After a long day of transit, we all finally arrived in Iquitos on Friday night. I stayed with the four girls from the NGO´s and the boys stayed at another hostel together since there wasn´t enough room at ours. Friday night we all went out to taste a bit of the nightlife in Iquito which was interesting. We even invited the tour guide, Wilder, to come out with us, but he didn´t last that long. Ryan and I passed the night debating in the discoteque with Flor, the extremely passionate Argentinian, about various political sentiments from South Americans towards people in the EE.UU...Wow. When you are so completely immersed in US culture it is almost impossible to view the states from an alternative perspective. And being a proclaimed liberal, it has been hard for me to find a sense of patriotism for my country as I travel abroad. We have met so many people that truly support and love their countries, but I often find it hard to defend and support the country I come from. For Ryan and I; we sometimes view ourselves as a reflection of our country, but we often times catch ourselves hoping that people think we are from somewhere else.Not that we travel as representatives, but we are from the states, and most people outside the US do not think highly of estadounidenses (people from the states - not Americans. American implies south and north.). But Flor reminded us both that night, not to worry about the perspective so much and focus rather on what we are doing here, now.
The next day, a group of us went to the mariposarillo, which is a refuge for animals and of course a sanitarium for butterflies. We walked around and the monkeys freely grab onto you or try to take off your earrings.The parrots squaked and we watched a leopard knaw away at some meat. There were some fiesty crocodiles, too. They rushed along our tour, since we had arrived at closing time and they were doing us a favor by even giving us the tour to begin with. So we headed back to our boat to head back to Iquitos. The driver of our thatched roof motor boat, told us about a serpentario, that he could take us to to see some anacondas, so we headed there. These animals, which looked like they were not as well kept as in the mariposarillo. Nonetheless, they were being fed and while they didn´t look content, at least I didn´t see any abusive behavior while we were there.... But we saw some amazing animals there - most of which I dont know the names of. But there were a bunch of monkeys flailing around, an anaconda, a boa constrictor, some turtles, the largest rat I have ever seen, an eel, an adorable sloth, and even a baby alligator that I got to hold. All in all, a pretty interesting day. We headed back to Iquitos for our last night before we would all fly into Lima.
Sunday, the boys and myself took a flight to Lima, Peru. Flor, had offered to let us crash at her house for as long as we wanted. She has a beautiful apartment in Miraflores - an upper class and super wealthy district of Lima, that borders the ocean. I´ve been staying at her place now for about three weeks. It is amazing how accomodating Flor has been to us all. She is unbelievably inspiring and passionate, and super easy going. So the fact that we all stayed at her place - doesnt bother her at all. Its great especially since Lima is much more expensive - being a big city and all.
So since we have been here, a lot has happened... Ryan took off for a week to go to visit is family in Buenos Aires for his grandmother´s 80th birthday. I stayed here with the two Israeli boys - Dennis went to Cuzco to do Machu Picchu before he ran out of time. We mostly just got to know the area of Miraflores. And one of the days, I went and stayed with Veronica (the peruvian who we met with Flor in the jungle). She is a preschool teacher at a private school and she took me with her when the class went on a fieldtrip to the zoo. Her class was adorable. She has about 10 students that are between the ages of 4 and 5. So helped out for the day as we scaled the zoo, which for Veronica and I, after just getting back from the jungle, was a little sad. The animals were all kept in small cages and seemed to be stuck out in the sun with very little food and water. It was pretty upsetting, so I mostly put my focus on the kids. Later that day, Veronica took me to La Universidad Catolica de Peru, which has a gorgeous campus- it´s private. It has an enormous amount of security, which was necessary after some horrible acts of terrorism a couple years back. But once you walk in, there are deer and ducks and birds, laying on the grass and sun tanning(the sun really never shines in Lima, it is cloudy almost every day)...The buildings are pristine and new and the class I went into with Veronica was great. We learned pantomime - something I never thought would be taught in a university class about education for children. But it was definitely fun, and it made me miss college in a way I didn´t think would happen just yet.
Otherwise, Ryan got back and for the past week, we´ve been getting to know Lima more and more. We spent a day at el museo de la nacion, which had an amazing exhibit called Yuyanapaq about the terrorism in Peru from the 1980´s until 2000. I learned about the exhibit in one of my classes, so I thought it would be a good experience to see it in person. And I really enjoyed it. Otherwise, Ryan and I did some shopping in the market Polvos Azules and the surrounding area of Ayucucho. So we´ve been spending a lot of time hanging around and going out with Flor and Veronica and their group of friends here - which are all amazing. Most of them are involved in the NGO with Flor, but they are work in separate apects of the organization.
Throughout last week, Ryan and I had been talking to Flor about possibly doing some work with Progressio, the NGO, while we are staying in Lima. So after she talked to her boss, and then we met with her boss, Ryan and I are now volunteering for Progressio. It is a UK based non-profit organization, that has sites throughout the world. We were lucky enough to stumble upon Flor, because she has definitely opened the doors to the world of NGO´s.
The site, which I advise you all to check out is this: www.progressio.org.uk
There is a part that talks about one organization in Lima called EDUCA. That is the specific organization that Ryan and I wil be working for and with.
The poorest district in all of Lima, San Juan de Lurigancho, houses the largest population of the city - one million. There, EDUCA has cooperatives with various projects. Ryan and I will be working with a cooperative named Diana who works with an amazing group of women. We went Friday to meet them and get to know them before we start our project. Nela, the head of Progressio, told us that she wants our help in terms of documenting the current projects. Ryan will be photographing and I am going to write some articles that hopefully will be published in their newsletter. There is no guarantee of anything right now, but I think Progressio is happy to have some volunteers in any case. And Ryan and I are ecstatic that we can finally use our talents or skills for something. Plus, I love the idea of having a job. In some weird way I was missing a bit of structure in my life. But either way, we will be doing something good for these women in the community of San Juan de Lurigancho, for Progressio and EDUCA, and also for ourselves. So I am definitely excited to start. I will write more when I know more about what we will be doing exactly - we are working every day this week so hopefully by the end of the week.
