Headwater Rivers Seen On This Adventure

Below are the rivers that I came across during my trip. If it is bold and underlined, I spent a significant time on this river (bold only means I spent only a few hours on the river). Indented river names are those rivers we passed that flow into the main river it is listed under.   I am not sure about the distances for the Apurimac but I know I did all of the Ucayali, Tambo, and Ene Rivers.  With the twists and turns of the Rivers, the distance was much further than I originally thought, but not unexpected.  The river elevation from where I put in to where I ended in Iquitos, the elevation drop was 2,060m or 6,759 ft. As I put together my GPS information, I will update this page to try and make it as accurate as possible and add the GPS picture information.

Amazon River (at Iquitos elevation is 84m or 275 ft.)

Marañon

Ucayali River  (1,771 KM or 1100 Miles)

Tapiche River

Guanache River

Cushabatay River

Pisqui River

Aguaytía River

Tamaya River

Pachitea River

Tambo River

                         Perené River

           Satipo River

Ene River

                        Mantaro River

 

Apurímac River (bypassed the Acobamba Abyss) (690KM or 429 Miles).  Put in river at 2144m or 7,034 ft. 

Pampas River

Pachachaka River

Santo Tomás River

Velille River

Guide Information

Finding guides on line or before the trip was very difficult. I hope that for anyone else looking for an Amazon jungle or headwater adventure, they will find this information useful.  Below is the contact information from guides I used that actually had guide experience, spoke English, had online contact information and who I felt I could trust. 

Gadiel Sanchez Rivera or “Cho”

Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/gadielcho.sanchezrivera?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab 

Deep jungle and complete Amazon River system.  Cho grew up in Satipo and Pucallpa.  He has spent a significant part of his life living and working in the jungle.  He was my principle guide for my adventure in the jungle.  After spending several weeks with Cho, I have no doubts about his abilities.   He was also the principle guide for Ed Stafford and his claim of Walking the Amazon.

http://www.walkingtheamazon.com/team. 

 

Apurimac Explorer.  Website: http://www.apuex.com/

Whitewater Kayaking, Rafting, and Canyon Exploring.  Alonso and most of his team grew up in the Cusco region kayaking the rivers.  When I was seeking out a river guide for the Apurimac, Alonso’s name was always mentioned as being the best.   His knowledge and experience of the rivers in the Cusco Region all the way to the jungle is very impressive.  Because of the uniqueness of my trip, he customized a trip tailored to my goals.  Other companies did not have the experience or the flexibility.  The trip ended well into the red zone and I felt very safe with Alonso and his team.  The mountain driving was amazing.  I highly recommend Apurimac Explorer for any white water activity or high mountain exploring.     

 

Itamar Inuma 

Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/itamar.inuma?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab

Jungle and Amazon River system.  Itamar is from Pucallpa.  I met Itamar on the boat from Atalaya to Pucallpa.  He spoke very good English and he also spoke Mandarin.  Itamar was working as a liaison for a Chinese company who had logging interests in the jungle.  His challenge was bring the two cultures together.  He seemed very knowledgeable about the rivers and jungle and was currently working in the jungle south of Atalaya on the Urubamba river branch.

Jakson Coral

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/jarleyjakson.coralvasquez?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab

 

Iquitos areas.  I met Jakson on the boat from Pucallpa to Iquitos.  Jakson was returning from Lima.  He grew up in Iquitos and lives there.  He has a degree in tourism and is very knowledgeable about the Iquitos region of Peru.  He has a wealth of knowledge about local attractions, establishments, and lodges.  I hired him as a guide and had a very enjoyable day exploring areas inside and outside of Iquitos.

Commercial Cusco Tour Operator - If you are looking for a good commercial tour operator who does all sorts of adventure tours, I would recommend Amazonas Exporer.  Paul and his team did a very good job on the upper Apurimac and tour to Machu Picchu.

