The early morning of D237 we set out to pass the most scenic
but isolated border crossing between Ecuador and Peru at La Balsa. It took us
12 hours through marvellous landscape on un-asphalted roads. The trip was not
eventless at all. Just one hour on the road the bus was stuck for 3 hours in
the middle of nowhere due to road works then my netbook decided to be lifeless
for more than a week. Once in Zumba there was no truck to bring us to La Balsa
so two more tourists from Canada joined us and we shared a taxi for 20USD.
On
the Peruvian side after an hour of negotiation with a greedy taxi driver, we
continued our trip to San Ignacio costing us 12.5 soles each. The combi car had
four of us squeezed in the back seat, a young family with two toddlers in the
front plus the driver. There is no security concern when it comes to earn a
couple of bucks more. From San Ignacio we continued by colectivo to Jaen where
I rested my bones after a long and exhausting trip.
D238 was spent on the bus to Tarapoto listening to a “maca” (a local magic
fruit) sellers, smelling the stinky and leaking cheese carried by the cute Peruvian
lady. She was time to time sick in the plastic bag and when she was finished threw her processed
breakfast, lunch through the window in front of me. What a yummy sight!! After
9 o’clock in the evening arrived in Tarapoto from where I tried to continue my
trip but I failed. Instead I enjoyed a fancy coffee with a lot of whipped cream and went to bed.
I was looking forward to the next day (D239) as I was starting my
trip on the Amazonas it was like a dream come true. After two hours’ drive from
Tarapoto I arrived in Yurimaguas’s port. Here I checked out the Eduardo V cargo
boat that was leaving to Iquitos that afternoon. My adrenaline was running sky high especially
after I found out that I could afford a cabin (150 soles) where I could store
my stuff without worrying that somebody would rob me.
Next I
put on my busy bee hammock and just relaxed, read and sleep, chatted with
locals and Patrick aka Paddy from Zurich, Switzerland!! D240 and the morning of D241 was about more relaxation,
chatting, reading, eating and sleeping.
The main events of these trip were
people throwing their waste into the river, killing a turtle to feed the crews
(shocking) and a traveller buying a parrot as a pet from an indigenous woman
for a mere 30 soles (less than 10 euros) and then tying it to the bench. It is
definitely a different world from what I am used to.
In the afternoon of D241 we reached Iquitos stopping Nauta
on the way. This is the most isolated big city in the world that is not connected by road. Unfortunately because of this is the noisiest city I have ever visited due to numerous mototaxis.
Here Paddy and I found a place to stay and after we settled in we
splurged out to a fancy dinner and drinks afterwards finishing the party at 4
in the morning. This was followed by a chilled Sunday (D242).
After changing to the cheaper Hostel Charapas on D243 we
strolled around the Belen market situated in the rough and poor area of Iquitos.
Here one can find everything from killed turtles to crocodiles, coca leaves,
ayahuasca (the vine of the jungle) powder, love potions etc.
Following this
we checked numerous tour agencies and ended up deciding there is no point for
jungle lodges or ayahuasca sessions due to insincere and hassling people.
The plan for the D244 was to take the local bus to a manatee rescue centre. Here we could see 2 baby and 3 adult manatees.
We continued to the
Laguna Quistococha. This included a zoo that we were not aware of and a beach.
It was very disappointing to see caged animals in the jungle.
Next stop was the San Juan artisan market with a few stalls open
selling interesting items like woven bags from some jungle straw, nice beads,
interesting paintings etc.
Next day (D245) I took a boat from Puerto Bellavista Nanay
to the Pilpiwasi Butterfly Farm at Padre Cocha up the Nanay River. At the port
I shared a boat with three local students and once in the village we walked 20
more minutes to the farm. This houses a few orphan jungle animals such Huapo
monkeys, capyra (the biggest water rodent) etc. saved from illegal animal
trafficker that killed their mother or used by as thieves. The objective of
this farm to recreate the natural environment of the animals as much as
possible for example using scents and provide them with plants or meat that
they would eat in the jungle.