Otherwise, sorry for the short and choppy entry, but its been pretty hectic every since we got here. Hopefully, now with a bit of structure, I will get my bearings back - and maybe even my writing skills as well.... :)
Miss you all.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Amazonia
So we left at around 9am the next morning - we usually have a hard time leaving on time for anything, mostly due to the Israelis and Dennis. But either way we went to the agency a few blocks from our hostel and they had rented cars to bring us to a town Nauta, two hours away.In Nauta we got in a thatched roof canoe with motor.Throughout the entire jungle experience there were various types of boats we went in.They were all made out of wood, and while I am not exactly positive about this, I will say that they all looked like some form of a canoe.This first one was pretty comfortable, with a thatched roof and room for all of our backpacks, cushioned seats, and a fast motor.It was also pretty large to fit the five of us and spare room. But after leaving Nauta, there was no more room for this type of luxury.
This first boat took us down stream along a fairly large river for over two hours. After this we docked in a pueblocito where we climbed some deathly stairs to walk across to a small little river.There we all got into a tiny little canoe, where we sat one to a seat so we could go to the "lodge." This canoe, with a much smaller motor, was the one we spent most of our time in.The first trip with all our luggage was pretty treacherous since the boat was so deep in the water, that it felt like we might sink if anyone leaned in one direction.Plus the wooded and flat seats, definitely wear on your ass after time. Oh my god, that first night out on the canoe, my ass was sore for days....
No worries though, after a half an hour, along the river, we reached our lodge in the middle of the jungle. The river is wide enough but it is completely flowered with fallen trees.Trees fall and you can see where they have fallen close to the embankments but sometimes, when the motorized canoe goes over an area where the tree is hiden underneath the muddied water, the boat gets stuck - also happens if we are just drifting...without the motor because we ran out of gasoline and/or we are rowing.This happened multiple times while we were out in the canoe. And sometimes it can be much worse at night, when we would drift along in the complete darkness, with two guides who have memorized the route - they KNOW the river by heart. One night we got stuck and the whole boat has to be rocked in order for us to be unstuck. We all lean left, right, left, right...and usually one of the guides gets in the water and eventually we start moving again. Either way, when you enter the jungle, you enter into the land of chance. Anything can happen and it is just dealt with. La Naturaleza.You put your life in the confidence of the two guides who take you out in the canoe or walking around in the jungle.I felt pretty confident, although I think Dennis was somewhat in a constant state of fear of capsizing.Hey - if I was 6´6 I probably would have felt a little out of my element too.
So we stayed in these lodges, that look like a wooded version of a small house in a beach community. The lodges are all on stilts because the river gets so high in the rainy season and they are completely covered in netting to block out the mosquitoes- the enemy! There are so many mosquitoes, you catch yourself slapping every part of your body.And we never did anything without reapplying our repellent. I was pretty lucky and didn´t get bitten that much, but I think Ory was covered in bug bites by the time we left.
That first day we put our stuff down in the lodge and took the canoe out to look at birds; white herring, falcon, black falcon, and also some bats and monkeys - I´m probably missing a bunch. So we drifted around until late so we could see the lighting of the moon, because if the moonlight was low, we could got out in small canoes, three at a time, and spot crocodiles. By the way - the sunsets in the jungle are unbelievable. The sun sets and the entire sky lights up in various shades of pink and purple until it gets to a blue and then dark blue. I have never seen anything like it. It was truly gorgeous. And when you hear the chirping of birds, the calls of monkey, crickets and frogs all rustling through the trees, the serenity of the jungle just completely overwhelms you.
The moon that night was too strong to see crocodiles, so we headed back to the lodge in the black of the night to eat some great dinner. At the lodge, two girls, both working for NGO´s (non profit) in Lima - one is Peruvian and one is Argentinian, were staying with at the lodge with us. We spent the night sitting around and playing cards.
The next morning we awoke to a great breakfast and to get ready for a jungle excursion.We crossed the river, to the other side, and led by two guides Ollie(a native from the one of jungle pueblos who gets paid 20 soles a day, the equivalent to 6 dollars a day, to lead around these jungle tours.He lives in the little town we went to with his wife. Hes 27 and supporting his wife and two kids. The company pays him so little to show tourists around the land he grew up in - this is a whole other story - the bad treatment and exploitation of the natives of the jungle) and Wilder(a manager of the tour company - the one who keeps all the money and lives in the city and just came along to help on our trip). Ollie led the way with his machete and we walked in various directions through the muggy and tree filled jungle.They showed us medicinal plants that natives use as cures or as supplements.We hacked down a palm tree (we all had our chance with the machete) to get the fruits so we could have hearts of palm in our salad at lunch. The boys swung on vines like Tarzan.And we trecked to find some cool insects - including the grub that Dennis ate. We put our hands on a termite nest because it is good repellent from mosquitoes and then you shake the termites off and rub your hands together and all over your body. After heading back and eating lunch, the five of us along with the two girls and the two guides headed upstream to fish.
Being my first experience fishing - I only started eating fish a few months back- I was somewhat, well, no I was terrible. Plus I somehow couldn`t get the whole taunting the poor fish with a tiny piece of meat and then pulling them out with our sticks of rods. So I let someone have my stick and watched the rest catch sardines, catfish, and piranhas. They told us we would eat what we caught but of course, things aren´t always exaclty as they seem. So while we ate catfish for dinner that night I am pretty sure that it was not what we caught.Oh well.
After fishing, all of us went to a pueblo nearby to go to a bar and drink some beers.The pueblo has somewhere ranging from 60 to 80 families.And this actually makes it seem bigger than it is because you have to realize that a lot of the time these families live 3 or 4 families to one house. So it is tiny. There is really no electricity, other than on the weekends and definitely no running water. If you have to go to the bathroom, it is aways away from the pueblo and it is just a bamboo covered hole - at night you bring a flighlight to find it or you just go outside.
So we had some warm beers in the bar and then headed back to the lodge to have dinner, play some cards, and chat.
