The Amazon

Iquitos
Iquitos is a city of around 500,000 people, with no road to link it to other cities, you either get here by boat or plane. We were planning to spend a couple days in Iquitos as a base for picking our trip into the deeper amazon, with no real intention to see much of Iquitos which we'd heard was a bit ugly and boring. It's definitely not as picturesque as other Peruvian cities we've visited but as you sip a camu camu juice on the Amazon Boulevarde, in a rubber-boom era tiled house, looking out onto the amazon river it is beautiful. Iquitos has some great restaurants, you can get real coffee, hotels aren't lying when they tell you they have hot showers (though they might be exaggerating about their air conditioning), and its a pretty relaxed city. Many tourists here are just leaving for or coming back from ayahuasca retreats and Amazon river trips, and they're super friendly and easy going. There are so many gringos here for ayahuasca that there are cafes with a special menu dedicated to their dietary needs.

It took one day to organise our amazon trip, and we had one full day to explore Iquitos, which became known as May's day. It started when we were having coffee. A dog walked past about 50 other people straight to May's seat and it was love at first sight. A few pats later and this dog was not going anywhere, and May was not going anywhere without him. We'd befriended a local who told May that the locals call him 'Barbon', like beard, because of his scruffy coat. It started to rain so we decided to walk around the corner and grab breakfast indoors of Karma cafe, where not only did Barbon walk straight into with us, but they let him sit under our table and catch some sleep. Eventually, when the rain stopped and brekky was done, it was time to part, and as if Barbon knew this, he didn't follow us.

We then headed to the Manatee rescue centre, where they're doing some great work to try to save manatees from extinction by rehabilitating and releasing manatees back into safe zones in the Pacaya Samiri national park, and teaching 18,000 children as well as local communities each year about the dangers facing manatees, and how to better care for them and the local Amazonian environment (many of the animals here are close to extinction because of hunting). May was chuffed when she found out she could actually feed the manatees. These little guys suck river lettuce out of your hand - no teeth or anything. They're so cute and wonderful. And the great news is that so far the manatee release program has been so successful - about 95% of the manatees are surviving in the wild, years after they've been released.

 

 

There is a really interesting turtle breeding program; instead of collecting eggs for sale to restaurants, villages are paid by a government program to collect them and hatch them on the riverside or rescue centres in specially built sandpits. When they hatch (to the delight of gathered school children and tourists), they are fed for a few months to a year (again by school kids) before being released as slightly-less helpless turtlings. All the villages had one of these sandpits, and we saw loads of turtles, so it seems to be a successful program.

It was then off to Quistococha, the local botanic gardens, zoo and fake lake. A family friendly place where many local families come to picnic on their days off. The animals were really great, but the zoo itself was in pretty horrid shape except for a few of the big cat enclosures, and a mammoth river pool for a pink river dolphin named Huayrurin, who was not able to be released back into the wild and has been at the zoo for a few years now since she was young. Pink dolphins are amazing creatures, they can weigh up to 180kg, around 2m long and are distinguishable because they don't have the dorsal fin that other dolphins have. They have pinkish bellies and light grey skin. Like other dolphins they're super smart and Huayrurin has a handler that has been with her ever since she was first brought to the zoo. Together they wow you with their special tricks - shooting hoops, hoola, and even painting. may even got a kiss from Huayrurin and by all accounts, it's pretty damn amazing to get kissed by a dolphin! We were told that pink dolphins are not endangered, which was why this one was not released to the wild; we doubted, but the number of dolphins we saw in the river (about one per km) led us to believe this may actually be true. Apparently locals have an old superstition that river dolphins may sometimes be a shaman in disguise, so you don't want to bother them too much or end up facing some vengeful spirits.

