogging on the streets or playing football or any other game. Every time we ask for direction they will say “is so far to walk, take a mototaxi” and then found out it was only 700 m or so. And because of that; or topping that...they seem to be afraid of things, of anything adventurous and in places a bit touristic you could hear parents repeat all the time to the kids “careful with that stairs, don’t go there, etc”

Lots of bananas north of Peru and south of Ecuador