Our final day, we woke and headed to a swamp area which is said to be guarded by a black boa since any chickens that are on the land nearby, end up disappearing. We took a bit of a walk in the hot sun and then got back in the canoe. While were going, we stopped in front of a ritzy "lodge" and some monkeys climbed aboard our boat looking for food - they are so used getting papayas or food from tourists, that they willingly climb aboard the boat and let you hold them and pet them.Quite the friendly kind of monkeys.Check out the pictures for these on Ryan's website.Very cute.
Eventually we packed our things and all nine of us piled into the bigger canoe to leave the green and tropic jungle. Whatever you imagine of the jungle - it is a thousand times wrong and a thousand times right. The tall trees jutting from any direction and the strange plants that brush against your leg...but there aren´t anacondas tracking your path to jump out at you or panthers waiting to eat you. The jungle is much more quiet than I thought it would be and also much louder. At night, you feel like you are right next to the speakers at a strange music concert.It`s crazy. The amazon. A huge part of it was surreal but that may be just because we spent too little time in the jungle. It was truly a unique experience.
Eventually though, our time ran out and we had to head back to Iquitos......
This first boat took us down stream along a fairly large river for over two hours. After this we docked in a pueblocito where we climbed some deathly stairs to walk across to a small little river.There we all got into a tiny little canoe, where we sat one to a seat so we could go to the "lodge." This canoe, with a much smaller motor, was the one we spent most of our time in.The first trip with all our luggage was pretty treacherous since the boat was so deep in the water, that it felt like we might sink if anyone leaned in one direction.Plus the wooded and flat seats, definitely wear on your ass after time. Oh my god, that first night out on the canoe, my ass was sore for days....
No worries though, after a half an hour, along the river, we reached our lodge in the middle of the jungle. The river is wide enough but it is completely flowered with fallen trees.Trees fall and you can see where they have fallen close to the embankments but sometimes, when the motorized canoe goes over an area where the tree is hiden underneath the muddied water, the boat gets stuck - also happens if we are just drifting...without the motor because we ran out of gasoline and/or we are rowing.This happened multiple times while we were out in the canoe. And sometimes it can be much worse at night, when we would drift along in the complete darkness, with two guides who have memorized the route - they KNOW the river by heart. One night we got stuck and the whole boat has to be rocked in order for us to be unstuck. We all lean left, right, left, right...and usually one of the guides gets in the water and eventually we start moving again. Either way, when you enter the jungle, you enter into the land of chance. Anything can happen and it is just dealt with. La Naturaleza.You put your life in the confidence of the two guides who take you out in the canoe or walking around in the jungle.I felt pretty confident, although I think Dennis was somewhat in a constant state of fear of capsizing.Hey - if I was 6´6 I probably would have felt a little out of my element too.
So we stayed in these lodges, that look like a wooded version of a small house in a beach community. The lodges are all on stilts because the river gets so high in the rainy season and they are completely covered in netting to block out the mosquitoes- the enemy! There are so many mosquitoes, you catch yourself slapping every part of your body.And we never did anything without reapplying our repellent. I was pretty lucky and didn´t get bitten that much, but I think Ory was covered in bug bites by the time we left.
That first day we put our stuff down in the lodge and took the canoe out to look at birds; white herring, falcon, black falcon, and also some bats and monkeys - I´m probably missing a bunch. So we drifted around until late so we could see the lighting of the moon, because if the moonlight was low, we could got out in small canoes, three at a time, and spot crocodiles. By the way - the sunsets in the jungle are unbelievable. The sun sets and the entire sky lights up in various shades of pink and purple until it gets to a blue and then dark blue. I have never seen anything like it. It was truly gorgeous. And when you hear the chirping of birds, the calls of monkey, crickets and frogs all rustling through the trees, the serenity of the jungle just completely overwhelms you.
The moon that night was too strong to see crocodiles, so we headed back to the lodge in the black of the night to eat some great dinner. At the lodge, two girls, both working for NGO´s (non profit) in Lima - one is Peruvian and one is Argentinian, were staying with at the lodge with us. We spent the night sitting around and playing cards.
The next morning we awoke to a great breakfast and to get ready for a jungle excursion.We crossed the river, to the other side, and led by two guides Ollie(a native from the one of jungle pueblos who gets paid 20 soles a day, the equivalent to 6 dollars a day, to lead around these jungle tours.He lives in the little town we went to with his wife. Hes 27 and supporting his wife and two kids. The company pays him so little to show tourists around the land he grew up in - this is a whole other story - the bad treatment and exploitation of the natives of the jungle) and Wilder(a manager of the tour company - the one who keeps all the money and lives in the city and just came along to help on our trip). Ollie led the way with his machete and we walked in various directions through the muggy and tree filled jungle.They showed us medicinal plants that natives use as cures or as supplements.We hacked down a palm tree (we all had our chance with the machete) to get the fruits so we could have hearts of palm in our salad at lunch. The boys swung on vines like Tarzan.And we trecked to find some cool insects - including the grub that Dennis ate. We put our hands on a termite nest because it is good repellent from mosquitoes and then you shake the termites off and rub your hands together and all over your body. After heading back and eating lunch, the five of us along with the two girls and the two guides headed upstream to fish.
Being my first experience fishing - I only started eating fish a few months back- I was somewhat, well, no I was terrible. Plus I somehow couldn`t get the whole taunting the poor fish with a tiny piece of meat and then pulling them out with our sticks of rods. So I let someone have my stick and watched the rest catch sardines, catfish, and piranhas. They told us we would eat what we caught but of course, things aren´t always exaclty as they seem. So while we ate catfish for dinner that night I am pretty sure that it was not what we caught.Oh well.
After fishing, all of us went to a pueblo nearby to go to a bar and drink some beers.The pueblo has somewhere ranging from 60 to 80 families.And this actually makes it seem bigger than it is because you have to realize that a lot of the time these families live 3 or 4 families to one house. So it is tiny. There is really no electricity, other than on the weekends and definitely no running water. If you have to go to the bathroom, it is aways away from the pueblo and it is just a bamboo covered hole - at night you bring a flighlight to find it or you just go outside.
