The jungle through your palate

Traveling through the Peruvian jungle is not easy. There is no proper tourist infrastructure. You can never actually tell when a boat will be leaving, what kind of boat will it be, when or where will you be getting to.
But that's part of the fun. Especially if, like me, you're a bit of an anti-tourist.

There are more than 75 different languages spoken by indigenous communities in the area. Though most of them do speak Spanish, the best way to communicate and share is through their delicious food.
The local’s eyes will light up while describing the best “Tacachos”, “Juanes”, “Patarashcas”. And after 7 or 8 hours of picking up pigs and chickens and bananas while trying to find a comfortable position on top of the empty oil buckets. All you want to do is jump off on the next town and try them.

You will usually see the ladies setting up their barbeques before the sun goes down in the street.
Two of my favourite delicacies on the grill:
Tacachos: Green bananas, skin and all, that after the first grill are peeled, then grilled a bit more to create some burnt parts and then mashed in a big stone mixed with salt and oil. Finally this sticky though is turned into a ball and voilà (US $1.50).

Majás: Big stakes of a large wild rodent, it can weight as much as 12 kg (US $2.50).
I remember a cook, who was by all standards a princess of the jungle, with his outlined eyes, carefully painted fingernails and delicate gestures. He approached me and said: “You won’t believe what I bought today!” I actually thought he would show me a new pair of shoes or jewellery. But he opened his fridge and uncovered a big Majás with no skin.

I could go on and on describing the banana-leaf-wrapped yumminess that the jungle has to offer. Or the expectation in the local's eyes when you give a Suri (tree worm) the first bite.
But, much better, grab a bus from Quillabamba to Ivochote and jump on a boat down the river!