After our relaxing stay in Lima the capital of Peru, we were
looking forward to an adventure in Iquitos in the north-eastern corner of
Peru. We were going to Iquitos because it sits on the Amazon
River, and we really wanted to experience the River and its jungle. The only way to get there is to fly, or take a local ferry which takes almost a week as there are no road connections from Iquitos to the outside world.
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| Amazon River, Peru |
Although we could have visited the River from Ecuador, Colombia or Brazil, we chose Peru
because the Amazon originates in Peru, and Iquitos sounded like an interesting
place.
So, before we left home, we arranged to go cruising on the Amazon River
with the Iquitos company called ‘Dawn on the Amazon’.
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| Iquitos motokar at airport |
Leigh tried out the bike and loved it, but in
the extreme heat of Iquitos (43 degrees with a hot wind), the motokar provided
a blistering and bumpy ride into town.
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| Iquitos motorcycles, motokars and open bus |
We soon arrived at the Port of Iquitos and boarded
our boat named Dawn on the Amazon. There we met our guide Jino, our boat
driver and captain Edson, and our cook Judy.
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| Dawn on the Amazon, our transport along the Amazon River, Peru |
Dawn on the Amazon is a hand-made wooden boat.
She has a woven reed roof covering the length of her for shelter. The roof is
supported by several uniquely hand carved wooden poles and the sides are open. She is propelled by a huge Yamaha outboard motor that allows her to go into shallowish as well as deep water.
The driver sits up the front with a large space behind where our chairs were. She has three deck chairs on each side so we could sit in comfort to watch the passing views out of the open sides.
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| Marg, Jino and Edson on Dawn on the Amazon |
Judy had a cooking area behind our chairs, along with a table and storage. Right across the back was the bathroom – the only room closed off. It consisted of a toilet where waste dropped straight into the river, and a large bucket of river water to wash with. All pretty basic, but we felt we could cope for our three-day cruise.
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| Iquitos-Nanay River confluence with the Amazon River |
Suitcases stowed, we cast off from the wharf into the first part of the river. This was the Nanay, a tributary that, after a short distance flowed into the Amazon. We could see where the two parts of the water
joined; the blue/black Nanay, flowing into the brown of the Amazon.
The brown part of river grew wider and wider the further we went; it was an amazing sight. We were now actually motoring along the mighty Amazon River - wow!
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| Family in dugout on the Amazon River |
We passed all sorts of boats, small shallow
dugouts run by an outboard engine, large slow barges, and quick local ferries.
Suddenly we were hit by a violent tropical rainstorm. The calm water was whipped up into waves, and as water poured down, the wave size grew and visibility shrank. We slowed to a crawl, and the crew lowered canvas blinds
over the open sides to stop the rain pouring in.
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| Amazon rainforest downpour |
We headed downriver toward Brazil for some
time, doing a lot of bird spotting on the way. After a while, we branched off
into a smaller part of the Amazon (it is split in many places by islands), and
started exploring.
This was to be the pattern of our trip for the next three days - following different parts of this massive river into its smaller branches to get up-close with the area.
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| Leigh and guide trekking through the Amazon Jungle, Peru |
Iquitos is the gateway to the jungle and tribal villages of the northern Amazon. By travelling along the tributaries, we saw local people fishing and traveling in their small dugout canoes, visited isolated and small villages, hacked our way through the jungle on wildlife walks, and spotted many birds and river creatures.
Both Jino and Edson were amazing wildlife
spotters. Soon we'd spotted a stunning range of birds
that we'd never seen before.
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| Juvenile Pink River Dolphin, Amazon River, Peru |
Then Jino called "dolphins, dolphins" and we got our first glimpse of the elusive and endangered Pink River Dolphin (aka Amazon River Dolphin). Incredible; and they actually are a soft pinky-grey
although the juveniles are mostly grey until they get older.
They are chubby, fast and hard to spot, and even harder to photograph. We tried to get a photo so many times – it was a dilemma – watch the dolphin, or wait and photograph the dolphin and risk missing its antics. We mostly watched an enjoyed!