Here I got talking to Maryse from Canada and together with
the three students took he boat back to Iquitos Later in the afternoon Maryse
and I walked to the Parque 28 Junio and as we were close by the Belen market we
decided to walk around. The evening I chilled in the Zen Karma Café.
Early in the morning of D246 Maryse and I together with Chris, an Australian and Alicia, his Peruvian wife set to visit the local community of Tamshiyacu one hour up the Rio Amazon. I was expecting half naked indigenous community instead I found a modern indigenous village with mobile reception and Internet. We spent the day with Alicia’s hospitable family.
They walked us in the jungle feeding us with jungle grapes, pineapples. Aquiles with his English explained the benefits of the plants that we passed.
Alberto was leading the group cutting our way through with a machete. When we got to an artificial lake he also initiated draining of the lake it in order to take the fish out for the Saturday village barbecue.
Next we walked through lush vegetation to the telephone tree and here we listened to Aquiles shaman apprentice experience many times me being the translator.
Once out of the jungle we drove on Alberto's bike and a
mototaxi to Chris's bungalow and farm with a short break at an old ladies house
where she was making charcoal.
At the bungalow there was a big green area and a wooden house. Here we were offered yummy mangoes and coconut.
Next day (D247) I inquired about boats going to Santa Rosa
first at Puerto Masusa where there was no boat leaving on my desired day.
Disappointed but not counting on what people were saying I went to Puerto
Pesquero. Fortunately Lucho’s boat was set to leave the next day. The quality
of it was dodgy but I liked the captain. Despite not being convinced and also worried
for being so cheap (90 soles) I reserved a cabin. For lunch I met up with Maryse to
say our goodbyes. In the evening being the last night in Iquitos Paddy and I
had a few goodbye drinks at Karma Cafe.
After breakfast and checking out from Hostel Charapas on
D248 I took a taxi to Puerto Pesquero to leave my stuff on Lucho’s boat. This
time it looked even dodgier and smelled of chickens placed in the cargo area. After
leaving my stuff in the cabin I wanted to put my hammock in the sheltered deck
when I noticed a guy peeing from the deck out to the water. Disgusted I
questioned him what was he doing and why he was not using the bathroom. He left
without an answer but shortly came back and helped me to put up my hammock.
Shortly another guy appeared and helped too. This one offered me cannabis and
after the hammock was up I realized that they were doing business up here and I was in the way. The
dealer was nice enough with me showing me where the stinky and
horrible toilets. To get to them you would need to get down to the lower deck through narrow and
dangerous stairs. Relaxation, reading and people watching filled the
next six hours before departing towards Santa Rosa. Funny enough I was the only
tourist on the boat and I was hoping everything would go smoothly.
The next one
and a half days (D249 and morning of D250) on the Rio Amazon from Iquitos to
Santa Ana was eventless and relaxing in the hammock. People proved to be
unfriendly except the guys who were serving the usual rice and chicken meals.
Upon arrival in Leticia, Colombia I was hit by a humid heat
that made my search for a hostel tiring. I ended up at the Hostal Cataguas as
the one was looking for had been relocated farther out of the city.
Leticia is a pleasant Colombian jungle city with excellent
food and coffee together with friendly people. I was very happy to be here at
another day.
Later on I took an expensive taxi ride to be stamped at the
Policia Federal in Tabatinga, Brazil. The town seemed a bit messy but I was
excited to be on Brazilian land. At the Policia Federal I was greeting by some
hot and tattooed police officers who sounded sexy in
Brazilian Portuguese. This felt like Adonis country!! Following this I went to
the harbour to check out the boat and confirm the price. It was frustrating that I
could not understand everything they were saying. But the relevant stuff
eventually became clear.
