I finally found out why I had to get a flight to Iquitos at 7.45am, because the transfer launch to my hotel in the jungle only leaves Iquitos in the morning and if I arrive any later then I miss it and have to pay for a private hire boat to get me there!
As it happens my flight was delayed by two hours anyway, I wish I had known I could have had another two hours sleep!
Arriving in Iquitos eventually I am treated to a hair raising ride from the airport to the port where there is no transfer boat because while they are waiting for me they have taken other guests out on a little cruise....With visions of being dumped on the river side in a floating restaurant surrounded by a mass of humanity which appears to mainly live its life up on stilts, I sit and wait.....
I have left my big suitcase in Lima as I am only here for a three nights, I think the tour guide was thankful for that as he helps me on to something that looks as though it was used in the filming of The African Queen.....And I wonder whether we will get to where we are going and why the outboard motor is wrapped up with clingfilm.
As we cruise down the Amazon the first thing I notice is the sheer size of the river. We are following one bank of the river and although you can see the other side, it is little more than a line of green. Later when we reach the hotel the river appears much narrower, but that opposite bank is actually a large island in the middle. Some of the islands in the Amazon are large enough that they have lagoons in the middle of them especially when the water is higher during the rainy season as it is now. It is quite amazing how much vegetation there is floating in the river and a couple of time quite large trees went floating past along with complete patches of grasses where the banks of the river get washed away.
Arriving after about an hour at the ‘hotel’ we disembark and a small army of porters arrive to carry our suitcases, this temporary ‘party’ will be together for the next three days, although we are joined on the last day by four Australians.
Little did I realise what delights are in store.....The hotel is more of a lodge, no windows just mosquito net, no electricity except for an hour in the morning and from 6pm til 10pm., no phones, no mobiles (except for a weak signal half way down the jetty steps), and so no Internet! Fresh water is provided from the river and filtered and purified on site, and how strange to see a septic tank high above the ground which it has to be other wise it would fill up with river water during rainy season!
Immediately we are hustled into lunch (there is NOTHING nearby so all meals are provided), were the waiter/barman, Limber, fusses around us making sure we get enough to eat. Every meals has fresh fruit and fresh juice it, an no orange juice, but every other imaginable fruit!
The hotel parrot, Pedro, comes in to see the new visitors and find out what is for lunch. He never flies anywhere only walks and climbs, possibly he is too fat as a result of having too much ham at breakfast......
Apart from the sounds of nature there is no noise at this place, and somehow even if you hear someone talking it seems as though they are at a distance as the surrounding jungle seems to absorb noise. Already I am beginning to like it here....
No peace for the wicked, we are bundled back into a canoe and taken off to see the pink dolphins. Wildlife is very unpredictable and I didnt’ expect to see any but we did, from a distance....And after that we go fishing while our guide tells us more about the river and the jungle.
Returning to the hotel there is time to relax...And I like it here, after the hectic pace of Cusco, Puno, and Lima, it is peaceful...So peaceful.
Dinner is at 8.00pm and if you are not there they come looking for you, but then Limber knows where you are because he is behind the bar making pisco sours, and you are on the other side of it drinking them! A couple more drinks and bring the diary up to date, sit on the river bank and listen to the night noises and then the gennie goes off and it is time for bed!
There is an early morning walking tour at 6am, I think the guide went on his own as it 6.15am he is sitting there all by himself, I wave to him and go back to bed!
Later that morning we take the jungle walk and this is rainforest and it is wet underfoot so they give us all wellington boots. It is supposed to be two hours but turns into three because Victor, the short Peruvian with a big machete, can see that we are enjoying ourselves. Two of the Peruvians (I have christened the female half of the duo, Norma, she has a chest like Nurse Diesel), keep disappearing into the shrubbery. I think they are in love but possibly not with each other. The two other Peruvians, mother and daughter from Cusco, have lots of questions. Victor, the guide, thinks he is Percy Edwards and keep making animal and bird noises supposedly to attract them in our direction. While he is pointing out one monkey in a tree in front of us, there are three right behind us watching us.
Next year my garden will look like this, a not too dense slightly overgrown jungle shrubbery!
Not so many flowers as I had hoped, but lots of types of Heliconia which is where the lodge gets its name, lots of huge butterflies but they are all supersonic powered and fly about at such a speed that you never get a picture of them.
Lunch is more fresh fruit and juice, and really whatever you want but you have to order it at breakfast time, and you order dinner at lunchtime.
And I still haven’t told you the reason for the pink plastic poncho.....It is pouring with rain of course, but then you would have realised that. My attire is jungle dress, wellies, camo shorts, t shirt, and the reason I really look so odd is because there is a life jacket under the poncho.
We are visiting a local booze factory where they make the local firewater from fermented sugar cane, the pictures are of the press to get the juice out, the thing up on a stand is a canoe where they ferment the juice, and I am standing next to the still....George Kassevetis would love it!!!! And they only ferment the juice for 24 hours before they distill it, would that raki only took that long.
The large bowl affair is where they put the juice from the cane of they are just going to boil it up to make syrup. It doesn’t get used much!
After the visit to the still we go further along the river to ‘the bar’, where we meet the maker.It is obviously a popular place because there are well trodden tracks coming into it from various directions. Here you can buy and try...I try but don’t buy, for a start it would never get back to Crete, but my favourite is the medicinal one which has tree bark and plants in it. After a glass of the four varieties he makes I am sailing and don’t need to get a boat because I can walk on water, a feat which I attempt when I go to get back in the boat, with considerable amount of failure.
Sometimes things happen when you are on holiday, sometimes they are unexpected, and in this case I fell in love...With the jungle. And everyone noticed!
Tomorrow is last morning here and I really do not want to go...But first we visit a local village called Palmera. I don’t know whether the people here mind being a tourist attraction, I guess they probably don’t as it brings in some much needed cash apart from the handouts they get from various charities. But here they have electricity, when they have fuel for the generator, and they have a solar powered satellite phone which means that fewer people die of curable illnesses, they have fresh fish from the river, fresh fruit and vegetables from the jungle, and these days fresh, clean water too, something which we take for granted.
And the children learn two languages, their own and Spanish.
A bit of commercialism comes to the fore as we taken to a ‘typical’ native hut and get to do a typical native dance if we want....And have a go with a blowpipe, oh yes, and get to buy some of the native crafts...Or make a donation! But it is worth it.
Later The African Queen leaves for Iquitos and this means the end of my stay in Peru.
Eighteen busy days of folklore, mystery, mythology, history, and far too much food, I really need another two weeks but Chile calls......
And there are photos here
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