So we had some warm beers in the bar and then headed back to the lodge to have dinner, play some cards, and chat.
Our final day, we woke and headed to a swamp area which is said to be guarded by a black boa since any chickens that are on the land nearby, end up disappearing. We took a bit of a walk in the hot sun and then got back in the canoe. While were going, we stopped in front of a ritzy "lodge" and some monkeys climbed aboard our boat looking for food - they are so used getting papayas or food from tourists, that they willingly climb aboard the boat and let you hold them and pet them.Quite the friendly kind of monkeys.Check out the pictures for these on Ryan's website.Very cute.
Eventually we packed our things and all nine of us piled into the bigger canoe to leave the green and tropic jungle. Whatever you imagine of the jungle - it is a thousand times wrong and a thousand times right. The tall trees jutting from any direction and the strange plants that brush against your leg...but there aren´t anacondas tracking your path to jump out at you or panthers waiting to eat you. The jungle is much more quiet than I thought it would be and also much louder. At night, you feel like you are right next to the speakers at a strange music concert.It`s crazy. The amazon. A huge part of it was surreal but that may be just because we spent too little time in the jungle. It was truly a unique experience.
Eventually though, our time ran out and we had to head back to Iquitos......
Monday, October 13, 2008
Demasiado
I´m so overwhelmed by the past week and half I am not sure where I should start - chronological seems right. but theres a lot here. so forgive me....
When I last left you all I was in a small and quaint port town, awaiting the embarkment of our boat, Eduardo IV, from Yurimaguas to Iquitos. I think we were the only gringos the whole town of Yurimagaus or so it felt. After the three days there, most people knew our faces and some knew us by names. The owners of the hostel we stayed at (Hostel Linares - if you ever go to Yurimagaus, you have to stay here!) were unbelievably welcoming to us.They showed us around on their motorcycles, allowed us to cook dinner in their kitchen, and showed us how to drink a beer the Peruvian way - you pour yourself a glass of beer 3/4 of the way and hand the bottle of beer to the person on your left. As you finish, you then pass the glass to the person who has the bottle so they can serve themselves and they pass on the bottle afterwards. Then you continue on around the circle.
One of the days there, we spent the afternoon horsing around with the kids of the town on the roof of the hostel. The kids ranged from a few months to probably 12 years old. Look at Ryan´s pictures - these kids were amazing. They were hypnotized by all of us - and at one point we had to run sneak away because they were so attached. Another day, some locals took us to a river, so we could swim and cool off. It was pretty relaxed, but it was nice to hole up in the town and relax after being in transit for so long.
Eventually, on Saturday, we got our things ready and headed to the boat. Wow. Im not even sure I can accurately describe the boat. The lower floor is for cargo. And on our boat, the cargo ranged from fruit and vegetables, to livestock - there were about 5 cows that traveled along with us.The next floor up is the hammock section. There were rows upon rows of hammock strewn up on this floor. Families, travelers, and the dueños of cargo stay on this floor. It is usually pretty noisy, and miserably hot, even though the floor is open on the sides. The next floor up - where we all stayed - is the luxury floor. We bought spaces for 5 hammocks and also a room, so we could keep our stuff locked in the room, since we heard that there are a lot of thieves and pickpockets on the boat. The rooms are tiny; they fit bunkbeds, but we had plenty more space to put up hammocks, better food than the lower level and the bathrooms were usable. So we were all happy we paid for the super hammock section.
The boat ride was somewhat relaxing. we spent the three days and two nights, mostly reading, playing cards, eating, watching movies, eating more, and making friends with some other passengers.During the nights, the bugs and the hammock got to me, so I actually slept in the room, even though the hammocks were more comfortable. It was a pretty lax ride; and slow. We had to port at a dock one night because we got stuck in a strong thunderstorm storm, so our arrival was delayed for a whole day.So we were very ready to disembark when we actually made it to Iquitos.
Luckily, throughout the journey, we had become friendly with a very young married couple, Jomer and Rosa and their baby Jomer Jr. Jomer grew up in Iquitos, he and his family were heading back there to visit during their vacation from school (both him and his wife are studying the same thing in Chiclayo).They invited us and some other passengers, a father and daughter from Sweden and a couple from inland Peru, to come to their house and disembark with the family since it is so dangerous in Iquitos.So we all got off and headed to their house, which is like a three minute walk from the dock - which is no dock.When we were trying to dock on the mud bank, our boat pushed over several other boats to squeeze in, so we could walk off.So we headed into their house so we could put down our stuff and figure out where we would stay while we in Iquitos and everything else....
The family offered to let all of us stay in their house, and the tempting idea of free housing, won us all over and everyone agreed.Afterwards, Jomer took us to his molina ( a little farm) where they keep chickens, a goat, sheep, and some dogs and cats - and tons of rice and wheat. They were incredibly hospitable and made us a corn drink for dinner and let us all shower when we got back to the house.There was no running water however, and we all took turnings standing in a bathroom and pouring a bucket of water over our heads.Pretty funny, considering the fact that backpackers pride themselves on roughing it, and none of us wanted to spend more than one night roughing it in the house with the family. We were definitely very happy that they wanted to help us out and do so much for us, but the downstairs of their three story loft house, was filled with cockroaches and mice, and after one night of sleeping on the floor, we all wanted a bed and running water. So the next morning, we had an egg drink breakfast with them and told them we felt like we should get a hostel - we got our stuff and left. (We took most of the family out that night to a very nice and very Peruvian dinner later that night to thank them for their generous hospitality).----Im leaving out a part here; where we went out that night and the three boys came back later than the rest of us, and they knocked on the door but no one answered so they couldn`t get in.Ryan, Yair, and Dennis headed to a hostel to try to sleep there - a two dollar hostel. From what I`ve heard it was unbelievably disgusting. And while Ryan, the great sleeper he is, fell asleep, the other two did not.The rooms were all connected, so they heard coughing, babies crying, and a couple having sex.The walls were covered in every color of liquid imaginable. And eventually the boys returned in the early morning hours to try and get some sleep at the house. Luckily someone was awake and let them in.