In the evening I stock up with some stuff for the trip
purchasing some Vitamin C from a pharmacy and paying with the credit card. The
three pharmacists and I were chatting away asking them if I was on the right
street to get to the hostel. A half hour later the receptionist of the hostel knocked on my door
telling me somebody was looking for me. When I went out I saw one of the
pharmacists with my credit card. I almost had a heart attack from joy. Not to
mention that this was the second incident of the day as earlier I left my
wallet on a seat and a guy ran after me with my wallet!! What a clumsy but
lucky bastard I am!! Even though I was quite tired I could not sleep because of
the two TVs screaming in the neighbouring rooms until 3am. Even with my earplugs
I could hear some noise.
In the morning (D251) I went to the Tabatinga port and
purchased my 170 reais ticket to Manaus. The boat
first was thoroughly checked police without passengers. When my turn came each
item in both my backpacks was checked. I forgot that I had coca leaves
purchased from Iquitos and these ended up confiscated as they are illegal in
Brazil.
Once on the Itapuranga III seemed a very nice boat
with clean bathrooms, drinkable water and a number of sinks with soap. The diner was small and at once could only accommodate
around 20 people but at least you did not need to have your own plate and
cutlery. Next I put up my hammock with the help of Domingos, a
Brazilian who spoke Spanish. My hammock was my bed for the next three nights so
all my stuff was placed very close to it.
Condolence, a boat worker came to me and introduced herself in Spanish.
My hammock neighbours were Rigoberto, father
and son from Iquitos, Peru. I was quite happy to be surrounded by some people
that could speak Spanish. I felt quite useless of not being able to speak in
Portuguese. On this side of the world it is very occasional to find somebody who
speaks English or English / Spanish in case of Brazil.
On D252 the bell for breakfast woke us up at 6. I had my
breakfast and went back to sleep as I still feel fragile. Later on Condolence
ordered me to get the syrup again. Just before 11 the boat was stopped again by
the police patrol checking the new passengers. There was a woman in the police boat
and I was told they found cocaine in her bag as somebody tipped her off. While
this was going on I could hear a noise in the water and I went to see what it
was. There were two pink river dolphins swimming around.
My first impression about Brazilians and Brazil was that they
are friendly and more civilised when it comes protecting the river. The Amazon
is cleaner and the villages where the boat stops are more colourful and
organized than in Peru. The atmosphere is happy and cheerful. I also noticed
that the sexy females and males are very hygienic taking showers several times
a day and changing clothes each time. The rest of D252 was spent in hammocking, reading, eating
and chatting with my co-travellers. They were speaking in Portuguese and me
responding in Spanish. Perfect harmony! I am curious how much they understood
of what I was saying because I only understood 50% of it.
In next day (D253) apart from hammocking Vitalina, the beautiful mulatto missionary hammock neighbour taught me how to make an angle bracelet using threads. Jeannie was another missionary girl who was a student as well as me. During the knotting Jeannie and I were talking in Spanish about the life of a missionary. Everything they do is free and they depend on the generosity of the people they help or the people who want to help out. At the moment they are based in a charity house in Manaus from where they reach out to street drug addict children, youths or whoever requires their help. She told me that one of the boys they were taking care of occasionally was found strangled. As they do not have a house to accommodate the children they have no choice just to let them leave after they provided a bed to sleep for a short period of time or fed them. We went for dinner as both of us were hungry. After dinner I was offered to share a coke with the missionaries. I felt bad as they did not have money and I was taking their splurge. Following this I stayed with Vitalina to help her out found blue beads and the neighbouring kids helped too.
Nayra, a 9 year
old girl was afraid of me at first. Whenever I asked a question in Spanish she ran. But
eventually after I involved her in de-stucking some beads she became my friend
teaching me the Portuguese alphabet.
Waking up on D254 was not pleasant due to my donkey
coughing. Around midday just before arriving in Manaus the missionaries and I
admired the amazing phenomena of the mocca Rio Solimoes flowing into the black Rio
Negro and forming the proper Rio Amazonas. After three days and nights spent
together on the boat the atmosphere was friendly and the goodbye is sweet. The
motherly Condolence went to everybody and said goodbye. She even arranged a
taxi for the Latvian guy and me being concerned that we would be screwed over.
