Let me start of by saying this is going to be long, very descriptive and I’m likely to ramble. Don’t feel like you have to read it all! Despite that, there are no words nor description to justify the incredible 5 days we experienced while in the Amazon. An example of this is as I’m writing a journal, at one point I wrote ‘after lunch we just chilled for a bit’ I had to stop my self in my tracks as I realised that ‘just chilling’ actually meant sitting in a traditional canoe carved from a tree trunk holding a fishing rod (in an occasionally successful attempt to catch a pirranah ) overlooking the river at an 100m high rainforest canopy with a plethora of exotic birds and butterflies you only thought existed in cartoons flying by with an occasional pink Amazon River dolphin coming to the surface listening to the deep call of howler monkeys in the background as well the the beautiful calls of the exotic birds. And when experiencing that becomes ‘just chilling’ you know the stuff your doing when you’re not ‘just chilling’ is the real deal. pink Amazon River dolphin coming to the surface listening to the deep call of howler monkeys in the background as well the the beautiful calls of the exotic birds. And when experiencing that becomes ‘just chilling’ you know the stuff your doing when you’re not ‘just chilling’ is the real deal.
Day 1: day 1 we got picked up from our hotel in Iquitos at 7:30 by Titto. We had half the previous day and a whole day after the Amazon tour in Iquitos. Iquitos is a ‘city’ bordering the Ita river, an off shoot of the Amazon. Tuk Tuks dominate the streets and crossing the road is always slightly risky. It’s only a small city but has a very high population which calls for very poor living standards. at one point while we were shopping for a few things we needed for the Amazon and we took a few wrong turns and ended up in the ‘slums’ , there were children sitting on the dirt embedded roads and we had to hold our breath as the smell was not very forthcoming. This road however lead down the the community that lives right on the foreshore of the river in little ramshackle houses in which I question the design of some of the corrugated iron roofing taking into account how much it rains here! While I knew that at some stage we would be observing this way of life which seems so foreign to us it was still provoking to see, and as I’ll probably say hundreds of times on this blog during this trip it further made me value everything we have at home and the freedom we have and the opportunity it provides. In saying that though I realised that in day to day life these people appear to have far more freedoms then what we have at home. For example they can speed and overtake without much questioning (I’ll get to the interesting drives we experienced) and by the looks of it if they want to build a house it doesn’t require going through council regulations and all that ordeal and you often see a whole family squished onto one motorbike. However that is in daily life, in the big picture while they seem to have this unregulated freedom and lack of structure imposed by government authorities that we are so used to, they have no real freedom in that leaving their city and experiencing the world outside is not a common viable option. It takes 5 days by boat to get to Lima from Iquitos and many cannot afford the air fare and this renders these people stuck. As I said before there are so many tuk tuks everywhere, only driven by men, that I don’t understand how any of them make a profit (we caught a tuk tuk from our hostel to the airport which was about 25 mins and it cost the equivalent of $8). These men must drive there tuk tuks around the city every day of there lives in the hope to make a profit and this is probably the livelihood they were destined to since birth. As Iquitos is very un-touristy we got a lot of looks and turned a few heads during our time there. Everything is also extremely cheap! Overall, I really enjoyed Iquitos and thought it was a very interesting place with a lot of culture. the foreshore which overlooks the river and jungle is extremely beautiful and we spent a fair bit of time on that stretch 🙂
Wow, Ok, i got a bit carried away-now I’ll actually talk about the Amazon!