Either way, we all moved to Hostal Maflo the next morning, to take hot showers and be in near the city center. Iquitos is quite a large city, even though there are barely any cars - only motorcycles and mototaxis.Since Dennis was pressured for time - he has a flight out of lima on Oct 23 and he wanted to do the jungle, lima, and cuzco, before he left- there was a lot of pressure to figure out the jungle tour and buy flights from Iquitos to Lima that day.
Ryan and Yair, as the good little soldiers they are found a travel company and figured out everything that day. The next morning we would leave at 8 in the morning for a three day, two night jungle adventure, getting back to Iquitos Friday night and we all bought flights to Lima, leaving Sunday day.
When I last left you all I was in a small and quaint port town, awaiting the embarkment of our boat, Eduardo IV, from Yurimaguas to Iquitos. I think we were the only gringos the whole town of Yurimagaus or so it felt. After the three days there, most people knew our faces and some knew us by names. The owners of the hostel we stayed at (Hostel Linares - if you ever go to Yurimagaus, you have to stay here!) were unbelievably welcoming to us.They showed us around on their motorcycles, allowed us to cook dinner in their kitchen, and showed us how to drink a beer the Peruvian way - you pour yourself a glass of beer 3/4 of the way and hand the bottle of beer to the person on your left. As you finish, you then pass the glass to the person who has the bottle so they can serve themselves and they pass on the bottle afterwards. Then you continue on around the circle.
One of the days there, we spent the afternoon horsing around with the kids of the town on the roof of the hostel. The kids ranged from a few months to probably 12 years old. Look at Ryan´s pictures - these kids were amazing. They were hypnotized by all of us - and at one point we had to run sneak away because they were so attached. Another day, some locals took us to a river, so we could swim and cool off. It was pretty relaxed, but it was nice to hole up in the town and relax after being in transit for so long.
Eventually, on Saturday, we got our things ready and headed to the boat. Wow. Im not even sure I can accurately describe the boat. The lower floor is for cargo. And on our boat, the cargo ranged from fruit and vegetables, to livestock - there were about 5 cows that traveled along with us.The next floor up is the hammock section. There were rows upon rows of hammock strewn up on this floor. Families, travelers, and the dueños of cargo stay on this floor. It is usually pretty noisy, and miserably hot, even though the floor is open on the sides. The next floor up - where we all stayed - is the luxury floor. We bought spaces for 5 hammocks and also a room, so we could keep our stuff locked in the room, since we heard that there are a lot of thieves and pickpockets on the boat. The rooms are tiny; they fit bunkbeds, but we had plenty more space to put up hammocks, better food than the lower level and the bathrooms were usable. So we were all happy we paid for the super hammock section.
The boat ride was somewhat relaxing. we spent the three days and two nights, mostly reading, playing cards, eating, watching movies, eating more, and making friends with some other passengers.During the nights, the bugs and the hammock got to me, so I actually slept in the room, even though the hammocks were more comfortable. It was a pretty lax ride; and slow. We had to port at a dock one night because we got stuck in a strong thunderstorm storm, so our arrival was delayed for a whole day.So we were very ready to disembark when we actually made it to Iquitos.
Luckily, throughout the journey, we had become friendly with a very young married couple, Jomer and Rosa and their baby Jomer Jr. Jomer grew up in Iquitos, he and his family were heading back there to visit during their vacation from school (both him and his wife are studying the same thing in Chiclayo).They invited us and some other passengers, a father and daughter from Sweden and a couple from inland Peru, to come to their house and disembark with the family since it is so dangerous in Iquitos.So we all got off and headed to their house, which is like a three minute walk from the dock - which is no dock.When we were trying to dock on the mud bank, our boat pushed over several other boats to squeeze in, so we could walk off.So we headed into their house so we could put down our stuff and figure out where we would stay while we in Iquitos and everything else....
The family offered to let all of us stay in their house, and the tempting idea of free housing, won us all over and everyone agreed.Afterwards, Jomer took us to his molina ( a little farm) where they keep chickens, a goat, sheep, and some dogs and cats - and tons of rice and wheat. They were incredibly hospitable and made us a corn drink for dinner and let us all shower when we got back to the house.There was no running water however, and we all took turnings standing in a bathroom and pouring a bucket of water over our heads.Pretty funny, considering the fact that backpackers pride themselves on roughing it, and none of us wanted to spend more than one night roughing it in the house with the family. We were definitely very happy that they wanted to help us out and do so much for us, but the downstairs of their three story loft house, was filled with cockroaches and mice, and after one night of sleeping on the floor, we all wanted a bed and running water. So the next morning, we had an egg drink breakfast with them and told them we felt like we should get a hostel - we got our stuff and left. (We took most of the family out that night to a very nice and very Peruvian dinner later that night to thank them for their generous hospitality).----Im leaving out a part here; where we went out that night and the three boys came back later than the rest of us, and they knocked on the door but no one answered so they couldn`t get in.Ryan, Yair, and Dennis headed to a hostel to try to sleep there - a two dollar hostel. From what I`ve heard it was unbelievably disgusting. And while Ryan, the great sleeper he is, fell asleep, the other two did not.The rooms were all connected, so they heard coughing, babies crying, and a couple having sex.The walls were covered in every color of liquid imaginable. And eventually the boys returned in the early morning hours to try and get some sleep at the house. Luckily someone was awake and let them in.
Either way, we all moved to Hostal Maflo the next morning, to take hot showers and be in near the city center. Iquitos is quite a large city, even though there are barely any cars - only motorcycles and mototaxis.Since Dennis was pressured for time - he has a flight out of lima on Oct 23 and he wanted to do the jungle, lima, and cuzco, before he left- there was a lot of pressure to figure out the jungle tour and buy flights from Iquitos to Lima that day.
Ryan and Yair, as the good little soldiers they are found a travel company and figured out everything that day. The next morning we would leave at 8 in the morning for a three day, two night jungle adventure, getting back to Iquitos Friday night and we all bought flights to Lima, leaving Sunday day.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Never Arriving....
