Week 17: Welcome To The Jungle

-- I am going to apologise now for just how many pictures are in this blog... I really tried to narrow it down but the Amazon was just so amazing that it was really difficult! --

Finding a bus to Oxapampa was something of a mission; after being told several different routes and times (all of which were in the evening), we eventually found a bus leaving at 1130 ("1130"... Peruvian time) for La Merced, where we would have to take a 1 and a half hour carshare to Oxapampa.

On the way to "El Tigre" waterfall

After 1 breakdown, 2 buses, 11 hours, 1 film about kidnap (surprise surprise, because they never show those!), going from sweltering heat to freezing cold and from sea level, over a 5000m high mountain pass and back down the other side Elisabeth and I arrived in La Merced. It's amazing how tired travelling and doing nothing makes you, so we found somewhere to stay and went straight to bed.

The next day was more interesting - we bought some delicious, cheap, fresh fruit (this has become a lovely recurring theme), and took a car share to Oxapampa. After finding a hostel we had a small explore followed by a delicious lunch; we enquired about getting to Pozozu, the area which still has more German and Austrian influence on its culture, but to our dismay (mainly Elisabeth's) there had been a rock fall on the road recently and it would be impassable for at least a week. So we sucked it up and went to visit the waterfall "El Tigre" which was nice, but not up there in my top waterfall experience.

At the waterfall

On returning we went to a good restaurant to try and plan our onward journey - the waitress was particularly helpful so we stayed for dinner, although all in all most of our enquiries were fruitless, so we decided we would just set off the next morning and play it by ear.

Crossing the river

The following day was travel mania! After a breakfast fit for kings (and eaten like children - I think my entire face was covered in mango) we set off for Villa Rica, our first stopover. We had considered staying to see the sights, but as the next Camioneta (Jeep) to Constitucion was in a few hours, we chose to keep moving.

This leg of the journey was one we had been dreading since the previous evening. Slightly lost in translation we had been led to believe we would be standing up inside a bus for 5 hours on a dirt track. We decided to buy the cheap seats - in the back in the open, rather than in the cabin. It was the journey I had been dreading the most but turned out to be the one I have enjoyed the most so far. For the first hour we sat a little uncomfortably, but enjoying the incredible scenery, and after this another guy who was travelling in the back with us suggested we stand up. Possibly one of the best suggestions of my whole trip so far. It was so much fun.

Household pets

For the next 5 hours I was like a dog sticking its head out the window, even when it got dark. I was like Boudicca riding in on her chariot, except I wasn't leading a revolt, and she probably didn't have the same silly grin on her face as me. We got a bit carried away taking selfies and I got hit full on in the face by a massive hanging vine. Not very dignified but it could have been worse.

We had expected that on arriving in Constitucion we would have to stay over, however we found at 2200 that we were still able to get a Camioneta to take us to Pucallpa with another lady and her child who had come from Villa Rica. It was a slightly hairy ride as we were sure the driver would fall asleep at the wheel. (An idea, I am sure you can imagine, which strikes fear into my heart more than some.)

After 3 and a half hours we arrived in Pucallpa and the lady who had shared our Camioneta helped us sort out the hostel. We slept like the dead. In the morning we went to the house of the lady (whose name I unfortunately never found out) where we had an unexpected breakfast of sweet apple tea and delicious bread and cheese, before being shown the animals in the garden - this entailed throwing raw chicken into the pond to entice the tortoises out, feeding the giant eel (I think) and the crazy large birds. Then a member of the family very kindly took us for free to the airport in his mototaxi (tuk-tuk).

Here we pulled one of my new favourite moves - we bought our tickets at the airport half an hour before the flight departed. Crazy but I love it. Do people even do that in the UK any more? We were soon in the air and on our way to Iquitos, the largest city in the world inaccessible by road or train.

One of many forays on the river

When we left the airport in Iquitos we were mobbed by mototaxi drivers, which was a bit much for some. After finding a hostel and some lunch we went on a rather round-a-bout mission to find a jungle tour. We looked at a few places but after some hard bargaining settled with the agency affiliated to our hostel. We were going to spend 4 days and 3 nights in the Amazon rain forest.

We spent the evening preparing, and I have to mention that I did accidentally open the bathroom door on a completely naked asian guy. Seriously, there's a lock on the door. Use it. In the morning we were picked up in a minibus where we met our two guides Pepe and Marlon, and the rest of our number. Darcy and Jourdan, an Australian couple, Hugo the Peruvian, and a couple from Spain.. We drove for 2 hours to Nauta, on the only road between Iquitos and anywhere else - at 110km, and which took 25 years to build) - then took a 2.5 hour boat to reach Renaco Lodge, our destination in the jungle. Elisabeth and I shared a room with Hugo. Our other companions need not be mentioned by name, but let us just say they have creepy long feelers and like to scuttle. I am not going to lie, I screamed like a girl. Only one time, but I did. For once I was happy to give in to gender stereotypes and we left Hugo deal with the cockroackes.

Jourdan and Darcy's new children

After a lunch of chicken and rice (something we were going to have to get used to) we set off again, this time on an open boat so we could all get a better view. On our first foray we saw tiny jumping monkeys (scientific name), a sloth, a lot of different birds , and we were hoping to catch a glimpse of a caiman but sadly it was not to be. However in the evening we also saw a tarantula at the lodge.

