Peru 2013

 

Nauta to Iquitos          64 miles     2,300 feet of climbing

We arrived in Nauta around 11:15 pm and took a bit of time to dock.  We grabbed out gear bags and off-loaded them, then the bikes.  We walked with two bikes each to our hotel a mile or so from the port, leaving Nayda with our gear bags, extra gear, and chairs we had purchased for use on the boat.  Once we found the hotel, we were glad to leave our sea legs and sleep in real beds.  The next morning we breakfasted at 7:00, loaded Nayda up with all the gear, the extra bikes and the chairs and sent her off in a taxi to Iquitos.  We were to enjoy one more day of riding in Northern Peru.

The road between Nauta and Iquitos was a dirt road ten years ago that has been paved.  It is the only road of any length out of either Nauta or Iquitos.  The trip by bike is an easy five or six hours, by boat the trip is a hundred miles or so and takes about eight hours.  Had we taken the boat we would have arrived in Iquitos at 8:00 am tired and weary with less than full enthusiasm for the day ahead.

The ride into Iquitos is surprisingly hilly, a stream of pleasant rollers traveling through the countryside away from the river.  We know we are in the jungle because of the heat and humidity.  We also know it could be a lot worse.  The weather god has been kind to us gringos.  We see Fundos (farms), resorts, and thatched huts all along the way to Iquitos.  The closer we get to Iquitos the more resort type properties we see.  Most are pretty rustic and some are actually quite attractive.  Somehow the farms, homesteads and dwellings along the way just seem more purposeful than what we saw earlier in the ride.  See if you agree that the pictures tell that story.

 

The centaur and the mermaid  Art in hotels has some interesting themes

A resort along the way

The road along the way

More thatched roofs in this part of the country  Thatch lasts 7 -10 years

Need some help?

A farming compound?

This is the jungle.  It rains most days in the rainy season

The road ahead

A condo development

Jaguar at the zoo

Our group for the last few days of the tour

Lon, Ron, Araceley, Alessandra, Art, & Bob

Riding through town

Moving right along

 

Peru 2013

On the riverboat Bruno    333 miles         2 days          Yurimaguas to Nauta

We had been on the riverboat “Bruno” yesterday to survey the landscape and see that Walter, a local that Lon has known for years, had set up our hammocks and also to help anticipate the experience.  We have cabins and hammocks on the upper deck (premium space).    

After eating breakfast, we addressed the usual question:  “is the boat leaving at the latest announced time, or will it be later?”  We were told the boat would indeed leave a 10:00 so we loaded Nayda with gear bags and extra bicycles into a moto-taxi, hopped on our bikes and rode to the docks, all of a mile or two, but crowded with moto-taxis all seemingly in a rush and headed for the docks.  Once at the boat we carried bikes, gear bags and other assorted bags up to the third deck and were ready for departure.  10:00 came and went and the boat was still loading.  Finally the boat did leave right on time at 11:30 sharp.  Of course I’m being factitious, but the rule is: the boat leaves no earlier than the last announced departure time and when all of the cargo is loaded.

While commonly referred to as an Amazon River cruise the river at Yurimaguas is the Rio Huallagua and it is joined by the Paranapura in Yurimaguas.  The river carries lots of silt and as a consequence is muddy.  There is also a lot of debris in the river, mostly trees and vegetation that has fallen into the river as a result of the banks falling in.  The boat flows downstream with the current at 10-12 miles per hour.  As we watch the scenery go by, we see some activity on the river, often a small peke-pekes carrying local people or harvested vegetation.  The accommodations are somewhat rustic on the Bruno.  The restrooms are on the second deck and flushed with river water.  The overhead showers are in the same compartments as the toilets.  Needless to say, some of us opted to remain au natural throughout the voyage.  We are settling in, watching the jungle go by.  An occasional settlement attracts attention, but otherwise we’re in hammocks reading and passing time.  We will not be using the cabins except to securely stow our gear bags.  Then the rain began.  As the storm increased in intensity and the wind blew across the deck, our hammocks were no longer comfortable and we sought shelter in our cabins.  The cabins have a double bunk and about 24 inches of space from the door to the back of the cabin to access the bunks.  We crawled into the bunks and stowed our gear bags under the lower bunk.  The rain on the roof was enjoyable because we were no longer getting wet.
The boat we are on makes frequent stops in the middle third of its journey with either end of the route served by smaller boats delivering harvests and supplies to nearby villages.  Our first stop was at 3:15 in the morning after nearly 15 hours of travel in Lagunas.  The village is the site of a world famous wild-life preserve.  People and cargo embarked and disembarked as the boat grounded itself on the shoreline.  Meeting the boat is a big deal in the villages and seemingly everyone turns out. 

We delivered school books to children in jungle villages along the way.  We would hop off the boat when it docked, ask the captain how much time we had, ascertain the location of the school and find the principal of the school, explain what we wanted to do, be introduced in a classroom, and pass out books individually to children, inevitably to great appreciation with wide smiles.  For one delivery the captain let us take the speed boat.  We hoped into the speedboat and sped ahead to the village.  We delivered the books, collected the smiles and appreciation of the principal and teachers, ran back to the speed boat and caught up with the Bruno and embarked “on the fly”.  For some locales, this is how the locals connect with the Bruno, pulling up alongside and loading or unloading cargo or passengers. 