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| Woolly Monkey in the Amazon jungle, Peru |
We travelled up the very small waterways in a small dingy to explore places our bigger boat could not get to. On one of these occasions, a Woolly
Monkey came down to the boat to grab some bananas our crew held out to him. It was wonderful to see him up close.
Then we spotted a mother sloth and her baby up a tree, and saw tiny pygmy marmoset monkeys, the smallest monkeys in the world.
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| Tiny Amazon poisonous frog |
We stopped at one isolated village to meet a guy who finds poisonous frogs. These frogs have been used for centuries by native tribes to paralyze animals making them easier to hunt. He found a yellow and black Poisonous Dart Frog for us to look at, but the poison is on the frog’s skin so we resisted touching this very colourful wee creature.
At the end of a wonderful day, we hove-to in a sheltered
corner of the river, tied up to a friendly tree, and the crew set up our beds
for the night.
For us, this consisted of a big mattress on the deck with sheets
and pillows, all enclosed in a rectangular mosquito net suspended from the
roof. Judy, our cook slept in a hammock, and the two guys slept on the bow of the boat, in the open.
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| Villages along the Amazon River, Peru |
After drifting off to a variety of jungle sounds
and a gentle rocking, we woke early the next morning refreshed and ready to continue our journey in this isolated area. Throughout this section of the river, we passed many tiny villages with their thatched roof houses, and flimsy steps down to the water's edge.
Village life is very basic and people live in houses built on stilts to accommodate the rising river during flood season.
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| Activities along the Amazon River, Peru |
They exist on food that they can grow or harvest from the jungle, and fish they catch in the river. Anything else, they get by trading what they grow or catch. Their water source is the river – they boil it for drinking and cooking, do their washing in it, and bath in it by the river edge.
This is such an isolated area that the only way people can travel is by water. Supplies from the outside world are far away, especially when using a small boat.
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| Village guide with machete in the Amazon jungle |
We were interested to note that the village
guides were always paid in food such as bread and fruits that they
wouldn't usually have or get easily, instead of cash.
On one of our village stops, we visited a school house where we met some of the local children
- they were fascinated by us, especially when they learned that Marg was a teacher. Not every child in this remote area gets the
chance to go to school so these children were lucky.
A highlight for us was fishing in the Amazon. We tied up close to the bank under an overhanging tree where Jino and the captain baited bits of twine.
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| Marg and her piranha |
They showed us how to throw and dangle the
line to catch a fish. It was great fun and we caught several
different types of piranha. Not big fish, but boy their teeth were very viscous
looking! It was very exciting hauling them in, but we let the crew take them off the hooks.
One of them flipped off the hook and flapped around the deck, while we skipped around it trying not to get our bare toes caught up in his teeth. It gave everyone a huge giggle.
Judy saved the day by carefully picking it up, then she cooked our whole catch for us for lunch. They were delicious.
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| Us after our swim in the Amazon River, Peru |
We also got to swim in the Amazon. It was
extremely hot and Jino said we should….so we did - although not close to the
bank where the piranhas live. The water was a deep brown colour, with a cool
undercurrent and warm patches near the surface.
We didn't stray too far
from the boat but it certainly cooled us down.
Too soon, it was time to return to Iquitos. Back on the main Amazon, the current was strong and the
water rougher as we were going against the tide.
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| View from the loo and last resting place of Leigh's toothbrush |
Leigh found out how rough when she rested her
electric toothbrush on the side of the boat in the bathroom/loo area. Moments
later, hearing a splash, she looked overboard and realised that her toothbrush
had taken a dive - lost forever in the Amazon River…..piranhas with clean
teeth!!
Now on the main part of the river again, we started to see
a lot more boats, and bigger ones.
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| Slow boat to ensure fish get to market alive |
We came across an interesting floating
cage-like contraption being pushed by guys in two dugouts. In the cage were
fish they were taking to market in Iquitos. It was a long and slow trip so that the
fish in their cage would still be alive when they got there.