I don't remember what we had for dinner, but I expect it was rice and chicken, or chicken and rice. After dinner I stayed up playing cards with our guide, Marlon, as lights out (generator off) was at 9pm everyone else had decided to go to bed. I was glad I did as before I went to bed we went outside and I saw 4 caiman in the water right by the lodge. Despite my fear that a giant cockroack was inside my mosquito night, I managed to sleep soundly that night.

Howler monkey

We awoke early on Wednesday morning for some bird watching, which was actually quite fruitless but a refreshing way to wake up. After breakfast we went to see the pink river dolphins, then to "monkey island." This is a spot where many rescue monkeys live; it only served to confirm my suspicions that I do, in fact, feel very uncomfortable around monkeys. This feeling was only increased when one of them BIT Elisabeth. It is quite a funny story actually: we took fruit with us in the boat to feed the monkeys, and as we were leaving one was still sitting in the boat with us calmly eating his mango. He needed to get back in the trees so the guide said "just do a splash!" this, unfortunately got a little lost in translation, and after a few dribbles of water, Elisabeth splashed him with a handful. He looked her right in the eye and then bit her straight on the arm. It didn't break the skin so we weren't too worried, and he went on his way.

Swimming in the river

View of the Lodge

On the way back we donned our cozzies for a quick, refreshing dip in the river, before returning for lunch and to prepare for our night in the jungle sleeping in hammocks. After a few hours on the boat we arrived in the national reserve, where we hung our hammocks, complete with mosquito nets and tarp in case of a downpour. As the evening drew on the air became thick with mosquitoes, and as you can probably imagine, I suffered worse than most. After dinner (pasta!) we went for a nighttime walk in the jungle - where we spotted lots of frogs and tarantulas, as well as an eel but unfortunately no snakes. Our guides also went "fishing" in the swamp - which consisted of waiting patiently and then swiping at the fish with a machete. Darcy, Jourdan and I attempted to catch our own fish - we saw one which we thought had already been hacked and was dead, so I poked it with my stick. It didn't move to Jourdan bent down to pick it up. This fish went nuts and jumped right out of her hand!

The aftermath of the mozzies

When we returned to the camp we all decided to call it a night as the mosquitoes were unbearable. Just as I was about to get into my hammock I noticed an evil cockroach had somehow got onto the inside of my mosquito net. I am not embarassed to say I had to get my guide to take it out. I passed a surprisingly good night; although some of us hadn't tied out mozzie nets properly so woke up with hundreds of mosquitoes inside our hammock space. Somehow though they still had less bites than me.

After a breakfast of eggs (yum!) and plantain (my favourite...!) we went for another walk in the jungle and then returned for our boat trip back to the cabin. Luckily in the afternoon the weather held out (we were extremely lucky the whole time) and we got on the boat (anyone noticed a theme here?!) to go and see the lilypads, which were incredible. They can hold up to 15kgs and looked really beautiful on this serene part away from the main river. We also saw an iguana which our guide tried, unsuccessfully, to get into the boat.

Lilypads galore! 

Succesful fishing exped

After this we went piranha fishing. I was very unsuccessful to begin with, and said that the only way my day would be complete was if I managed a catch. With my last peice of raw chicken bait I had success! We left the piranhas flapping in the water in the bottom of the boat to keep them as fresh as possible while we went on the hunt for a caiman. It was a very bright night as it was a full moon, and unluckily we didn't manage to spot one. After out delicious dinner of piranha and another night time walk, we stayed up playing cards for a while before passing our last night sleeping in the middle of the amazon. Elisabeth went to bed first and while the rest of us were in the communal area we heard an ear piercing scream. Some of us were getting more used to the cockroaches than others. On our nighttime walks in the jungle I had noticed that there were two very distinctly different buzzing noises to be aware of - the high pitched zzzzzziiiiiii of the mosquito and the more helicopet like tchuk-tchuk-tchuk of the cockroaches. Generally we would just hit the cockroaches off each other as discreetly as possible and hope the other person didn't notice. This evening our guide also found som anacondas in the river by the lodge. He asked who wanted to hold one... you can guess who volunteered to go first...

That's right. I'm holding an anaconda

One of many many tarantulas

On our final morning we visited a nearby village where we learnt a bit about how the village functioned, and met the pet sloth of one of the families, as well as their little monkey. I faced up to my fears abnd let the monkey sit on me. It leaped off pretty quickly and I was slightly offended, and then relieved as it was only being polite and didn't want to urinate on my head. After a scrumptious lunch of chicken and rice we were awaiting the covered boat to take us back to civilisation. Almost as I put my cutlery down after my meal, the heavens really opened for the first time since we had been in the jungle. Talk about timing.

Sloths are awesome

After an enjoyable last boat road fillowed by a slightly hairy drive back from Nauta to Yurimaguas, we found a nice hostel with a hot shower (we were pretty willing to splash out) where Jourdan and Darcy were also staying. We went for dinner at "Dawn on the Amazon" cafe which was lovely but probably the most Western cafe in the whole city. It transpired therefore that it was probably also the most pretentious. I didn't really feel that I would have been comfortable partaking in about 90% of the conversations going on as I probably am not "discovering myself" enough or "challenging society" to the same degree that all these people were. At the same time they still weren't supporting the locals as they like to think they should - I, on the other hand, was willing to admit that I just wanted some really good food.

We had survived the jungle pretty well, and were now preparing ourselves for the 2 day boat ride to get to Yurimaguas, which we planned to do the following day.

One more picture of a sloth to cheer your day