Week 29. Up The Amazon

I did not want to go to Iquitos: it is off track and I spent way to much time in Peru than I planned. But Iquitos is the Amazon, where the great South American river starts, so I bought return ticket from Lima.



The plan was to go to the 3-4 days trekking in the jungles, but finding cheap enough company to do this from Iquitos proved to be difficult. If I had more time, I would go to the nearbt villages (in fact, one can explore jungle villages without organized tour - it is safe and fun).
However, while looking for the tour I met loads of people. At the end of my visit it seemed that at least half of (male) population of Iquitos knows me. I could not make a step without hearing 'Hola, Maria' from everywhere. Local guides, artists-hippies-junkies from different parts of South America, owners of the hostel, owners of tour agencies, kids on the streets, women selling food. They all have been very welcoming, people are nice, talkative and curious here.
Iquitos is hot, humid and noisy from motocars travelling in all directions, the town is full of them.

Iron house build by Eifel

Looking for lepricon


Belen
Belen is a market and floating town near Iquitos. People who come from villages to live in town usually come here.
Market is crowded, dirty and smelly. One can buy everything there from second hand cloth and chicken to turtels, crocodiles and money skulls. One can see men dressed up as women there (in Peru!), one can be asked to pay 5 soles for making photo of the products (and woman sitting next to the stall would start laughing).
It easy to get lost there, which I did a couple of times.
To reach actual Belen people have to travel by boat. It is dry season, so the river is not so high, houses are not floating and all trash is on the banks.
People go to the toilet the same places where they wash dishes, where there is no pavement (almost everywhere), there is mud covered with rubbish, chicken and fish on the market starts to smell in the afternoon when heat is too strong.
I do not understand how people can live in such conditions. I have heard, however, of the floating disco somewhere deep in Belen

Belen views

Fight for t-shirt

Floating constructions - it looks rough, but it is very stable

Jungles

After spending almost 2 days in Iquitos I finally found agency with group to go to the jungles. The Lodge was 250 km away from Iquitos (that is what they claim): 90 km by the only paved road, 2.5 hours down the river Maranon.
We had 2 groups, but spent most of the time hiking all together. There was a german couple in my group, israeli couple and another israeli guy. Bastian (german guy) was sick most of the time, so we ended up hiking 3 of us with his girlfriend and Israeli guy named Guy.
We opted out not to do camping in the wood after it was raining like I have never seen in my life. It was like being under waterfall (and I have been under one) for hours!
We were hiking in the jungles loosing our boots in the mud from time to time, we visited a village where we saw sloth Pablito, home pet, and another (we were told) wild sloth in the tree. Saw monkeys, fished pirahnas. Fishing is an fun experience: we used chicken skin as lure and we could feel fish eating it, but could rarely catch something. I got 1 pirahna and one unknown fish that was not good for cooking.
At the end I was happy to leave the jungles (but not happy to come back to noisy and crowded Iquitos).
I was also happy to leave Iquitos, but now I understand that there were loads of (cheap) things to do, I miss its people and tranquility of the jungles (not mosquitos though). Still prefer mountains.

Village in the jungles

My first baby - and it is a sloth

Iguana

Dolphin

Wild sloth

Monkeys, monkey, monkeys


Tarantula is not poisoness

My first (and only) piranha catch