 

 

 

Loading "dock"

On the river

Leaving Yurimaguas

River village

Alessandra

Senor Bob

River village where we delivered school books

School children

School children with new books

Oil production facility

River front

Schoolhouse delivery

Our bikes with boat docked

River village square 

Catching the Bruno after book delivery in the speed boat

Village turnout for the Bruno

Sunset on the river

 

 

 

 

 

Peru 2013

Rest day in Yurimaguas

Our boat won’t leave today so we found things to do.  We heard the rooster and moto-taxis at 6:00 am and the electricity failed causing the air conditioner to quit, heating the room and all waking us up.  The fish market is a half block from our hotel on Saturday morning, aren’t we lucky?  On most restaurant menus, pescado is listed, that is, fish, river or lake fish.  The variety or species is rarely listed, so it was an eye-opener to visit the market and see all the varieties for sale.  Only a few are shown in the pics below.

After visiting the fish market and eating breakfast we took a jungle tour to a remote indian village.  By flat bottom boat we rode up the Rio Paranapura to a tributary and up the tributary to another tributary to the village.  Then by moto-taxi to a large, black-water lake where we were given a dugout canoe tour by a native villager.  The water is black due to the tannins leeching from the bark of trees.  Clear and safe to drink.  The villagers are fisherman and the lake is their primary source of income although with government encouragement they are embarking on tourism.

Later we walked around Yurimaguas searching for snacks and towels to use on the boat.  It seems to me that there is no licorice (red or black) in Yurimaguas.

Fish market

More fish

My favorites

 

Bird's nests along the lakeshore

 

Another view

 

The lake

Returning to Yurimagaus

 

 

River traffic

Our hotel looking toward the fish market

Peru 2013

Caramachi to Yurimaguas             45 miles             700 feet of climbing

As we ride into the jungle things just seem to get more mystical.  The Peruvian version of Urban Legend has had roads washed out ahead of us for days.  In fairness, it’s only a slight exaggeration.  Avalanches and rock slides do take out portions of road and occasionally necessitate bypasses.  The rumor for this leg was that modern day highway men were stopping people and robbing them at machete point along the road.  That too is not entirely unfounded.  We were not challenged on today’s ride. 

The ride today was fairly flat with a few rollers to keep things interesting.  Art and Lon lead pacelines and I was able to tag along.  We covered the distance in under three hours with one roadside rest stop.

So the question of the day was whether there was, as reported, and “Eduardo” boat leaving today at 1:00?  And could we book passage.  Nayda had ridden with Bob in a taxi from Caramachi to Yurimaguas to make arrangements with the boat.  We figured we needed to be in Yurimaguas two hours before departure to avoid chaos.  We were able to book passage. Projected sailing is tomorrow at 5:00.  Our hammocks have been procured and set up on the upper deck near our cabins – windowless small rooms with bunk beds.  Food is “included”.  If the timing is right 5 or 6 of us will leave the boat in Nauta Monday morning to ride to Iquitos on bicycles.  There is a good chance we could beat the boat because the boat must follow the indirect course of the river.  That makes this, day 12, the penultimate day of cycling in Peru.  So much fun.

A paucity of pictures today because I dropped my camera at the waterfall yesterday.  Shopping for a camera in Yurimaguas was so much fun.  WE wandered the streets for a half hour looking for a camera store.  The Kodak storekeeper desperately wanted to make prints for us.  After a while he realized we were trying to buy a camera and directed us to a store that also sold TVs, stereos, motorcycles and appliances.  Once I had picked a camera, the fun began.  The listed price was 370 Soles.  I asked the clerk for the price, she were onto her computer and wrote down a price of 407 Soles.  I wrote down 300 Soles.  She went back to her computer and after a bit wrote down 279 Soles.  Aren’t I a great negotiator?  Then I need to present my passport (for permission to spend money?).  The credit card verification process took quite a while.  Eventually I signed and was lead to the check-out desk where the tech set the date on the camera, tested it and showed me that it worked.  A long, tedious but interesting process was all conducted in ?hand signals?

 

Road Scene

24/7 Peruvian alarm clock (wanted or not)

Welcome mat -Our hotel

Our riverboat

Our Accomodations

Lobby art

 

Peru 2013

Moyobamba to Tarapoto       72 miles    2,700 feet of climbing

There’s no question that we’re in the jungle, between the vegetation, heat, humidity, resident hotel parrots and a smattering of new bugs, all the evidence is in.  Today’s ride started under an ominous sky.  As a kid growing up in the Midwest I used to be able to look at the sky and know what weather was coming.  This certainly didn’t look like something that would blow over.

The ride started with some rolling road and by mile 30 we had nearly reached our peak altitude for the day when the rain started.  With raingear on we rode up for two miles then downhill for twenty, slowing at times because of lack of visibility.  Not only could I not see the hills in the distance, it was tough to see down the road.  We did have a big yellow semi-truck pass on a straight downhill.  We returned the favor a couple miles later by drafting another semi passing the big yellow rig.  The rain had slowed and visibility had improved.

Let me share today’s ear worms, some real oldies:

“Green, green, its green they say on the far side of the hill.  Green, green, I’m goin’ away to where the grass is greener still.  I told my mama on the day I was born that I got keep travelin’ on.  I’m just a natural born travelin’ man and I gotta keep travelin’ on.  Green, green…”

“…cool, clear water.  Old Dan and I with throats burnt dry and souls that cry for water (water, water).  Cool, clear water.  Keep a movin’ Dan, don’t you listen to him Dan, he’s a devil not a man and he spreads the burning sand with water (water, water).  Cool, clear water…”

Admittedly the second may have been more appropriate in the desert.  But we did have cool, clear water.

In Tarapoto our group splits with three riders, Lon, Alessandra, Araceley and Nayda continuing on to Yurimaguas to board the riverboat to Iquitos.  If the timing is right we will hop off the boat at Nauta and ride 60 miles through the jungle to Iquitos, perhaps even reaching there before the boat.

 

Bruce

 

Chris

 

Fine, feathered friends

 

Road scene

 

Ominous

 

More ominous

 

Thanksgiving

 

Bike washing

 

Rider washing

 

Hotel courtyard