So I am now in Peru. Yes, Ryan and I initially had plans to do much more in Ecuador, and after we left Montañita we were headed down the outlined path. The original plan was to continue heading south. Ryan and I would meet up in Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador, because Ryan had left a day earlier than me to stay at Kahyda´s house (the woman from couchsurfing). Ryan left and I came the day after with the Israelis- Yair and Ory. We met up in the bus terminal of Guayaquil with Dennis - the tallest Dutch man I have ever seen - to say our goodbyes. The boys were going to head into Tumbes, Peru, a border town, because they wanted to go to Iquitos and do a jungle tour. So we said goodbye and Ryan and I stayed a night with Kahyda, a very sweet Ecuadorian who housed; me, Ryan, an older man from trabajadores por la paz, a Swedish woman, and the French Canadian, Veronica.
Guayaquil definitely felt like a big city. The buildings were taller and much more modern and the whole city felt like it was being built up. The next day we all went out and walked around the Malecon 2000, a long strip of playgrounds and little gardens, it also has some restaurants and a new IMAX theater. Its basically a boardwalk that was built in the year 2000 and is maintained and kept clean. We walked past the boardwalk and headed into an area called las peñas, so we could climb the stairs to the light tower that overlooks all of Guayaquil. The houses that outline the stairs are European in style and are all painted in bright colors. The houses, though, are facades. Behind arch ways and little streets, there are dirt roads, trash filled streets, hungry dogs, and filthy children running around. Ryan and I met a girl who was carrying a five month old baby - she was sixteen years old.She told us she had the baby at fifteen and there was definitely no sign of a father, since she was asking persistently for Ryan´s phone number so they could go out together. It was pretty scary to realize how run down the whole area was since it looked so pristine on the outside. Ryan gave her his number but we never heard from her...
After the light tower, Ryan and I raced back to Kahyda´s house so we could catch the bus to Cuenca, a very quaint and colonial little town on our way to Vilcabamba. Since we took the bus at night, we didn´t get into to our hostel until 2am, so we slept in and woke up the next morning for a late breakfast. It was the Friday before the election in Ecuador and they told us that starting at noon on Friday and lasting through Sunday, the day of the election, Ecuador was a completely dry country. Because of the vote, no one can sell or buy alcohol for the entire weekend. Apparently, Ecuador wants to make sure that sober minds are making the right decision. Well I hope they did. Vota si.
After lunch Ryan and walked around the town a bit - cobble stone streets and a beautiful river right near our hostel, with a woman washing her clothes. Ryan tried to talk to her and she called him the anti-christ. Some locals are more friendly than others... As we were debating about renting the bikes for the afternoon, Ryan offered that since we missed our little traveling band so much, that we could just go meet the boys; Ory, Yair, and Dennis, in Tumbes and go with them to the jungle and we could come back to Ecuador after to do the farm in Vilcabamba. Immediately we got online to figure out where they were and luckily they were still in Tumbes, since Yair had gotten sick and needed time to recover. So that night Ryan and I hopped on a five hour bus to Machala and in Machala we got a bus that took us across the border and into Tumbes.
Peru-
Border crossing was easy, which was great since all the tour books had said that we should not cross at night. We got off the bus in Ecuador so they could look at our passport and then 20 minutes later we got off in Peru, so they could stamp our passports. Pretty simple. Eventually at 2am we arrived at the hostel of the boys and woke them up so we could drink a little and figure out plans for heading towards the jungle.
Here starts the never ending bus tour that we have been on for about a week now. Since Guayaquil we have not spent more than one night in any place and twice we did overnight buses, so we didn´t stay anywhere.But Im skipping ahead so here goes...
We got into Tumbes late and woke up early to head to Chiclayo, a bigger city, because people had told us that we could catch a bus from there to Cajamarca to take a boat to get to Iquitos to head into the jungle. So stupid as we were, we believed whoever told us this information and we hopped on a 6 hour bus to Chiclayo. We had an enormous amount of land to cover before getting to Iquitos, where the basin to the Amazon is, so we wanted to cover as much as possible, as fast as possible. We got to Chiclayo in the evening and hopped on another 7 hour bus to Cajamarca. The buses aren´t normally comfortable, the seats recline pretty far back and they usually play a movie, and no one has had anything stolen. They seem safe enough and with the windows open, each ride has been pretty maneagable. And for Ryan they are a breeze, since the second he gets on any bus his mouth opens and his head falls back, and he is in a deep sleep for the whole ride. I haven´t seen Ryan awake for more than one bus trip yet...
So we arrived in Cajamarca, a tiny town, and when we got off the bus at 6 in the morning and asked one of the taxi drivers to take us to the boat- there was an uproar of laughter from all of the locals. Apparently, there were no boats in Cajamarca and we could not even take another route to get to Tarapoto, where we could get to Yurimaguas to get the boat. So we realized we had no option other than to turn back. So we slept the morning in a hostel and then spent the afternoon meandering around the small town trying to figure out exactly how we would get to the jungle. So the next morning we got up to take the 9am bus to go back to Chiclayo, which of course didnt exist. Instead we took the one at 10:30 and got into Chiclayo at 6 at night. The buses seem to always take longer than they actually say. So when we arrived we found a 13 hour bus that would take us to Tarapoto, so we hopped on that at 6:30 and headed to Tarapoto, another small town, full of mototaxis and motorcyles - no one wears helmuts and kids dangle on the bikes with their parents. Super unsafe.
When we got to Tarapoto the next morning, Ryan had somehow contracted what Yair had been sick with, so we knew we couldnt go on to Yurimaguas, which is only 3 hours away. So we got a hostel, so Ryan could relax and sleep and try to get better. Throughout the day his fever went down and his stomach started to feel somewhat better, so it was decided that the next day we would forge on and head to Yurimaguas.