Back in the USA

Made it back to Texas yesterday.  Long day traveling from Iquitos to Tarapoto, then to Lima.  The flight was delayed out of Lima and we did not leave till after 4AM.  I will spend about a week visiting with the family and then head back to St. Croix. 

Before leaving Iquitos I was able to go to a manatee sanctuary and play with some manatees.  I was also able to go to a well known local artist, Juan Manuel Vasquez Chavez.  I could not resist and had to buy a painting of a Shipibo Indian.  The painting reflected what I saw back on the remote parts of the Tambo and Ucayali rivers.  When I told him that, Juan said the Indian and her child in the painting was from a remote Shipibo village he visited to make sure he captured the true feel an indigenous Shipibo Indian for his painting.  He has made a career out of documenting through his artwork the various tribes of the amazon basin. I really enjoyed being in is studio. He uses natural dyes/paints and tree bark for canvas.  The tree bark is from the llanchama tree and I am told that they also use it for clothing.  Anyways, a very unique piece of art.

Working on the guide information blog and hope to have done today. :)  Good to be back and it was great to have taken such a unique adventure.

 

Iquitos

First if the people of Iquitos knew how bad their Internet service was they would revolt!  I know we are in the Amazon, but this a fairly big city for the Amazon.  Anyways the Internet here is extremely frustrating.

The YouTube video is me eating a grubb worm grilled on a skewer.  Just had to try. Really was not that bad.  I have been contemplating a live one, but so far have not brought myself to that point.  As you can imagine, they eat about anything here.  I have actually surprised myself and ate and drank things I thought for sure would make me sick.  Something while in Cusco got us, but I can attribute the jungle pig to making me think twice about what I eat.

I have been in Iquitos for several days now.  This is a neat place to be, but at the same time very touristy. The motos are crazy but other than walking it is the only way to get around.  I was thinking of going out to a jungle lodge, but really they are all basically staged with tribe for pictures and captured animals.  I spent enough time along the river and several times into the jungle, so I do not think a lodge will offer anything new.

There is a place close to Iquitos where you can go and hold animals (not the jaguar).  The 3 toed Sloth was very fun to hold.  She loved having her neck scratched.  The other animals I have pretty much came across in various trips, but they were there so what the heck, I did the picture thing with them too.  I spent about a half hour playing fetch with a pink dolphin. I was just watching it and it brought a 2 ft long piece of plant to me on its head.  It was clear she wanted me to take it.  I tossed it into the pond and sure enough she would bring it right back balanced perfectly on her head.  Some other people came along and tried to feed her some fruit, but she ignored them and just wanted to play fetch.  I think she was very bored in her small world but the interaction was very fun and interesting.  The picture is her biting her tail playfully like a puppy would do.

There is a part of Iquitos called Belen.  It has a big market and some of the homes are floating on water now in the dry season and all of them during the rainy season, with a few on stilts.  I am amazed people actually live in these floating homes.  The support logs do not appear to be tied together.  They must be anchored someway as some of the homes have electric going to them.  See end pictures below.  It would be interesting to see these during the wet season.   It is also interesting to walk through the market and see all the bazaar foods, plants, etc., but wow does it stink and the trash is horrible. Quite the experience.

There are quite a few gringos here from all over the world.  Most all of the foreigners that I have spoke to are here for Ayahuasca.  This is a hallucinogenic drug made from two plants.  Some are here for the recreational effects of the drug but most are here for insight into themselves or believe it will help a medical condition they have.  The Belen market also has an isle dedicated to medical plants, potions, etc., from the jungle. I am not sure I recognized one medical item in the entire market.  I am sure there are medical benefits with a lot of these items but it all makes for an interesting culture for which I am clueless about - and am glad to remain clueless.  I also might have found some missing hippies from MO.