Our next stop was Belen markets which we had been told were a dodgy place (it's a slum) but well worth it to see the traded goods at the market. We found the markets a bit underwhelming but maybe that was just the day of the week. The locals were pretty friendly so as we were leaving, we asked some people if they knew how we might get onto the rivers. Belen is famous for its floating houses. So one guy starts calling another guy, who calls someone else, and then a stout woman comes out and says she has a boat and we can go with her. The Spanish here is dialectic and we can hardly understand any of it but we followed her along some planks of wood that formed bridges between the houses and that eventually ended up at her boat. This woman (whose name we never quite caught) showed us around the floating houses and river mazes of Belen. Children playing, adults washing in the river and everything that happens here is about this network of river mazes which connects the floating houses with the floating petrol stop, the floating school and then the markets. Some of the houses are truly floating on big wooden logs that are tied together, and then a house is built on top from wood. These mostly have just one or two rooms. Other houses are on stilts, many of which are rotting slowly and appear slanted and vulnerable. They vary in size. Many have thatched roofs. There's precarious DIY electricity wiring going over the river and between the houses. The river itself is clean in some parts (almost black in colour, not muddy brown) and then filled with rubbish in other parts.

Eventually we leave Belen and head out back towards Iquitos, and then past it the floating bar El Frio y el Fuego ( fire and ice) to catch sunset. It had been a long and awesome day and we topped it off by sharing a bottle of Argentina SB and some banana fries with cocona while watching the sunset on the great Amazon River.

Off to Pacaya Samiri national park
The next morning we headed out and began our jungle tour. It would be just us two plus a cook/boat driver, Moses and a guide Herman. From Iquitos it's about 2 hours by car and motocarro to the small port village of Nauta, and then about four hours by boat to the entrance to the national park. It would take another two days before we got to the Yanayacu river where we would be based.

Our first night was passed in the small village of Buenos Aires, where the only television in the village of about 100 people was playing the grand final of the Copa America using their generator power to watch this important soccer match. On our second night we set up camp in a small village yarina of about 30 people. We were camped in a family's house where we played hide and seek with two of the children, and heard a little about village life. We'd stopped in this village in the hopes to find a local guide who could come deeper into the forest with us. But all the men who usually did that were in Nauta selling fruits they'd been collecting from the trees. Because of the unusually rainy season, they've had more crops for longer. None of the men would be tempted to come with us because selling these fruits in the markets would fetch twice as much each day as the pay we could offer for being a local guide.

We had engine troubles...a lot. We got stranded at one point and luckily were found by the only other motor boat in this side of the park, which toed us back into the village. Apparently there's a great mechanic here because after two days of troubles, this guy near Yarina took it in for fixing, declared it fixed, and then we had no further issues. Well not major ones anyway.

Among the communities here there´s definitely an ongoing struggle between old and new/modern and traditional ways. We met a group who go around to villages and towns trying to educate youngens about traditional ways and try to keep that connection going.

Yanayacu
We arrive in Yanayacu, now days away from Iquitos by motor boat, totally secluded by any definition, and we meet Manuel. Manuel is the chief of Yanira village, but is temporarily the sole resident here and his job is to guard this area of the river from poachers and illegal activity. His home is very basic: a raised platform with a roof about 10 by 10 meters. It has no walls, only some floors, and even this little was burned down by poachers 5 years ago so has great big holes everywhere. He sleeps in a makeshift tent within it (which is where we pitch ours, too) there's a handmade table and firepit where he cooks food he catches on the land- worms, fish, insects, palm hearts... He lives by rowing a dug-out canoe to his fishing spots, and back home to Yanira village, about one day's paddle away on a dug out ( no motor). He has a small home at the next village and he would like to build a raft for his family. He is about 60 years old and taught us a lot over the coming days.

Our days here start when the howler monkeys wake us up. We move to the kitchen area and fan the coals from the night before and hope for a fire. Moses makes food, Sam or May boil the water for coffee. This is Mays favourite time, as we watch the sunrise and the change of bird and animal sounds from dawn to morning. Dolphins start to jump in the river in front of us as the smell of breakfast starts to waft through the air.

