After half a day stop in Mexico City we arrive to Lima almost two hours late around 1am. Guys from hostel luckily picked us up so we did not have to walk Lima streets at night. Next morning another late daparture for Iquitos makes us to realize that travel here will be a lot of fun. High temperatures and humidity was first what we noticed when we landed at four afternoon. My indian friend Hernan who I met two years ago was waitng and from his smile we knew we are going to enjoy his company. From the hostel we head off right to the Amazon river-front pub where we need to discuss details of our trip into jungle. Cuscena beer comes down nicely - it is still 30C at 5pm. Hernan sugests we take a taxi to Nauta which is some 100km south-west of Iquitos and from there we hire a boat to travel deeper into jungle to Pacaya National Park which should take about four hours upstream. First we have some shopping to do. On Friday morning a tuk-tuk jerks through the trafic (milions of tuk-tuks run streets of Iquitos) taking us to local markets. We need to buy food, water and other supplies for next five days. Hernan says with a big smile ¨Ivan there will be muchos pirhanas¨ and buys few fishing hooks and few meters of line. Oh yes we want to see some pirhanas for sure. Shopping at markets was an amazing experience especialy having Hernan with us because he could answer all our questions we had about exotic looking produce. Locals generaly do not understand english and without Hernan we would not be brave enough to try many unusual fruits. Here locals sell almost anything dead or alive except humans, dogs and cats.
On Saturday Hernan finds a taxi which takes us from Iquitos to Nauta for $15 and two hours later we shake hands with July who is boat owner-driver. He will stay with us all five days making sure we can move from place to place in search for the wildlife. His slim boat has two 5hp engines reminding me two whipper-snippers attached to a larger canoe. We think this will be a lot of fun! Our planned four hours trip took somewhat longer as one of his engines played up within first half an hour in journey. By 4pm we arrived to the lodge in Beinte De Enero village in Pacaya National Park. Simple but practical and definitely exotic looking lodge will be our home for next four nights. Native girl Tirsa will feed all four of us three times a day using her jungle cooking skills. We briefly explore jungle around the lodge before slipping under mosquito net for a good night sleep. Sunday morning we see many white herrons on a dry lake and we are getting good taste of the jungle - I tripped slightly and my right leg if full of fine spikes from a palm branch. Ouch! After we enjoyed a delicious lunch Hernan takes us for fishing and he is promissing some pirhanas. And they do realy exist! In less then an hour we cought over ten these realy vicious monsters with sharp teeth wide opened wanting to bite any time. Fishing rods here do not carry any brand names - a six feet freshly cut branch will do the job nicely. Although pirhanas are rather small and bonny we will ask Tirsa to fry them for dinner. Monday morning starts with a visit to village where Pepe introduced us to his new pet tarantula his father found around the house just few days ago. Iva was innitially petrified of his eight legged friend but soon became friends and both posed for a picture. Today Tirsa is not making lunch at the lodge because Hernan, July and Pepe are taking us for a fried fish in the jungle. They packed up pan, pot for rice and some bananas and we went off to a three hours trip up stream to catch some good amazonian fish. And indeed, we cought lots and boys prepared excellent lunch. While they were cooking, me and Iva sneaked out of the camp to follow trails of leaf cutter ants all the way to their nest. We were very excited as this was stuff we had only seen on David Attenborough´s documentaries. This evening I have to terminate few large spiders in dining room following Hernan´s advice. Apparently one of these spiders is pretty nasty causing flesh to fall off after the bite. There is a storm on horizon and that made spiders to seek refuge in our lodge. I do not think so. Tuesday morning after the breakfast we head off for the longest river trip so far for search of monkies, dolpins, birds and turtles. And soon we are lucky - we see a group of monkies making over five meters leaps between trees. Turtles of all sizes are sunbasking on the river banks and pink dolphins show off their skills almost for the whole day. This is realy unique and beautiful experience. And pirhanas? As many as you want. Pirhanas are everywhere! Las panas estan en todas tardes!
Last evening we spend with our new friends in the village. They invited me to play volleyball but it was just quite difficult at 30C and 90% humidity still at 5pm so I gave up after ten minutes and we only watched. With red sunset we realise our five days amazonian adventure is coming to the end and tomorrow we will be back in civilised world with cars, noise, smoke and mobiles. We did not miss any of that here. Our amazonian trip would not be the same without Hernan. Being a son of shaman we understand where his knowledge of jungle plants comes from. He let us to taste small little yellow flower with anesthetic properties, he showed us many herbal plants and we learned a lot. I was excited to touch a cauchuk tree in real life and collect its white rubbery liquid. After last breakfast on Wednesday we pack up our bags and take last few photos with indians. It is time to go. Mision completa!
Back in Iquitos tuk-tuk and taxi drivers are still creazy and road rules are not realy followed if they exist at all. Croosing double line with a big bus in opposite direction made Iva to close her eyes. We also want to visit Kachero and his six meters anaconda whom I met two years ago. Speed boat took about 40 minutes to his place but unfortunately he does not live there any more and his anaconda is gone. Luckily next door neighbour showed us a smaller version of these famous snakes and her two gorgeous macaws. Afternoon we spent browsing through markets tasting all local delicatecies. Friday we say good bye to Hernan at lunch and leave for the airport last time in a tuk-tuk. And guess what? The airplane for Lima was two hours late again! Lucky we have no appointments.
For those interested in cost of this trip here is the breakdown of what we paid for five days - four nights:
- Taxi Iquitos to Nauta one way $16
- Boat with driver and 16 gal fuel $140
- Pacaya Nat Park entry fees $80
- Four nights lodge $80
- Full time cook $40
- Food and supplies at Iquitos $60
- Hernan guide fee $160
Hernan´s contact: Hernan Silva Peixoto, e-mail: hersipe@yahoo.es, Phone: 0531 3993