Once in Manaus city, I was dropped at Hotel Brazil that was full. So I walked a block to Dez de Julho Street and settled in the hotel with the
same name. Next I booked my flight to Rio Branco as otherwise I would have had to take
another 4 days boat trip down to Porto Velho which I did not really feel like to do.
Manaus seemed quite expensive. The main square, Plaza do San
Sebastian was pretty surrounded by trees and backed by the majestic Teatro
Amazonas. This had impressive colourful round cupola.
In the evening I had dinner and on my way out from an ice
cream parlour a young junkie beggar asked for money. I shook my head making him
understand that I was not planning to give anything. As a response he spit on
my foot. Nice!!
Another interesting habit that some hotels have on this side
of the world is that they set the alarm of the TV to 6am to scare the shit
out of the sleeping guests. This is exactly what happened in the morning of
D255. Before heading to the airport a short stop was needed to the nearby supermarket to stock on missing
items. But the amount of Havaianas flip-flops distracted me for a while. By the
end of the day this is the country of origin of these daring and funky flip
flops. Later in the morning I was offered a ride to the airport sharing the
fare with an Italian Brazilian guy. Despite my efforts to reduce the weight of
my backpack, the airport balance still shockingly showed 18.7kg. To get over
this shock I adventured into drinking the famous and yum local juice of acai with guarana
and cashew nuts.
The flight to Rio Branco needed to be
change at Porto Velho. As I had eight hours to the last leg of my flight I
decided to take a bus to the city centre. The ride to the centre was through scary
and rough looking areas. I was scared to get off but I had no choice just to
gathered myself together. I walked to the shore of Rio Madera where few families were playing
with their children and posing with Santa Claus on a sunny Saturday afternoon. An
hour in this weird looking city was enough.
The flight to Rio Branco was short enough arriving at midnight
and taking an expensive cab ride to Hotel AFA. Here the receptionist was an
asshole who told me there were no rooms. After looking desperate and tired
he felt pity and gave me room with the condition to leave next day. I did not
care at this stage I just wanted to sleep. The room was quite big, with a
window and the hugest bed I have ever seen. The music from the downstairs restaurant
could be heard quite well so my plan to have a good night sleep was not achievable. At the end I stayed up until 6 o'clock in the morning of D256 achieving not much in the first part of the day. Just had breakfast that included the amazing
pao do queijo (cheese bread) my favourite Brazilian food so far and managed to
arrange to stay another night contrary what I was told the previous night. The
receptionist guy was quite helpful and also found out for me the bus timetable for
departure to Brasileia, the border town with Bolivia.
Later in the afternoon after
having a Sunday lie in, I dragged myself out of the room set to explore Rio
Branco. There was a guy standing at the reception as I was asking how to get to
the Accre River. Rafael, a Brazilian from Rio Grande de Sul state (3 days of
bus ride from Rio Branco)asked me if he could join me in exploring the city. So we ended up walking around the deserted city trying to make ourselves
understood as I was speaking in Spanish and English while he responded
in Portuguese and vice versa. It was a funny after with this potential civil
policeman.
On D257 I was ready to continue my trip to Bolivia via
Brasileia. I chose to take a local bus to the out of town Novo Rodoviaria (New bus
terminal). I waited at least 45 minutes for the bus to arrive while a lot of
curious locals were interested in engaging in a conversation with me but
unfortunately my lack of Portuguese and their lack of Spanish or English limited
us. Later I realized they genuinely wanted to help me out. I really loved the
attitude and the joy of these people. When the bus arrived the bus ticket
seller woman was talking to me and asking me questions as well. Once at the
terminal, I bought my ticket to Brasileia with Real Norte (29.40 reis). While I
was waiting for the bus to arrive I dropped into a shop to buy water but I saw a
pair of nice green Havaianas that I could not resist not buying.
