We tried to get ourselves on a large bus headed from Chachapoyas to Tarapoto. After some broken Spanglish to a number of different booths in the awe inspiring bus terminal, we realized that wasn't going to happen. We begrudgingly booked two seats in a "Cambio." A Cambio is basically a big Hutterite-looking van with all the luggage, which can also include living things, strapped to the roof by nets and tarps. They jam them right full of passengers and stop many times, so that was why we were trying to avoid it.
We left around 830 in the morning and pulled into Tarapoto around 5. It was significantly hotter there and strapping on the large backpack wasn't all that appealing. It reminded me of Asia a bit because the number of scooters and mototaxis (tuktuks in Asia) greatly outnumbered cars/trucks along with the heat. We walked for 5 mins and decided to grab some grub before we got hangry at eachother. We saw a decent looking chicken place with a wifi sign and decided to give it a try. The food was really good BBQ chicken and the wifi even worked. I was even able to call my mom on FaceTime, talk about luxury. Luxury probably isn't the word most North Americans would call it as it was an open air concept, right beside the road in which I had to strain to hear every word my mother said as the mototaxis went screaming by. But let's not get stuck in the details. The manager of the restaurant then came over to chat with us. He had quite a good grasp of English and I think he wanted to practice a bit. We told him about our trip and our plans on where we were going to which he responded with an animated, "What an adventure!"
After eating, our wifi fix, and our little chit-chat, we hailed one of the mototaxis and hitched a ride to a hostel. We had already decided that we would be moving on to Yurimaguas the next day which was only a 2.5 hour ride. The girl at the hostel spoke good English and asked if we wanted to take a car to Yurimaguas for about $20 and we jumped at that and said yes. She also called her friend in Yurimaguas that had a hostel that the car could take us straight to. Perfect, we thought.
Two hours after the said car was supposed to show up, it finally did. We crammed our bags into the trunk and were off. But then the driver said we had to pick up more people and the price went up. If the people had any bags with them at all we were going to be really jammed in there and it of course didn't have an A/C. After some more Spanglish, we grabbed our bags and walked down the street to grab a cambio again. We ended up with both of the front seats in the cambio, which had A/C, and we were off after paying the guy a total of $8 for the both of us.
It was a nice drive that started off through rough jungle terrain and it flattened out as we got closer to Yurimaguas. Upon entering Yurimaguas, a mototaxi cruised up beside us "Rrrroberta," he yelled with a real rolling of the tongue as they do in Spanish. We just looked at eachother and said yes. As it turns out there aren't very many tourists around here this time of the year and the guy that owns the hostel had found us. We jumped in his mototaxi and went to the hostel which was right on the river. We had to do a balancing act on a log to enter the building which was a little unnerving but nothing like we had to do the next day.
It is the wet season right now and the river water is over the banks in numerous areas. The river at Yurimaguas is called Rio Huallaga and it is one of the numerous rivers that come together to make the Amazon river. It is no slouch in itself being about 3/4s of a mile wide looking out the balcony of the hostel.
A large anaconda skin on the balcony.
View
We had decided to do a trip into the jungle at Lagunas which was about a 12 hour ride on a slow cargo boat that also takes passengers. You just throw up a hammock and do your thing as they make numerous stops along the river.
We tend to talk with the local kids as they are good to practice our Spanish with. They talk slow and about simple things.
We were at least supplying the river people with the necessities of life: beer and pop.
We arrived in Lagunas in the dark. As we got outside we saw that to get off the boat, we had to descend off the front down a wet 2x12 with 2x4s hammered onto it with about a 12 foot drop on each side with our backpacks on. The harbour was flooded and the plank descended into knee high water that we had to wade through. Luckily a guy helped us get our bags down first and then we descended down the plank. We jumped in a mototaxi where the water ended and went to a hostel.
The next day we slept in and then proceeded to book a jungle tour to start the next day. We looked for a place to eat breakfast and realized that this town didn't have much. There weren't any restaurants like we would normally think of. There were a couple places to eat, but they served one thing at lunch and one thing at supper and only during certain times. We were wandering around late morning so we settled on some popcorn for breakfast and then hit lunch at the correct time.
The next morning we got up and headed down to have breakfast at the place we booked our tour and met our two guides: José and Amelia.
We were headed into the jungle on a canoe for 4 days and 3 nights. I could tell from the get go it was going to be an authentic, amazing experience as we bounced around in the back of a mototaxi headed deeper into the jungle to the river we would ascend. The river we were going to paddle was within the Pacaya Samiria National Park which the Lonely Planet had told us was one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the Amazon. Perfect. Upon getting to the head of the river, there was a shack for the national park with some info and good charts showing the birds, fish, and mammals that lived in the park.
We got our canoe loaded up and we were off. With no one else but ourselves, our guides, and the jungle. Upon paddling downstream, the air ringed with calls of all different kinds of birds much to Roberta's pleasure. The first part of the river was within the banks and flowing at a fair clip which tired us out on the return. The first animal José spotted for us on the river edge was a young anaconda soaking up the sun.
He explained how lucky we were to even see one this time of the year. Good start.
As we made our way to our lunch spot we encountered numerous birds and numerous different kinds of monkeys.
Spider Money
Brown Capuchin Monkey
Equatorial saki -Weird-looking creatures
It was awesome. At our lunch stop, the blue and yellow macaws were putting on a show for us.
Roberta in her glory watching the birds.
We timed our lunch stop just perfect as it started to pour rain while we were covered by a roof. We waited until the rain slowed a bit and then proceeded forward.
The river past the first hour or so was overflowing the banks into the jungle and there were places where the vines had been slashed out to take short cuts through the bush and not really in the river.
Bird Nests
The next few hours were spent gazing at numerous more monkeys and numerous birds. Oh and I almost forgot freakin grey and pink dolphins. From the size of the river here I would never have guessed it, but in the more open areas you would see them popping up to take breaths. They were much more shy than the dolphins you often encounter in the ocean, but were very cool nonetheless.
We cruised to our bamboo hut we were calling home for the night that happened to be at a more open area that we could just watch the dolphins from. All in all a very awesome day.
The next day we were awakened at daybreak by all the noisy birds around. We ate a breakfast of freshly caught fish which were caught by a net. Fishing for supper is allowed in the park, but no hunting is allowed. Since the banks are overflowing at this time of the year, it is hard to catch fish with a rod and reel, so smaller nets are used. The fish was great tasting. We tried some piranha which was alright as well but not as good as the other.
Upon paddling a bit we saw a lot more dolphins and then the animal I was hoping to see: a sloth. They are just the goofiest looking creatures and their crazy slow movements.
José was amazing at picking out the animals. The camouflage some of them have make them incredibly hard to see, but he could pick them out. We only paddled a few hours but we saw many sloths, dolphins, monkeys, and of course birds.
Hundreds of turtles were also sunning themselves. Very shy as they would plop themselves into the water before we got very close.
Big lizard warming up in the sun.
We reached the place we were staying for the night by 1 pm and had some fresh fish lunch again.
I decided I was going to get all nerdy and really have a look at all the insects around our home for the night. Before we left I bought a case that has a screw in lenses for my iPhone and it came in really handy on this trip. There is a wide angle lens, a 8x zoom lens, a macro lens, and a fisheye view lens. All for $35. A steal of a deal. The macro lens came in real handy to get some close up shots of the bugs.
To be continued.....
Location:Avenida Santos Dumont,Manaus,Brazil
Love your blog J & R. We feel your pain with the Spanglish! (We recommend dwnld DuoLingo for evening entertainment) We too saw sloths.... can't get over how mangy they are.
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