There are a lot of sidewalk vendors selling everything you can imagine.  I think at least half of the stuff is illegal to bring back to the U.S.  Most of them are trying to pass alligator teeth off as Jaguar teeth.  I am told that the police do a good job of monitoring the illegal animal trade.  I am so used to sea turtles being protected and here the river turtles are slaughtered all the time.  The picture to the right are two river turtle shells being used as a pot to cook turtle soup right in them.

Right off of the main plaza, there is a restaurant called the Yellow Rose of Texas.  Gerald, the owner, said he was an All-American football and baseball player at UT Austin.  Anyways, his place is all about UT and Texas and there is a long horn on everything. When sitting inside you would swear you were in Austin.  Fun place to stop in because it is so out of place here.      

The Jaguars are very impressive.  I would definitely not want to run into one of these big cats in the jungle.  It is obvious why the tribes fear and revere them.   The guy in the white is holding what we would call a snapping turtle.

I think this will be the last blog before I get back to Texas due to the horrible Internet.  I plan on doing a few more that provides more detail about the rivers I experienced, exact routes, guide information etc. I tried to track it all on my GPS.  I also have a lot on the GoPro so I am interested to see how those videos and pictures turned out.  So stay tuned.



 la señora gorda no ha cantado todavía

 Raising the flags at the Plaza de Armas

 

Ucayali

I think this section of the headwaters was the toughest simply because of the boredom.  The commercial boats move very slowly.  The Ucayali river is not very populated and you do not see a lot of wildlife other than what was caught, but every day I would catch a glimpse of some pink dolphins and plenty of birds.  Pictures I took at the start look like pictures I took at the end. The river is very similar but by being here you can see differences in villages and everyday living, e.g., more use of tarps for roofs rather than palms.  I spent 5 nights on the boat and we arrived in Iquitos at night.

During the day, as we went by little huts and villages people would be sitting on the shore watching us go by. I often thought this is their television.  You find yourself watching back as there is really not much to do. Most of the time is interacting with local people on the boat.  I was the only gringo and quite a few people always want to talk with the gringo trying to learn a few more English words.  They get a big laugh at me trying to pronounce words in Spanish and in return it is fun dishing it back when they cannot say words like "three."  I met another guide by the name of Jakson, who grew up in Iquitos and was quite knowledgeable of the area (after the trip, I will try and post all the guides I met so that if others are interested in their services, they can contact them).  He spoke pretty good English and it helped with all of joking around.    

Stopping at the various villages is entertaining.  The people, animals, cargo, all about the same but watching them interact with us is the entertainment. Often a lady selling fish gets caught on board - the captain yells at her and ends up taking her to shore via the small boat.  Everyone cheers or shouts comments teasing the lady she is now stuck with us.  Its pretty obvious it is all in good fun as it happened all the time.  

Bananas were definitely the big cargo being picked up on shore.  They carve their initials in the banana stems so they can identify their stack (picture below).  I was surprised how well banana bunches stack in a neat square pile.  At one point they needed to off load some bananas and the method for doing so was to throw them in the water.  The people climb on these stacks, etc., and it does not seem to harm the bananas - being green of course. We also had a lot of appliances and tar drums on board. I was told the refer trucks had ice cream!  Mutiny!  Peruvians love their ice cream :)

As you can imagine, people get on board with all sorts of animals.  The monkey seemed very emotionally attached to its owner, like a small child to her mother.  Animals like pigs were just put in gunny sacks.  The chickens, ducks, etc. would have their feet tied together and the owners just laid them near their hammocks.

I have been trying different foods as we go along. I ate a boiled river turtle egg.  It tastes like an egg with salt fish and very buttery.  You definitely have to wash your hands afterwards as they feel drenched in butter.

 The guy eating the fish just started at the head and ate it like a sandwich spitting out bones or picking them out as he went along.

Obviously the river is the life line of these people.
Almost everything they do is based on the river.  In the morning you see people doing their laundry and in the evening you see everyone taking baths by sitting in a canoe and pouring water over themselves. As noted earlier the river water is brown, brown, and brown.  I am sure from the runoff but by U.S. standards, scary nonetheless.  There is a saying here in Peru when something is not understood or very clear like a poorly worded contract, they say "Oh yes as clear as the Amazon River."

