Chaqchapoyas to Isquitos

We had a reasonably comfortable trip to Tarapota, the first town after the foothills of the Andes where the land flattens and the temperature rises at the start of the plains of the Amazon Basin. This had the glimmerings of the start of a new culture—the jungle culture where "jungle food" first starts to appear. This is a fairly big, relatively prosperous town so it consists of pork, spicy sausage, food wrapped in banana leaves and jungle fish.
After a couple of days there we then caught another collectivo—the infamous station wagon with 5 passengers at 5am—the roads were closed later for the day as they try and upgrade them. After a bone shattering 4 hours we arrived in Yaramaguos, a real jungle town!!! Immediately we were met by a barrage of tour guides who were trying to persuade us to do a jungle trip up the river at Parcaya Samurira in a dugout canoe. We managed to pick the one who seemed to have the best references and credentials so he stuck to us like glue helping us to arrange our onward journey and see the town.
The town is a jumble of ramshackle huts (houses) and noise. We found a room in an hotel which appeared relatively clean for $7 (no choices in this town!!). He then took us to the market to buy our hammocks for our voyage and bowls and spoons which would be needed on the boat trip. The market was definitely an introduction to this new world. Quite the culture shock compared to the rest of Peru and Ecuador. Monkeys and parrots abound as pets everywhere and the fruit in the market are all from jungle trees and were very foreign to us. Tried a few things—one fruit tasted like cooked pumpkin. The only vegetables available were tomatoes and cucumbers. We bought a skewer of barbecued grubs—I tried one and Ken ate the rest—hmm think I will pass in the future. The biggest single item anywhere here are plantains—these are dry and tasteless bananas which are green and appear to keep forever and are grown all through the region. They are boiled, fried, baked and mashed up with various other suspect foodstuffs. Yucca root is another staple and this has even less flavour and is usually boiled, often with fish.
Early the following morning we went down to our river boat Eduardo 111, this is one of a line of working barges which has freight, consisting of plantains, rice, salt, corn and various animals—pigs, chicken and cattle to name a few in the lower level. The next level is a large number of locals some of whom have hammocks and the rest on the floor—all with large bags and a brood of children and various parrots and pet monkeys. The top floor is first class and has the tourists—not many get this far—and the more prosperous locals. Everyone has a hammock and food is served at a table and is reasonably good.
We set off finally about 9am only 2 hours late as the boat had been hand loaded for hours—the bags of salt and rice are 50kg and it is incredible to watch these men and often boys carry these on for hours. We settled in our hammocks—our guide was traveling downstairs—his fare for the 10hour (supposedly) trip was $8 whereas ours was $17—he constantly visited to check on us and also tried to persuade a French couple who had not picked a company to pick his. We soon came to realize that this trip was not as easy as we had imagined. The season is towards the end of the dry and the river depth is low. The barge is laden down and the sandy bottom constantly is moving. This requires someone in a dingy to go ahead with a long pole to source out the deepest channel where we followed. If they were reasonably confident someone would do it from the front of the barge. Every now and then we would hit bottom which would then involve stopping having the dingy find a better channel and then backing off the sand bank and following the dingy. This all seemed quite doable—Jack and Judy take note—perhaps you didn´t need to spend the money on repairing your depth sounder I am sure Judy could have found a decent pole much cheaper!! The problem was magnified at night as they carry one search light which someone holds to light the way—finding new depths with a small light for such a huge barge seemed to create even more issues. We were comfortable in our hammocks and were aware as we slept of the boat stopping, starting and backing off. We had originally been told it would take 10 hours getting us in at 7pm. This was then extended to 10pm then midnight and finally they woke us at 3.30am to say we were here.
Our guide had arranged a motor taxi—much like a tuk tuk in Asia—to take us to the tour owner's house along with the French couple who he had persuaded by now to come with us. We arrived at a small wooden house with a thatched roof and dirt floor to be shown a bed in a room. The town generator was not on so it was all done by candlelight. In the morning we realized that we had been given the owner and his wife's bed and the French couple the children's. They all had had to spend the rest of the night on chairs in the kitchen. The first sign to us of how truly impoverished these people are. We were then given breakfast which was the now becoming normal meal of rice and fried eggs—cooked in palm oil which is definitely not heart friendly!! We then were given a pair of rubber boots and told to bring as little as possible for our 5 days and the French couple's 3 day trips.