I was looking forward to the four hour bus journey in a
modern bus. So when the bus showed up 20 minutes late I was utterly
disappointed to see a run-down bus with dirty seats. I was angry and I ignored
the curious guy who was talking to me. I just did not have patience to
concentrate to understand what he was saying!! The scenery consisted of flat
green fields with scattered trees and houses. The woman seating a row in front of me on the opposite side
she started asking me where I was going. I explained her that I needed an exit
stamp from Policia Federal in Epitaciolandia. She was the one who notified me
where to stop not the bus driver. At the police station I waited for 20 minutes
until the attractive police officer was ready to stamp my passport.
Next I took a cab to Cobija, Bolivia (10 reais) stopping at the Bolivian
immigration. The officer only gave me 30 days and I have to re-new it if I want to
stay longer. It is a pain but I could not do much.
The taxi driver dropped me off at this very basic Residencial
El Crocodilo costing only 50 bolivianos (over 5 euros) per night. Next step was to sort out the transport to La Paz. To get to
La Paz by bus from Cobija would take three days so the plane option was
obvious. This out of the way I wandered around the town. It was a noisy little
town with a pleasant / rich with vegetation main plaza.
After a not so good night sleep on the morning of D258. I
had a negotiation situation with the taxi driver whom I chose to bring me to
the airport. He wanted to overcharge me and I knew this and I did not tolerate
it.
The one hour flight was impressive passing through the
jungle filled with snake alike mocca rivers followed by the snow-capped
Cordillera Real backed by Lake Titicaca. Just before landing in El Alto the
scenery consisted of endless flats.
After landing, I took a cab negotiating to bring
me to the centre to Hotel Valle for 50 bs. The taxi driver had no clue where
this hotel was either the whereabouts of this street. To hide this he said that this
street did not exist. I told him just bring me to the nearest Plaza. Somehow he
fucked up and was forced to go round. Eventually I lost my patience and told
him to stop at the Plaza Mendez. Then I handed him 100bs giving me back 30. I
got angry and requested the 20bs more. He did not want to give me saying that I
made him to drive around and also that he did not agree to bring me for 50bs.
This made me even angrier, I hate liars and idiots. Eventually I was right that both hotel and street existed. I settled into Hotel Valle
Annexo in a private room for 75 bs.per night. In the late afternoon I walked
down the Prado heading to the cinema to see Ted doubled in Spanish
On D259 I chilled in La Paz the highest capital in the world
at 3655m. This is definitely a spectacular city located in a valley
surrounded by hills filled with houses. At the north and south snow-capped
Illampu and Huayna Potosi are looking down graciously.
In the afternoon I checked out the exhibitions of painting displayed at Museo Tambo Quirquinga. Here the traditionally dressed indigenous woman sold the entrance for 1Bs. Next I walked to the Museo de Coca passing through Calle Sagarnaga and Linares famous for their numerous artisan stalls. The museum charged 11Bs to enter and was quite informative through its weird self-guide. Following this I met up with Nico and his three friends for dinner whom arrived from Copacabana.
The following morning (D260) I met Nico for breakfast at a local cafe
having a mini fried egg sandwich with orange juice. Next we started our quest
to find an agency for the Huayna Potosi climb. Altitude 6000 was recommended to
him and indeed they seemed quite nice and professional. What I liked that they
only concentrated on hikes and not on all tourist attraction. Believe me there
are plenty in this country! Later in the afternoon I visited Museo de
Etnografia in Calle Sanjines and walked up to Calle Jaen which is the colonial
street of La Paz. Late afternoon the five of us booked our expedition climb to
the Huayna Potosi and we went to see the Skyfall at the farthest cinema that could
exist in La Paz.
This morning (D261) we tried on the equipment for the climb
and purchased the missing bits and pieces. I feel extremely excited (with a tiny bit of fear) about the
three day climb to Huayna Potosi at 6088m starting tomorrow.
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