The night sky is unbelievable. I would go up on deck at night and find a place to stretch out and just star gaze to the wee hours of the morning.  No one else seemed to be interested in star gazing so I would have the top deck to myself.  For the most part, people along the river had very little interest in the stars.  A couple people took interest in me explaining the Southern Cross, but in the jungle they navigate by other means.  The Inca´s on the other hand were very much interested in the sky. Anyways, I saw many bright shooting stars and I think the best night skies I have ever seen.  There have been several impressive sunsets as well.

A part of this leg that I thought was pretty significant was when we left the Ucayali River. This is where the Ucayali and Marañón rivers converge and is the point most geographers say is the beginning of the Amazon River. The picture of me is with the beginning of the Amazon river behind me. Kind of the exclamation point to my trip :)

At this point I saw a tourist cruise boat and a jungle lodge.  We were still a good day out from Iquitos, but you could definitely tell we were coming out of the remote parts of the region.  

We knew we would arrive in Iquitos at night, but just outside of Iquitos the boat hit a sand bar - I thought the refer trucks were going to slide off the boat.  The stop was very sudden even at 10mph.  All the water (rained earlier) from the top deck came rushing over the front.  Earlier we saw a cargo ship stuck on a sand bar and Jakson said the only way off the sand bar was to wait 5 months for the rainy season to raise the river.  Luckily we were able to get unstuck but the captain was now very worried about going further at night.  My GPS (which was not always accurate) showed a long thin sand island but I could see there was only water now. So I am sure the former island was a good size sand bar just under the water.   The small boat used to ferry people back and forth and scout the river currents was now out of gas.  The captain said he called for another boat to bring us out some gas so the small boat could go before us checking the water depth.  


I chalked it all up to part of the adventure but the local passengers did not appreciate this at all.  A bunch of them said the captain had been drinking rum all afternoon.  A couple even said they called the police.  Next thing I know a couple dozen passengers are screaming and banging on the ship walls and confronting the captain.  Kind of surreal so I just went to the other side of the ship.  Things calmed down, but people were anxious.  A few hours later we were headed into port, but it was the long way around and very slow. 

Once in port, we had to clear a security check point.  I could see someone in authority talking with the ship captain.  Then the coast guard showed up, but only 4 or 5 men.  Then the army showed up with 11 soldiers. One with machine gun who stayed on the dock and the other 10 searched the boat.  I think this was all routine and had nothing to do with the allegations that the captain was drinking.  After inspection we moved to another location and me thinking we were now in a good size port, we would disembark on a dock...Not -into another dirt embankment full of mud and trash just like everywhere else.  

It took us about 7 tries before we found a hotel.  Not the best room, but I was glad to be on land.  I hope to update later today the blog on Iquitos - a very cool city!  

¡hasta luego amigos (si el Internet no es reducir la velocidad)

First Class To Iquitos

First I will cover the commercial boat to Iquitos from Pucallpa.  We went to the area of the port for passengers at about 4 PM to see if the boat was still planning on leaving the next day.  To our surprise the boat manager said they were leaving at 6 PM that day.  Now that he saw gringo, the price also magically increased by 60 soles.  But he smoothed things over by telling me in broken English that it was well worth it because I would have a private cabin (sharing with Cho), it has a private bath and we get 3 meals served to us each day.  The way this guy sold it, it was first class all the way...so being that I had been on the river for sometime now, cold showers, etc., I think I should share with everyone the first class service - a real treat deep in the Amazon.

