Amazon, Peru - Sep 09

The colorful jungle town of Iquitos,Peru

Click here for the Amazon Iquitos Photo Album

Shifting gears from Lima to Iquitos certainly jarred us out of the sense of chilled complacency we’d managed to cultivate in Lima.

The town is a riot of color and noise, literally crawling with the three wheeled motor taxis that form the backbone of transport on the island. They’re noisy, smelly, and absolutely bloody marvelous !

Our first sighting of this immense river was soon cut short as the first of many torrential rainstorms swept in off the river, but a conveniently located bar supplied a spectacular view of the storm over some cold Iquiteña cervezas.

The butterfly farm “Casa de Mariposas”

Dee’s relationship with the gentlemen of the jungle was true to form during a visit to the butterfly farm on the morning of her birthday.

After an hour she’d managed to aquire two new suitors – a red faced Bald Uakari monkey called Chavo and a frisky Howler Monkey by the name of Igor !

Into The Jungle

We travelled in to the Peruvian Amazon via ferry later that day, a rather unique experience and memorable birthday for Dee. The journey lasted 32 hours on a ferry, sleeping in hammocks in rather close proximity to our Peruvian neighbours on the partly open upper deck. So close in fact that if we moved our elbows out from our sides we could touch both neighbours. We were the only “Gringos” amongst the friendly Peruvians with their pigs, chickens and boxes of sting rays (the only tourists for the whole trip actually).

The scenery for the first few hours of cruising on the Amazon was amazing and surreal. Shortly after a mind boggling sunset, the wind picked up out of nowhere followed shortly by twelve hours of torrential rain. Nobody thinks to mention the fact that it is quite possible to freeze in the Amazon basin, but we can both attest to the fact this is entirely true !

We landed late the following night and hauled our supplies up to the local village where we spent the night in a hostel – ironically this was the only uncomfortable night of the trip on a thinly stuffed straw mattress.

We were up early the next morning for breakfast in one of the villager’s gardens and then watched in the relative shade with growing trepidation as a canoe was loaded to the hilt (and some way beyond) with our supplies for the next ten days. We were eventually summoned to the bulging vessel and instructed to get in… and sit where?!? Al, graceful as a swan clambered in, followed by a nervous Dee and no fewer than four others!

Unbeknown to us, we were to be joined by two local guides on our travels – bringing the tally to six including ourselves. Somehow the canoe moved off without sinking, and actually appeared to be surprisingly stable when the engine was on. It was however only a matter of minutes before the first of many engine failures..

After five hours of butt numbingly long travel up a small creek, we eventually arrived at our first villiage settlement within the Pacaya Simiria reserve. It quickly became evident that our rights to camp within the reserve were not as ironclad as our guide(s) had ensured us was the case.

In true South American style, a blistering arguement ensued with the two of us sitting in the canoe trying to follow the proceedings. After 15 minutes of posturing and gesticulation, smiles broke out all round and we handed over two packets of spaghetti as a bribe and we were off !

Our tiny creek soon gave way to a massive lake, certainly not what we were expecting to find in the middle of the jungle. Our night excursions involved trips skimming across the shimmering lake, a tapestry of brilliant stars overhead and wet slippery fish hitting us in the face as they jumped into the canoe !

The snake conundrum

Our complacency towards the dangers of the jungle was shattered on the second night on returning from a trip on the lake to discover a baby Fer De Lance snake slithering it’s way through the camp.

For the first time on the trip both of us were in complete agreement with the local’s bloodthirsty desire to kill anything that moved so that we might photograph it.

Far more importantly, Dee’s evening toilet trips into the jungle came to an abrupt end. This theme continued when we moved camp, Dee insisting on having an en-suite loo machettied from the virgin jungle right next to her hammock. So great was the sudden concern for physical safety that an hour was spent patching every tiny hole in the mosquito net when our guide Kid nonchalantly remarked that the Tarantulas liked to crawl through any holes to escape the almost nightly rain.

Al restored some injured pride from previously disasterous fishing attempts by pulling bucket loads of Piranhas from the river. These fish are incredibly stupid, you dangle a hook with something bloody dangling from it in the water, and with a few seconds you’re the proud owner of a very angry snapping Piranha. In a twist of irony, the best fishing spots turned out to be the same places we had been swimming in only minutes before !

The Eco Tourism Memo

Apparently our guides failed to get the eco tourism memo and seemed determined to kill just about everything they saw despite our protestations.

Amongst the tally were two beautiful sleeping kingfishers who were knocked out of a tree with an oar (apprently this is hilarous too), a 2.5m Caimen killed for meat, 4 electric eels and we’re pretty sure that the baby howler monkey they “caught” while we were sleeping never made it in the end.

If you happen to find yourself in a Peruvian jungle and anyone asks you “Do you want to taste…”, the answer should be an emphatic no. Two huge palm trees met their end when we stupidly agreed to try Palm Heart in a salad. Destroying a 20m high tree to get a handful of salad from the top is more than a little galling.

In the end however, we both agreed that no matter how personally abhorent we found some of the customs of hack,slash and kill in the jungle it simply wasn’t our place to judge. There are too many local customs around the world that others disagree with and a certain patronising arrogance is implied if you try to change them.

The triumphant return

The return trip included a stop over in the tiny villiage of Flor De Punga where we were the star attraction at the Spring Festival at the local school. Apparently not many Gringos visit as every time we turned around we were confronted with a crowd of school kids squeeling in delicious terror.

Thankfully the ferry downstream to Iquitos was much quicker – only 24 hours on a ferry this time. Although the experience was incredible, we were both sorely in need of a long, long shower to remove the accumulated dirt from our travel weary bodies.

Next on the itinerary is a return to Lima, then on to Paracas for the Islas Ballestas, the Nasca Lines and the volcanic city of Arequipa.