So here´s the deal with getting to Yurimaguas. For the past two years they have been doing construction on the one road that connects the two cities. It used to take about 6 and half hours to get from one to the other because the roads were unpaved and extremely dangerous. It goes through a mountain range, so it is basically a canyon for a majority of the journey. But now since they are doing construction, the roads are closed during the day. There are buses that leave at 3 and 4 in the morning, but we all wanted to sleep in a bed, so we figured we would take a bus at 5 in the evening when the roads opened up again. So at 3:30 in the afternoon we all got into these mototaxis and told them to take us to the bus terminal that goes to Yurimaguas. But little did we know, there are no buses that leave in the evening- only pick up trucks. So as our mototaxis dropped us off near the end of the town of Tarapoto, about ten men swarmed us, yelling numbers and pulling our bags to get us to go in their truck. Finally we decided on one and they told us that it leaves at 5. Ryan and I were going to sit inside the truck next to the driver, there was an Ecuadorian family and another woman in the back, and the boys sat under a tarp - it was raining- in the bed of the
truck- either sitting on the floor, standing and holding on, or sitting on a little bench.
At 5 we left and about 20 minutes into our drive we got behind all the other trucks stopped at a point where everyone waits until 7pm and the police open the roads. I hopped out and sat in the back with the boys while we waited. There were no other gringos doing this treck.All the locals, who were piled sitting, standing, and crunched in their trucks stared and looked at us.We were definitely a sight for them. Me and Ryan, two Israelis - one of which is blonde and a bit Fabio-esque, and Dennis - a 2 meter tall blonde Ducth guy.
So we passed the time hunched over in the tarp, listening to music, dancing for some of the locals, and waiting for the road to open.We were lucky by the way - no other truck put tarp over any of the passengers in the back or over any of the luggage - I guess the locals know how to treat us gringos.....
Eventually at 7, the line of cars began to move and I decided to stay in the back with the boys for the three hour ride. In the beginning it was frightening. It was raining and the driver drove fast. With the tarp over us, we could only see the slick road descending behind us and occassionally the lights of a passing car. The road was windy and narrow and it felt like a roller coaster ride, where you question the security of your life. But the rain began to let up and the ride seemed to smooth a bit. We passed through the areas where they were doing construction and I peeked through a whole in the tarp- it was almost like something out of a movie scene. The mountains were covered in fog and the clouds seemed to hang like they were placed there by some creepy director.The trees jutted out at us we passed and I tried to figure out what horror flick I was in.
After an hour or so, we got to the area where the road ended and we drove along the bumpy and diveted dirt roads.The rain had let up enough so we took off the tarp and stood in the back facing the head of the car. Its an amazing rush.Ive never felt anything like it. Its completely dark except for the headlights and the road ahead and the air just sweeps you along. There was tons of vegetation and greenery- we were getting closer to the jungle .
We picked up some more passengers for the back, and two of them were locals from Yurimaguas that said they would help us get a hostel and take us out. So we arrived last night and the locals took us out for some drinks.
Today we figured out what boat we are going to get on: Eduardo 4. It leaves this Saturday and we spend 3 nights on the boat. We bought hammocks today because you sleep outside on them and hopefully it wont be too grimy. Although Im sure all of us without showers for three days will be grimy and disgusting either way. So we leave Saturday and we will get to Iquitos, and from Iquitos we will take some kind of jungle tour. So we are almost there!
Its been a long week and a lot of bus rides. And Im looking forward to heading to Lima after the jungle so we can spend substantial amount of time in one city and I dont have to pack up my pack every morning. But that might be a long way off. Hope all is well with everyone. I´m thinking of you all.
xoxoxoxox
Guayaquil definitely felt like a big city. The buildings were taller and much more modern and the whole city felt like it was being built up. The next day we all went out and walked around the Malecon 2000, a long strip of playgrounds and little gardens, it also has some restaurants and a new IMAX theater. Its basically a boardwalk that was built in the year 2000 and is maintained and kept clean. We walked past the boardwalk and headed into an area called las peñas, so we could climb the stairs to the light tower that overlooks all of Guayaquil. The houses that outline the stairs are European in style and are all painted in bright colors. The houses, though, are facades. Behind arch ways and little streets, there are dirt roads, trash filled streets, hungry dogs, and filthy children running around. Ryan and I met a girl who was carrying a five month old baby - she was sixteen years old.She told us she had the baby at fifteen and there was definitely no sign of a father, since she was asking persistently for Ryan´s phone number so they could go out together. It was pretty scary to realize how run down the whole area was since it looked so pristine on the outside. Ryan gave her his number but we never heard from her...
After the light tower, Ryan and I raced back to Kahyda´s house so we could catch the bus to Cuenca, a very quaint and colonial little town on our way to Vilcabamba. Since we took the bus at night, we didn´t get into to our hostel until 2am, so we slept in and woke up the next morning for a late breakfast. It was the Friday before the election in Ecuador and they told us that starting at noon on Friday and lasting through Sunday, the day of the election, Ecuador was a completely dry country. Because of the vote, no one can sell or buy alcohol for the entire weekend. Apparently, Ecuador wants to make sure that sober minds are making the right decision. Well I hope they did. Vota si.
After lunch Ryan and walked around the town a bit - cobble stone streets and a beautiful river right near our hostel, with a woman washing her clothes. Ryan tried to talk to her and she called him the anti-christ. Some locals are more friendly than others... As we were debating about renting the bikes for the afternoon, Ryan offered that since we missed our little traveling band so much, that we could just go meet the boys; Ory, Yair, and Dennis, in Tumbes and go with them to the jungle and we could come back to Ecuador after to do the farm in Vilcabamba. Immediately we got online to figure out where they were and luckily they were still in Tumbes, since Yair had gotten sick and needed time to recover. So that night Ryan and I hopped on a five hour bus to Machala and in Machala we got a bus that took us across the border and into Tumbes.
Peru-
Border crossing was easy, which was great since all the tour books had said that we should not cross at night. We got off the bus in Ecuador so they could look at our passport and then 20 minutes later we got off in Peru, so they could stamp our passports. Pretty simple. Eventually at 2am we arrived at the hostel of the boys and woke them up so we could drink a little and figure out plans for heading towards the jungle.