My first impression was how nice it was that they provided "in-room" company for the long trip.  The boat only goes about 10 MPH and we expected to be on the river 6 days.  Our in room guests consisted of at least a dozen spiders and a few dozen giant cockroaches. The "porter" even offered us the choice of two other cabins to choose from, but those seem to be a bit more crowded with "in-room" guests.  So we accepted the company and chose to move in. It was very thoughtful of them to think about our boredom. This boat even went as far as to make sure that parts of the lower wall where it meets the floor (by the water bottle and boot) was rusted out so that the "in-room" guests could come and go and we would not have to get up each time to open the door for them.

The next luxury they provided was the 1 inch foam mattress that they or others stained many times over with different substances.  I surmised they must have done this to help keep the "in-room" guests off the mattress by trying to confuse the spiders and cockroaches as to whom or what was on the bed.  Again very thoughtful to go to those lengths for our comfort...but hey, they acted like it was just one of the many services they provide without thought.

Now the room is about 6 ft wide and 10 ft deep.  The bed area is only 5 ft long and 3 ft wide.  They must have known that I would not want to stretch out completely on my bed and would prefer a bent knee position to sleep.  In fact, to show you the details they did not miss, they made sure the gaps in the bed board slats were spaced just right to provide for spinal adjustments and with the edge of each board turned up (nailed in) the lip was just enough to remind me to rotate every few minutes throughout the night in order to make sure my leg or arm did not go numb from sleeping soundly in one position. To make sure I did not disturb my neighbors by accidentally rolling over in my sleep and hitting the steel wall with a bang, they never cleaned the walls - I am sure another feature where I would feel more comfortable in the middle of the bed to avoid touching the walls.

They really went over the top on the bathroom luxuries.  They actually use champagne for the shower, toilet, and sink...or so I kept saying to myself.  After all the guy at Zales tried to tell me that the champagne diamonds were better then the clear diamonds, so logically, the brown liquid from the bathroom fixtures must be champagne!  Cho kept assuring me it was the same brown water right out of the river, but I refused to accept that this boat with the first class service would use river water - even though I could not reconcile why champagne would have dirt and other stuff coming out of the pipes???

Another bathroom luxury was rather than a toilet and separate bidet, they provided 2 inches of water around the toilet so you could soak your feet every time you used the bathroom.  The efficiency was amazing.  The water to soak your feet was provided by the shower as they shared the same floor, but rather than slope the floor to the drain, they slopped the floor to the toilet so as to save us the time to flood the area around the toilet so we could soak our feet in the spa.  I was a bit disappointed that the sink, which sat between the shower and the toilet only had about an inch of water at that floor location, but hey, the only way in and out of the bathroom was to step over the toilet, so we always got our two inches of spa water for our feet.

Now in earlier blogs, I have given Peru a hard time about trash, and it is well deserved.  But the ship did have several green features.  The room was at one time partially painted green.  Rather than large rooms, they made the rooms very small to conserve space.  They did not waste money on soap, a toilet seat, TP, a towel, or a facet or a shower head - just a pipe coming out of the wall, or on door knobs or locks. The electricity only came on at 6PM and off at 12.  I was thankful that more than one outlet plug would have been a waste.  Many people did their laundry in the sinks and it was nice that no one complained when there was underwear laying out to dry all over the boat every day to use the solar dryers.  The air conditioning was courtesy of the captain.  They provided slots in the door and at the end of a bunk.  The captain would occasionally turn on the AC by turning the boat and a slight breeze would make its way in the cabin.  A low setting at best, but I believe he was doing his best to be efficient in the name of being green!  They also provided automatic smells for the rooms in the event you no longer liked smelling the fresh air...at the front of the boat were two refrigerated trucks that automatically had the freezer compressors kicking on and off every 15 minutes or so.  The exhaust fumes and noise just did wonders for the ambiance!