Were all loaded into more taxis and headed off down the rutted dirt track for 45minutes to the river bank at the park office. This is set up as a national park and they are trying very hard to accreditate the guides and make a tourist industry there. We were packed into one dugout canoe with one guide the French couple with another and a third canoe with the food and a third guide accompanying us. We were traveling downstream on a tributary to the main river we had been on in the big boat. It became obvious the skills of the guides very quickly as they would suddenly stop and we would see a snake lying camouflaged on the branch of one of the multitude of trees surrounding us. We would take ages just to see it when it was pointed out to us. We then spotted a sloth that was holding on to the trunk of a tree—he was definitely not going anywhere at any great speed soon so we had a great opportunity to photograph him. The next was a tree of monkeys who swung from branch to branch chattering away as they continued their day. The guides were also expert at calling the animals and they would often come closer to investigate which of their relatives were talking to them.
Their culinary skills were not equal to their jungle skills and at lunch we realized what was in store for us for the 5 days. We had rice, french fries and more fried eggs—oh well we had seen the sloth. They stop at what is a normal stopping point and set us up in our hammocks—the ground is wet—while they light a fire and cook lunch.
We then set off for the rest of the day seeing lots of birds, butterflies, more monkeys and snakes. We arrived at a hut which is under construction which will eventually have a toilet and running water—out of the very brown silty river—but so far you sleep on the wooden floor—they give you a hard kind of mattress—NB bring your thermorest if you ever contemplate this trip—we had to pee in the bush. We realized that the brown river was our only source of water to wash ourselves so gingerly scooped off the top layer of cleaner water and rinsed as best we could—temperatures are around 32C we were hot and sticky. We managed to communicate that we would like boiled eggs for supper as opposed to fried so that was a treat.
The next morning after more boiled eggs—our now set choice-- we set off a little further down the river where we set off for a hike. All land travel is done with rubber boots for both protections from snakes and also from mud. This whole area in the wet season is underwater with the river rising 10 feet higher so a lot of what we walked through was swampy and wet. Our guide had been taught as a young boy from his father the traditions of the jungle and was able to identify many kinds of trees. There are many palm trees in the area producing fruit. Many of our medicines today are derived from jungle plants and they had a cure for most ailments. Diarrhea, arthritis, mosquito repellant , medicine to relax women in childbirth and the plant from which quinine was first derived and made into what we now know as tonic water to improve the taste—hence the name. We saw a fresh puma print but we didn’t have a hope of seeing one—perhaps just as well. We stalked numerous animals but 6 people creeping through the jungle makes an impossibly huge noise—next time I see a movie where they creep through the jungle I will be skeptical!!
Lunch today consisted of boiled potatoes, rice and spaghetti—none with any sauce so was definitely hi in carbs. One other thing we were treated to was sliced plantains fried in oil—at least gives us a little flavour.
The French couple then left us to return as we carried on for our next couple of days—oh one thing that I didn’t mention was that neither they nor our guides spoke English so we all communicated in Spanish—limited conversations but good practice.
We headed on toward our next camp and as it darkened we used a flashlight to search out crocodiles—these are small caimans in this area and fish eating so not dangerous. We also fished for piranhas which the rivers are full of—seem small so I am not sure how dangerous and Ken spear fished to supplement our supper.
The next morning we carried on and followed a huge flock of blue and yellow macaws. They are magnificent and we watched them for ages.
A huge highlight was when we rounded a bend in the river which had a tree half way across and a large group of monkeys were leaping across. The last one changed his mind and backed off. We were uncertain why and our guides started calling. A couple of monkeys from the large group started calling back and then the lone one. It became obvious that the last one was the baby and was afraid to cross. Finally the adults jumped back across and put the baby on their backs and jumped him across. It was magical to watch the interactions and we felt very privileged.
The rest of the trip was more of the same but we were so glad we had done the whole 5 days despite the food as we felt more participants than observers.
After the 5 days we went back to the town and caught the next barge to continue down the river to Iquitos. The next boat was smaller than the first and we soon realized we were on the milk run so it would even be slower—oh well lazing in the hammock is still comfortable and the weather is warm—the odd rain shower poured down but the boat is covered and they roll down tarps on the windows till it is over. 2 days and 2 nights we were there.
We finally arrived in Iquitos—the largest city inaccessible by road in the world. Reminded me very much of Darwin 30 years ago—lazy, hot and definitely a frontier town. We went to the artisans market which is full of beautiful rainforest wooden products, crocodile skins and blowguns—definitely another world.
Took a trip to the butterfly farm where they have rescued a huge anteater, a tapir, a jaguar and a pile of monkeys—one of whom stole my earring!!! It was good to see the animals at a closer range.
We now are leaving to fly to Lima to continue with the next stage of our journey.