Here starts the never ending bus tour that we have been on for about a week now. Since Guayaquil we have not spent more than one night in any place and twice we did overnight buses, so we didn´t stay anywhere.But Im skipping ahead so here goes...
We got into Tumbes late and woke up early to head to Chiclayo, a bigger city, because people had told us that we could catch a bus from there to Cajamarca to take a boat to get to Iquitos to head into the jungle. So stupid as we were, we believed whoever told us this information and we hopped on a 6 hour bus to Chiclayo. We had an enormous amount of land to cover before getting to Iquitos, where the basin to the Amazon is, so we wanted to cover as much as possible, as fast as possible. We got to Chiclayo in the evening and hopped on another 7 hour bus to Cajamarca. The buses aren´t normally comfortable, the seats recline pretty far back and they usually play a movie, and no one has had anything stolen. They seem safe enough and with the windows open, each ride has been pretty maneagable. And for Ryan they are a breeze, since the second he gets on any bus his mouth opens and his head falls back, and he is in a deep sleep for the whole ride. I haven´t seen Ryan awake for more than one bus trip yet...
So we arrived in Cajamarca, a tiny town, and when we got off the bus at 6 in the morning and asked one of the taxi drivers to take us to the boat- there was an uproar of laughter from all of the locals. Apparently, there were no boats in Cajamarca and we could not even take another route to get to Tarapoto, where we could get to Yurimaguas to get the boat. So we realized we had no option other than to turn back. So we slept the morning in a hostel and then spent the afternoon meandering around the small town trying to figure out exactly how we would get to the jungle. So the next morning we got up to take the 9am bus to go back to Chiclayo, which of course didnt exist. Instead we took the one at 10:30 and got into Chiclayo at 6 at night. The buses seem to always take longer than they actually say. So when we arrived we found a 13 hour bus that would take us to Tarapoto, so we hopped on that at 6:30 and headed to Tarapoto, another small town, full of mototaxis and motorcyles - no one wears helmuts and kids dangle on the bikes with their parents. Super unsafe.
When we got to Tarapoto the next morning, Ryan had somehow contracted what Yair had been sick with, so we knew we couldnt go on to Yurimaguas, which is only 3 hours away. So we got a hostel, so Ryan could relax and sleep and try to get better. Throughout the day his fever went down and his stomach started to feel somewhat better, so it was decided that the next day we would forge on and head to Yurimaguas.
So here´s the deal with getting to Yurimaguas. For the past two years they have been doing construction on the one road that connects the two cities. It used to take about 6 and half hours to get from one to the other because the roads were unpaved and extremely dangerous. It goes through a mountain range, so it is basically a canyon for a majority of the journey. But now since they are doing construction, the roads are closed during the day. There are buses that leave at 3 and 4 in the morning, but we all wanted to sleep in a bed, so we figured we would take a bus at 5 in the evening when the roads opened up again. So at 3:30 in the afternoon we all got into these mototaxis and told them to take us to the bus terminal that goes to Yurimaguas. But little did we know, there are no buses that leave in the evening- only pick up trucks. So as our mototaxis dropped us off near the end of the town of Tarapoto, about ten men swarmed us, yelling numbers and pulling our bags to get us to go in their truck. Finally we decided on one and they told us that it leaves at 5. Ryan and I were going to sit inside the truck next to the driver, there was an Ecuadorian family and another woman in the back, and the boys sat under a tarp - it was raining- in the bed of the
truck- either sitting on the floor, standing and holding on, or sitting on a little bench.
At 5 we left and about 20 minutes into our drive we got behind all the other trucks stopped at a point where everyone waits until 7pm and the police open the roads. I hopped out and sat in the back with the boys while we waited. There were no other gringos doing this treck.All the locals, who were piled sitting, standing, and crunched in their trucks stared and looked at us.We were definitely a sight for them. Me and Ryan, two Israelis - one of which is blonde and a bit Fabio-esque, and Dennis - a 2 meter tall blonde Ducth guy.
So we passed the time hunched over in the tarp, listening to music, dancing for some of the locals, and waiting for the road to open.We were lucky by the way - no other truck put tarp over any of the passengers in the back or over any of the luggage - I guess the locals know how to treat us gringos.....
Eventually at 7, the line of cars began to move and I decided to stay in the back with the boys for the three hour ride. In the beginning it was frightening. It was raining and the driver drove fast. With the tarp over us, we could only see the slick road descending behind us and occassionally the lights of a passing car. The road was windy and narrow and it felt like a roller coaster ride, where you question the security of your life. But the rain began to let up and the ride seemed to smooth a bit. We passed through the areas where they were doing construction and I peeked through a whole in the tarp- it was almost like something out of a movie scene. The mountains were covered in fog and the clouds seemed to hang like they were placed there by some creepy director.The trees jutted out at us we passed and I tried to figure out what horror flick I was in.
After an hour or so, we got to the area where the road ended and we drove along the bumpy and diveted dirt roads.The rain had let up enough so we took off the tarp and stood in the back facing the head of the car. Its an amazing rush.Ive never felt anything like it. Its completely dark except for the headlights and the road ahead and the air just sweeps you along. There was tons of vegetation and greenery- we were getting closer to the jungle .
We picked up some more passengers for the back, and two of them were locals from Yurimaguas that said they would help us get a hostel and take us out. So we arrived last night and the locals took us out for some drinks.
Today we figured out what boat we are going to get on: Eduardo 4. It leaves this Saturday and we spend 3 nights on the boat. We bought hammocks today because you sleep outside on them and hopefully it wont be too grimy. Although Im sure all of us without showers for three days will be grimy and disgusting either way. So we leave Saturday and we will get to Iquitos, and from Iquitos we will take some kind of jungle tour. So we are almost there!
Its been a long week and a lot of bus rides. And Im looking forward to heading to Lima after the jungle so we can spend substantial amount of time in one city and I dont have to pack up my pack every morning. But that might be a long way off. Hope all is well with everyone. I´m thinking of you all.
xoxoxoxox
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