Our room had a security/alarm system. A nice feature I did not expect.  Staff graciously covered the hallway deck with 22 - 2 inch pipes about 20 ft long.  The steel floor outside our room was not level with a high spot in the middle so every time someone walked by we were alerted with a thundering loud banging of pipes as each end of the pipes lifted up and down on the steel floor as people were forced to pass over them.  We were always alerted that someone was outside our room.  I did not figure out till the 3rd day that I could adjust the alarm volume setting - another unexpected feature, but was very glad to turn down the volume setting by placing plastic bottles under one end of the pipes.  And to make sure our personal belongings were safe, they crew did not have locks - that way we could buy our own padlock and make sure no prior guests had a key to our room.        
 

The food.  Yes like clock work, 3 times a day, a guy dressed like a girl (the 3 kitchen staff guys were gay and even in the jungle diversity was not overlooked), brought us our 5 star meals.  A very small piece of baked chicken, fair amount of white rice, 6 to 10 beans, and a half of a cold boiled green banana.  The drink varied but it was made with the finest river water they could scoop out of the Ucayali River.  The food was served on a real plate and we did have real forks or spoons, but not both at one time - I think it was to save on river water for doing the dishes.  For the first two days the same thing 3 times a day was acceptable because I know it was better than what the people in economy class was eating.  Just when I was appreciating the fact that the kitchen staff was making sure our diet stayed consistent day after day, the meat changed.  On day 3 I figured out some of the new passengers picked up in remote locations were paying by barter, a catfish (yep no chicken that night), jungle pig, and a large river turtle.  I was told not to eat the pork as the pigs in the jungle will make you sick, but I wanted to try a piece and did.  I did not get sick, but I was able to take advantage being able to soak my feet for a few more minutes. They did not serve up the turtle. With my health as the kitchen staff´s top priority, I think by serving me white rice and green bananas for 6 days, they were simply encouraging me to eat other things for the rest of the trip in Iquitos.  I should have thanked them because it worked, I have little desire to eat white rice or green boiled bananas.

I should note that right from the start, our comfort and health was first and foremost on the crews mind.  They worked out a deal with the local police to prevent the boat from leaving Pucallpa at 6 as originally planned.  This provided Cho and I time to go to a local store and get some bug killer - even Cho thought bug killer was a good idea.  Yes so even though the boat staff went through all this trouble not to remove our "in-room" guests, I gringo, preferred not to have the guests.  After fumigating the room, it was almost impossible to get rid of the chemical smell. On one room check I got the opportunity to see the biggest spider (above my bed) that I have ever seen in the wild, larger than a trianchela but a much thinner body.  Cho promptly killed it but I do think he got a chuckle out of my "holy crap" reaction. This also provided another first class opportunity because as I was waiting outside on deck thinking about the lovely smells in my room, the half-dead cockroaches and the many but smaller spiders I killed, I got to see a huge rat relocate from the economy class deck to the food storage area below.  I will admit, when I was served chicken, I did look at my chicken a bit closer to make sure it was chicken.  As much as I wished the bug spray killed the bugs, it did not, but I only had to live with a dozen or so cockroaches and an army of small ants.  Spiders in the room seemed to be under control.  During this time I was also able to buy a hammock to cover my mattress as a sheet/blanket.

OK obviously I am just having fun because of the way the captain justified charging gringo more money.  I knew it would not be "first class" service, he knew gringo should not be below with everyone else, and all of it just added to the fun and the adventure. By contrast, the "economy class" was everyone packed in like sardines with their hammocks to hang out in and sleep in.  At anyone time I think there were over a hundred hammocks on just the main deck.  Scattered among the hammocks were personal belongings and supplies people were bring back to their villages.  The bathroom in the back of the boat was shared by everyone. Their meals looked like mostly rice type soup and when we stopped and people sold food, it seemed like everyone was buying food to supplement their diet.  In sum, I was glad to have a private cabin and everything I am joking about above is what is making this such a great adventure. The staff and all the people on board that I got to interact with were great.  My next blog will cover the actual time spent for this leg of my trip. :)

¿Dónde está la casa de moneda de mi almohada no existe!