- Day 1: we got picked up at 7:30 from our hotel and drove to Nauta , a town 3 hours away, it is very similar to Iquitos however much less developed. The people there seem a bit bored and lost as to what to do with themselves. The drive was beautiful, everything was so green with little villages dotted along the road. The driver was a bit nuts and went about 130km/hr the whole way and overtook constantly. There were a few overtakes in which I felt praying was my only option. They told us it would take 3 hours to get there but we got there in 1.5. As soon as we got into nauta We got pulled over by a police on a motorbike and the driver was really pissed off, when we asked what happened they explaoned that this cop always pulls the driver over as apparently he’s not allowed a car on the certain road we were on , but that’s actually complete bullshit. Tito then said because it’s close to Christmas he’s probably making up rules for bribery money. Nothing like some good police corruption! We had a quick look around nauta and got some super cheap food then Got on our boat. the boat was a 30ish ft wooden river boat with a roof made of straw. it had a little outboard motor on it that would take us up the amazon to Pacaya Samiria reserve. we met our boat driver who would spend the rest of the trip with us, he was super friendly and reminded me of a good day labrador , always happy but a bit lazy! We made our way up the Amazon to the village we were staying at called Buenos Aires ( I think they think there being funny!) Which took 3 hours. I read my book most of the way and let me tell you, sitting on the front of the river boat reading a book occasionally glancing up to see villiages dotted along the shore which children playing on the banks of the Amazon River is not a bad way to spend a Wednesday afternoon! The further we went the less villiages there were but the remoteness and apparant disconnection of these peoples lives still amazed me! We made it to the village and met our native guide Reuben and chef Mary who both lived in the village. We quickly got our selves sorted in the hut we were staying in, which was a traditional hut with hammocks overlooking the Pacaya Samiria tributary, we had nozzle nets and Jayden said he felt like a ‘pretty pretty princess’. While lunch was being prepared we went for a walk with Reuben, within 20m of our hut he looked at a tree did some sniffing around and staright away found a giant tarantula. It was huge and so cool. Knowing a spider the size of half your arm is 20m away from where you’ll be sleeping is a bit off putting though! We continued our walk and Reuben pointed out a whole range of trees, insects, spiders, flowers and different natural medicines from the trees etc. As I’m writing this after the whole trip in hindsight that was just a quick walk along a path, but at the time I remember being amazed! Goes to show how much we did during the next 4 days 🙂 we went back for lunch, which btw our food was so good. Mary knew how to cook a mean chicken and fish and made really good salads using local ingredients from the village and rainforest. If I had more time I would go into detail about every meal but I also don’t want to bore you all! After lunch we jumped in the canoe with Reuben and went to a marshland area where there were hundreds of birds and it was breathtakingly beautiful. In the way there Reuben thought he saw a sloth and was pretty adamant about it seeing as he super casually cut down 2 pretty big trees in an attempt to see it. We didn’t end up seeing it but we tried! We also went to a place where later reuben said he had seen an anaconda there. While we were on the canoe aswell reuben would point out various wildlife and there would always be many birds and butterflies and dolphins surfacing to catch your attention.We went back to the village, had dinner then walked over to the next village with Reuben, btw I forgot to mention before that you don’t go into the jungle without a machete so on every walk reuben would always casually be holding a machete and knocking things down as we went in a way that made it look extremely effortless. When we got the the next village we sat down in what seemed to be the communal lounge room. People would come and go as a movie played. A TV in the middle of the Amazon in a little village did seem a bit out of place but I guess there aren’t many people left without them! There were these 2 little girls watching the TV who kept on smiling at me, I tried to ask them what there names where but due to the language barrier we couldn’t really communicate other than smile at eachother. they were really cute! we then walked back to the villiage we were staying at and went to bed. Day 2: woke up to a wonderful view of the village overlooking the gorgeous amazon canopy. Had breakfast, Jayden had a swim. For on the boat and set off for about 2 hours down the river to our camping spot.
