Looking for Amazons to shoot down mosquitoes...

Looking for Amazons to shoot down mosquitoes…

Amazons, the women warriors that gave their name to the South American selva, used to cut off their right breast in order to shoot more effectively with their bows. Fortunately times have changed and breathtaking Amazonia can be appreciated in one piece…

The seven day boat trip from Yurimaguas to Iquitos in Peru would make even mister Osho leave meditation aside and start gambling. Patience won’t help. Tune yourself in the paranoiac unpredictability of the experience-it is the only way out!

I booked my ticket from the port (around 20 dollars, food included). Hammock would be my best companion for the next week so I didn’t hesitate to buy a good one. Local ships offer no chairs and in high season they are stuffed so much that it takes just a small push to start a domino hammock-bounce from one side of the deck to the other.

Every two to three hours the ship stops in little, remote villages while in between lies the startling tropical canvas where green brush strokes struggle with brown ones. During rainy season (November-April) the ship closely resembles Noah‘s Arc as locals travel accompanied by their pets: pigs, chicken, parrots, monkeys and more…

Some cock-a-doodle-do’s while an Indian pulls off a chicken’s feather to use it as a toothpick. A bull unwilling to get on board, a boy walking with a baby monkey hanging from his hair tuff. The bell rings - time for food: rice and vegetables for dinner, rice and fish for lunch, and for breakfast… rice pudding. Bringing your own stuff is definitely a good idea unless you are a rice addict. Bringing some mosquito repellent and a mosquito net is also crucial (once I counted 117 mosquito bites on my right ankle!).

The captain said it will take six days to reach the destination. But by then I knew: asking ten locals about the exact arrival time to Iquitos would probably lead to ten different answers… or maybe more. I let go of worries, sunk in my hummock, lit a cigarette. After all adventure lies more in the journey than the destination itself…