Here everything takes time. Fishing after breakfast involves paddling in the dug out canoe til we find a spot where there's fish. Our handmade fishing rods - made from saplings of young cycads, with some line and hook (no sinkers) tied on at the end, are ready and waiting under our seats. The boys cut up the fish for bait and hook it on. Then it's all a waiting game...and it takes around 3 hours. Sam's caught piranhas (which also caught him on the finger), tiger fish and others- some are used for bait and some as human food. May pretends to fish but is actually using the bait to feed the fish.

We spend a lot of our time in the dug out looking at amazing birds- hawks, kingfishers, macaws and a whole lot more whose names we can't remember. They're colourful and beautiful, and all make their own distinct noises at different times of the day which Herman teaches us to detect and differentiate. Sometimes when May asks Herman the time, he replies "what animals can you hear?" Pink and grey river dolphins pass our canoe all the time, and we still get excited each time we see them. Their presence and beauty is wonderous.

 

Lunch time comes pretty quickly and it's back to starting up the fire, and finding what food we brought or caught to cook.  We're loving and hating some of the local foods- mashed yuca with salty fish in the middle (not nice), fried paiche and cat fish in a mix of soy, vinegar and lemon with garlic and onion (delicious), fried savoury bananas (amazing). The good food helps keep our mind of the mozzies which are always terrible around lunchtime, morning and evening, near the shore, or in the jungle (lots of places really) and the humidity and heat which are stifling.

We usually head into the forest after lunch to get some shade. Herman leads us as we bush bash with a machete through the jungle, pointing out the various benefits and harmful effects of certain trees- like ayauhasca vines and cat claws which are believed to heal cancers and many other illnesses. Cat claws are a vine which also holds water so we learn to cut it in order to drink the water and rehydrate. The water tastes a little bitter but good. Herman and Moses also teach us some of the fun stuff- like how to find safe vines to swing on and climb up. The depth of knowledge these guys have of the jungle is phenomenal.

It was during one of these walks that May was asking Herman about the survival-in-the-jungle courses,  and one thing led to another and she had committed us to learning to build a raft. Of course, Manuel the guard was pretty chuffed when Herman asked him if he wanted some help building that raft for his family. So one of our mornings we spent making a raft. We cut down a 15m tree with an axe, pushed it into the river to float downstream back to camp, then built the rest of it by cutting down four more smaller trees with machetes. Manuel also used particular vines for rope to tie pieces of the raft together. Everything from choosing the trees and vines, the impact on the local environment, and how best to chop it and build it were thought-out. The men waded and then swam through aligator and anaconda infested waters, not to mention the hungry piranhas. We did our best to help Manuel out but our city slicker ways were not the most efficient or relevant...although the men were impressed at Sam's axe-wielding ability.

Our dinners always feel well deserved, and everyone's pretty chilled out. After dinner, we set out on the motor boat to go alligator watching and star gazing. The stars out here are epic, and they reflect in the river making them twice as amazing.  We shine a torch at the edges of the river looking for red reflective eyes and then when we see the alligators eyes we bring the boat close (against all natural instincts).

There's definitely some challenging times here. Going to the toilet in the jungle inevitably involves mozzie bites on our bums. We have to walk to the toilet area with a machete because of the rattle snakes, tarantulas, potential jaguars or wild boars. The dampness is horrid, but we have to stay covered all the day including socks and gumboots because of mozzies - our feet are definitely growing some weird fungus despite all our efforts. There's more deadly things here than we expected, including a water insect that lodges in your genitals and travels up through your body and then kills you, a fatal butterfly, and anacondas. So even though we have a beautiful, cool river in front of the site, we can only really do a quick shower rather than swim in it. And when we do that, we literally get bitten by little fish all over (with particular focus on the nipples).

Beach holiday coming up
We had originally planned to take the road less traveled by going upstream on a cargo ship, then going across the north of Peru  to the north coast. But it turns out to be less "off the beaten track" than we thought, and after 8 days of mouldy jungle and river camping and some downtime in Iquitos, we decided our time in the jungle was coming to an end, and our coastal holiday would start quicker with a short flight to Lima and a trip up the coast road instead. Road trip here we come...