Day 2: In the morning we got up and had breakfast and Jayden went for a swim in the river. While we were packing our thing Reuben casually came in holding a bird he just caught as he wanted to show us. His stealth and speed to catch animals is crazy! I can just imagine Reuben as a little boy – he still has this cheeky grin on his face, going around trying to find anything to catch and take home to show his parents. He has such a passion for the wildlife and nature which surrounds him and is constantly so aware and looking for anything out of the ordinary. After breakfast we set off on the river boat, with the canoe tied to it to down the river to our camping spot. We set our campsite up, well Jayden and I sat and watched in admiration as they so effortlessly set everything up using vines and sticks to hold things up and tie things. reuben went to a tree and scraped of a piece of bark then peeled it into thin strips to use as string. They made a table put of sticks and Mary made a fire in about 3 seconds, Jayden said ‘that would of taken me about an hour and a shit load of swearing to do’. We then went for a walk with Reuben put the back of our camp site. We saw a two toucans and heaps of other cool things. When I say we went for a walk, it really means Reuben using his machete to chop a path in front of us while we observe the incredible trees everywhere that have crazy root systems and branches. There is the constant sound of birds calling and reuben pointing out random insects, I feel like I’m not doing anything justice by simply saying ‘we went for a walk’. When walking back it started absolutely bucketing and we got drenched, when we got back seeing as we were already soaked we went for a swim. We swam out to the middle of the river- it was one of those life moments that you’ll never forget, it was raining cats and dogs, we were in the middle of the river surrounded by the rainforest with our campsite behind us and the sun shining through the trees and rain. A dolphin surfaced near us which scared the bjeesus put of me! We then had lunch and then hopped on the canoe with Reuben and Tito and we paddled down a little offshoot stream. On this little paddle the prominent things we saw where squirrel monkeys and otters as well as the usual dolphins, birds, butterflies etc. The squirrel monkeys live in packs of 32 and they were going somewhere so we watched them all follow one another while swinging from branch to branch-they sure know how to jump and grab on to trees! It was incredible to see monkeys in the wild and have the freedom of the whole Amazon. We then rounded a corner to have a herd (I don’t know what the collective for otters is) of otters start snorting at us. They are funny things and their heads go up and down in the water like a jack in the box. I remember doing a school project in I think year 3 all about otters and I learnt about their extensive nest network and it was so cool to see it in the wild in real life. I would guess there would’ve been about 50 otters that came out to see what was happening. There is nothing like rounding a corner and having a nest of otters start barking/snorting at you! We continued down this little stream until we came to a place I thought we could go no more, but no, with a machete you can do anything! Reuben singlehandedly cut down half the Amazon for us , it took about 10 minutes to move 20m as the footage was so thick to cut down. Going to a place where I don’t think a human has been for over 50 years judging by the amount of growth was really cool. We eventually came to a little opening where we stopped and fished. We caught a few pirhanas and sardines. Reuben and Titto catch about triple the amount we do- I don’t know how but I guess years of experience and batural talent help! we eventually turned back which was a lot quicker as the path was already cut. Let me tell you though, lying down on a canoe staring up at the rainforest and listening to the sounds of the wildlife while watching people paddle for you is very sleep inducing! I was struggling to stay awake. We then went into the middle of a ‘lake’ bit right near our campsite where 3 different branches of the river meet , the sun was setting and it was getting dark and Tito and Reuben were telling us some folklore stories. It was another moment I’ll never forget! We then went back and had dinner and talked for a while then went to bed.
Day 3: we woke up and had breakfast then set off upstream until we could go no further on the canoe so we got off and walked. Oh and on the way we saw a group of little black monkeys I can’t remember the name of! They were very cute 🙂 We found a palm tree and Reuben started chopping it down and the Jayden finished cutting it until it fell. then Reuben showed us how to cut off the heart of a palm, we tried some and then took the rest back with us to camp and had it with our salad for lunch. I love learning how these people live of the land and use the resources that are directly accessible to them to survive. on the way back we walked with Reuben while Titto took the canoe to the next turn to pick us up. We went back for lunch and chilled at the campsite for a bit then went out the back of camp and learnt jungle survival skills. They taught us how to make a trap to catch small mammals. It was quite the engineering feat when you have to chop down a tree, use vines as rope and make a cage out of sticks. They then cleared an area for us to practise shooting a bow and arrow. We made the bow from a certain type of branch with just the correct amount of flexibility and the arrow from a stick we sharpened. I sucked at shooting the bow and arrow but I took it back to camp and practised and got better! They also made me a headband from vines and leaves and a hula skirt form a palm tree branch. we also learnt how to make a mattress from weaving together two palm tree branches. It was super interesting to see how they utilise the natural resources to make functional equipment. It was super fun as well and we all laughed and had a most jolly time! he headed back to camp and chilled until dinner. After dinner we went for a night time canoe and saw heaps of frogs which Reuben used his stealthy skills to catch (we have decided he is God) , Jayden managed to catch a dwarf caymen and Reuben caught a full size Caymen which we put in the bottom of the canoe and took it back to camp with us. I did feel a bit sorry for it but it was cool to look at it properly and take photos of it in the morning. The night canoe was even more sleep inducing then the day! We meet back to camp and went to bed.