I have seen this in the movies

We left Atalaya at 4AM.  Very dark and foggy.  The river is hard enough to navigate in the day and here we are in the dark and the fog.  After about a half hour we run into a gravel bar.  We are really stuck. You can only see about 20 feet.  The sounds are the water current and the rocks grinding on the boat bottom with a few shouts in Spanish.  Every now and then you see someone walking by in the fog.  It is clear no one knows which direction to go and the 2 or 3 crew members are walking around in the river trying to figure out which way to direct the boat.   I am thinking isn´t this the part where some type of large reptile comes out of the water to eat someone! ...ok well it seemed appropriate - after all I have seen this same scene in one of those horror movies about the Amazon.  LOL.  To Cho´s credit, he was the only passenger who got out of the boat to help.  I thought about it but there were much stronger men on board then me and I figured after the reptile ate them, then I would help.  :)  No, no one seem concerned so I just waited for my cue.  After about 45 minutes, they got us unstuck and we proceeded a bit more cautiously into the fog.  Really added to the adventure!

A few hours later we arrived at a spot on the bank with just a hole in the trees.  The village of Pozo.  Cho and I were the only ones getting off or on.  Cho assured me it was ok.  I asked when the last time he saw his two friends and it was 5 years ago.  I asked how he knew they still lived there and he said he just knew.  After a few minutes of walking into the trees, we meet some guy next to a hut.  I wishI could have taken a picture.  Wow right out of a book or something primitive.  He and Cho talked and we are told to wait.  After about 15 minutes, this strong looking guy (in the red shirt) with a machete and a crude tatoo of a machine gun on his forearm came to meet us.  Right behind him his wife showed up with 4 or 5 of the village kids all following in curiosity.  His two friends and the ·presidente· had left for a regional tribal meeting.  Without being able to get the Presidente´s approval, Gringo was not welcomed in the village and we had to leave.  Before leaving I gave the guy and now two women gifts (flashlight and flip flops).  They let me take a picture of them, but not of the first guy we meet and his wife.  The kids loved the candy and they all thought I was fascinating.




We were lead down a trail back towards the river and we popped out at a hut on the river bank.  We were told we can flag the next boat and wait at this person´s hut til then.  Cho is not expecting a boat till the next day but the guy said he thought one would come by.  It started to down pour rain.  The first real rain I have had since I have been in Peru.  We were taken to another near by hut to wait out the rain.  Still nowhere close to the village.  So at this spot we have a mother, baby, two little girls, I think 5 and 7 maybe?? and their brother (his hut we waited out the rain in).  He was late teens early 20s.  The group picture.  Anyways, the hut was very cool to be in. In the top of the A frame hut was a system for hanging his clothes, his closet.  The floor was about 3 feet off the ground and the floor made by partially slicing length wise around small trees to create a board that would lay flat.  Hard to describe but I have seen it done with bamboo.  He has some electronics including a radio so we all laid there listing to his radio.  He had a small solar panel, about one foot by one foot that he uses to recharge his batteries with.  No lights or appliances, just his music.  Nothing soft to sleep on and just wood and vines for the walls and floor, and leaves for the roof.  I was able to video the place so it will be interesting to see how the GoPro did.

 After it stopped raining we went back to the water edge and waited for a boat.  It was around 1 and we were hungry.  Cho asked if there was food we could eat.  I really did not want to even think about eating their food and bananas seemed abundant so I said I would be good with some bananas.  Cho came back and said they were fixing us lunch and assured me it was more than ok.  When they called us over for lunch I saw that the two little girls had cooked us catfish soup and boiled green bananas.  I was so surprised that the mom and baby had left earlier that morning and these two girls built the fire, got the water, (still could not figure out if the catfish were cleaned and gutted) and made us soup with the most primitive means!  Now I really felt bad!  I did my best to eat everything in the bowl but I drew the line at the fins and the head.  Cho ate everything, including the eyes (but not the bones).  I just felt bad that I was eating something they needed way more than me, but Cho kept insisting I eat.  I had so many mixed emotions as to what was happening and the best I could do was offer them money which after a little resistance they gladly accepted. 