Our boat trip was nearly over and it had been
a fantastic three days. We saw so many new and different creatures and
had a fabulous time.
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| Marg on Dawn with Judy the cook behind |
Jino was a very friendly and informative
guide, Edson a great driver, captain and spotter of wildlife, and Judy a
wonderful cook who produced the most amazing meals for us. We had three big meals a day, all local
specialties, and felt that we waddled off the boat at the end.
This was probably one of the most
isolated and basic areas we have been to so far, on our South American trip, and it had been very special.
Eventually we arrived back to town and were transported to our accommodation at Hotel Epocha, a friendly family hotel.
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| Plaza de Armas Iquitos, Peru |
We then spent a few days in the fascinating town of Iquitos. This town of almost 500,000 people was originally a small village of the Iquitos people.
Following colonization of Peru's Amazon area in 1864, it became the main centre of the Peruvian Amazon. Soon after, it became the main shipping port for the rubber boom of the 19th century. Post-boom, its economy relied mainly on timber, fish, oil, and agricultural crops.
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| Architecture in Iquitos, Peru |
But the rubber-boom years left a legacy of interesting architecture and poverty in Iquitos. Now days, you can see grand mansions left behind by the rubber barons with their tiled facades and filigree iron balconies, next door to tin shanties, colonial-style plaster buildings, and glitz and glass air-conditioned bars. It's a fascinating place.
On one of our days exploring Iquitos, we had an interesting trip to the shantytown of Belén, a suburb of Iquitos on the Itaya River. It's known for its riverside open-air street market, and floating village.
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| Leigh at Belén market, Iquitos, Peru |
We hopped a bus there, then found a guide (actually he found us), who showed us through the maze that is the market. It is a labyrinth of cloth-covered streets that are full of all kinds of stalls.
We were reminded of
the medinas of Morocco because the smells were similar, the push-and-shove was familiar, the stalls all closely packed, and it would be easy to get lost there.
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| Belén bananas - there was so many of them! |
The range of goods in the market was amazing with absolutely everything you could possibly need. Meat and fish (alive and not), every kind of vegetable you can imagine, exotic fruits including a gazillion bananas, grog, tobacco, health products, skulls, skins, and anything else you could want - including, sadly, rare animals and their meat.
This market is the main source of supplies for the people of Iquitos, and it runs daily. A fascinating place.
Marg bought a small bottle of dubious looking brown stuff that was a natural remedy for mosquito bites. It worked!
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| The floating village of Belén, Iquitos, Peru |
The lower half of Belén floods with the rise and fall of the river, so to see this part, our guide took us out in a wee dugout canoe. We saw floating houses and some on stilts with toilets all lined up along the river edge so that they drop straight into the river, locals in their daily activities on and in the river, and many birds that scavenge the area and help to keep the place tidy.
It was a very interesting day.
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| Amazon manatees at the Rescue Centre, Iquitos, Peru |
The next day, we caught a local bus out of town to
visit the Manatee Rescue Centre. Manatees, or sea cows are marine animals that are related to the elephant. They are just about
impossible to see in the wild these days, as their numbers have dropped alarmingly and they
are now an endangered species.
The Rescue Centre takes in orphaned manatees
whose mothers have been killed by locals for food.
This was an interesting place with a range of
manatees in their ponds all at various stages of getting ready to be released back into the wild.
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| Leigh feeding manatees, Iquitos, Peru |
We had to wash our hands carefully before
going into the pond area, and then we were able to feed them, which was quite
amazing.
Heading back into town on the open bus accompanied by chickens, huge bunches of bananas and other vegetables, we reflected on how fascinating and
friendly Iquitos and the people along the Amazon were. This part of our trip has been so amazing and memorable – a real highlight.
Too soon, we were back at the airport for a flight out of Iquitos. Now we're off to our next adventure which will be in Trujillo, on the Pacific coast in northern Peru.
This is part of a blog series about our travels through the north-eastern countries of South America. The first blog in this series is called “In and around Santiago”.