Day 4: when we got up we had breakfast then took photos and examined the caymen. It was really cool. I was holding it and then it nearly bit by nose off so I dropped it and it started running away then Jayden managed to grab it before it went into the water. He was very proud of himself!! we then went fishing for the morning, due to being impatient I gave up early on and had a bit of a map on the canoe. I eventually caught a pirhana though! In the afternoon we headed up stream and download a different off shoot until we came across a really cool looking tree that marked the start of a path to a giant tree. However we heard the deep call of howler monkeys as we were walking and we followed the calls until we were able to see them. You would think that there were at least 50monkeys making the noise as it’s so loud but there’s only 4 and the male makes a super deep sound with his throat which blows up like a balloon. It was so cool to see them and we were so fortunate we were able to! We then continued walking to a incredibly beautiful marshland area that was so gorgeous it made the insides flip. We sat on a tree trunk that went out into the middle of the marshland area and sat and took the view in. It is definitely up there with the most beautiful places I’ve ever been! We then stopped at a absolutely giant tree on our way back, it was massive, the circumference of the tree at the bottom is about 40m. There was a really cool swing made of vines so we pretended we were tarzan and had fun swinging of the tree. I definitely felt dwarfed by the tree! We then floated down the river on the canoe and saw some more otters on the way. When we got back dinner was ready and then Jayden and I started a deep philosophical conversation that went for many hours until we fell asleep!!
Day 5: we woke up super early and went spear fishing with Reuben. He taught us how to throw a spear , Jayden got the hang of it but mine kept on going horizontal! We then went back and had breakfast and headed back to the village on the canoe with Reuben while the others packed up camp and would come later on the river boat. We both had a turn at driving the canoe down the river, I drove for quite a while. Having been raised around boats driving a traditional canoe down an offshoot of the Amazon river river was so much fun and made me feel proud of myself! It was not a thing on my bucket list until I did it, and then I obviously was able to tick it straight off! We went passed the village and took the canoe into a lake area and went for a little walk. We saw a really cool tree with heaps of roots and vines and climbed it! It was super pretty walk and the lake had heaps of dolphins in it. We went back to the village and had a swim while lunch was being prepared. We sat in a raft after our swim overlooking the river and rainforest with the village to our right watching the village and the kids go about the daily lives. It was a perfect moment to say a goodbye to Pacaya Samiria reserve and be grateful for everything it showed us. We had lunch then played with Reubens daughter and nephew on a tree. They were super cute and such strong, healthy kids. Jayden was being Jayden and was hanging upside down on the tree and then would land on his head and the kids being kids would copy him. So now if there is a village of kids with head damage blame Jayden. we went for a walk through the village, I made good friends with a super cute dog that I wanted to take home. Titto pointed out all the plants and crops the villages grow for eating and various medications. Observing villiages life is something I’ll never forget, it makes you value the strength of community and realise the unnecessary desires of so many. The people are so happy, healthy and generous. One thing that really touched me is Reubens nephew who had an elastic band that seemed to be his favourite toy. We would shoot it, strech it , tie it up – there’s so many things an elastic band can do with a little imagination! Anyway he kept on trying to give me his elastic band, I would take it and say gracias but as I’m sure the elastic band gave him far more joy then it did me I would give it back and then he would continue giving it to me. Having worked with a lot of children I don’t think there are many that would so generously want to give or even share a toy with others even though these kids have hundreds of other toys to play with, yet this boy Max, who only had a simple elastic band and not much else so wanted me to accept his elastic band as a sign of gratitude for playing with him. We then went to the village bar which overlooked the villages soccer pitch which was surrounded by huts, one a school and others with different purposes to serve. we bought beers for both guides, the chef and driver and sat drinking a beer overlooking the village. I think it is my favorite place I’ve ever had a beer! Once we were all slightly tipsy we got in the boat, said our goodbyes to reuben and Mary and set off back to Nauta. We made it back then got a tuk tuk to the ‘bus station’ (aka: a patch of dirt) and hopped in a car in which we both questioned the likelihood of it making it back to Iquitos. I was scared of leaning on the door as it might fall off, don’t think they quite have the same pink slip standards as we have at home! We drove for 3 hours back to Iquitos found a cheapish hostel and had a much needed shower and got wifi (I will admit I did miss internet!!) And went to bed 🙂
Being in the Amazon forces you to keep all 5 senses alert at all times, Reuben would often stop as he saw something and I would stop and think did he hear something, smell something, see something?? He would point to whatever sense he was using and I would then notice whatever it was, I still have no idea how he is able to constantly be aware of everything around him- And in the Amazon everything is a lot! Being constantly surrounded by nature, possibly at it’s most dense and rich, for 5 days without seeing another person apart from the 5 other people you are with is definitely a humbling experience. You begin to feel dwarfed by nature and all its beauty and it gives you a a peaceful sense of insignificance in a world that is so easy to become so self centered.
Adventures not things 