Around 2 we were able to flag a boat down that could take us another few hours down river.  It was full of supplies and at various points along the way we would stop at the bank to meet people to deliver supplies or they would come out in their peka-peka (a dug out canoe with a small motor and long propeller shaft) to meet the boat in the deeper part of the river.   By far the most common boat on the river is the dug out canoe.  Those who do not have a motor use a long pole to push themselves upstream.  In strong currents they use the pole like a kayak paddle.  Very interesting to watch how they do it with supplies, the family, and keeping their balance.   About dusk we arrived at a small village called Bologanesia.  We found a hostel that worked for the night (still no toilet seat, hot water and I pulled my bed into the middle of the small room so I did not touch any walls or things could not jump on me - I killed a few spiders, slept with my cloths on, and put on some more 98% deet - camping on the river bank might have been better).  The village had electricity but they only turned on the power at 6PM and then off at 11PM.  The place came alive during those few hours.  We had a basic fish dinner with rice, yucca, and boiled green banana for about $2 USD each.  I actually slept very good that night. 

We were up at 6AM and off to the river bank to flag down another boat, hopefully to all the way to Pucallpa.  Gringo was over charged for the moto ride, but there was nothing we could do.  The old man in a little hut at the river edge (home converted to a store now) confirmed a boat to Pucallpa would stop.  A little girl with a baby parrot kept asking me if my eyes were really that blue or was I wearing contact lenses.  I was a surprised she knew about contacts, but I had a great time trying to communicate with her and passing the time.  As soon as the boat was spotted (two hours later) she ran off and now became one of the little girls selling food to passengers.  She was selling some type of home made drink. 

Bologanesia was also a fairly big location for logging and we saw 5 trucks come in loaded with old growth trees.  I was told that the operation was legal but not legal - what ever that meant. The guy who sat behind me on the boat to Pucallpa worked as a go between for a China logging company and the locals.  He said it was very challenging trying to get the two cultures to understand each other. 

We had been on the boat all day and it was now getting dark. From my GPS I could tell we were at least 3 hours from Pucallpa.  In the day you are zig zaging back and forth across the river to avoid sand bars, trees, rocks, etc.  The boat has a guy stationed at the front pointing out obstacles and has a long stick for checking the water depth.  Now that its dark, I am thinking we are going to be stuck again or worse hit a big tree.  The river now must be at least a mile wide at some points and at other points multiple forks to chose from.  They obviously know the river, but now matter what this was going to be a challenge - and it was and we hit many things, but we made it 4 hours later and most of the time I was thinking ok I had seen this in an Amazon horror movie too!


Pucallpa is much larger than I thought. I knew it was a significant port on the Amazon, but not this big. I really have nothing to measure it by, but in the true sense it is a small city.  I actually have a hotel and it has a toilet seat and hot water.  I have to coax the water out from the shower head that is as high as my tummy, but I am glad to have hot water. 

I am told that from Pucallpa north, the long boats are not used for travel.  The tugs and barges only do the heavy loads up river of Pucallpa during the rainy season when the river is high (explains the piles of logs waiting to be picked up).  We will be getting on basically a tug boat that will push a barge of supplies to Iquitos (Pucallpa has road access, Equitos does not).  The tug boat has a back porch where we will tie our hammock and we expect it to take 4 or 5 days to Iquitos.  Tugs move much slower so we will just enjoy the ride.   While I am writing this, Cho is out checking on transportation.  This afternoon I will meet more of Cho´s family and we expect to leave tomorrow mid-day or Tuesday.


Some other quick mentions that I keep forgetting to talk about are - the night sky.  Very very amazing.  The butterflies are beautiful but I cannot get close enough for pictures.  On the sand bars, they plant beans and rice.  Raining season will revitalize the soil.  Some of these sand bars are miles long.