So.. I left Cusco for Iquitos on the 2nd December. I had to change in Lima and spend 6 hours there waiting for my next flight. It was okay, I finished reading my book, went online and had a mac donalds. I then met a girl from Colorado outside and she had to wait 12 hours for her next flight so we went and got a beer together which was nice as we had a lot in common.
I arrived in Iquitos at about 7pm and got in a tuk tuk to the hostel, felt pretty dangerous but I got there okay. Camiri floating hostel was down a flight of rickety wooden steps to the river and along some planks. The setting was beautiful but the rooms were really shabby. There were spiders and cobwebs everywhere so it was a real challenge for me and so so hot. The shower was so basic and the water was from the amazon river, which meant showering in brown water. I went and sat in the bar and met a guy called HoarHay (?) from Lima who knew the guy who runs the place and his girlfriend. I also met 3 Swedish girls who were lovely. We hung out and had a few drinks that evening and the met the owner and his girlfriend. The owner was a psycho, drank far too much and took alot of cocain. He said he worked for a mafia boss in narcotics which made me feel really safe being there! He also said that one of the guys from the other hostel had cut off his water supply a few dys before, so he took a machete and hacked at his door.
The next day a local guide called Oscar took me to buy my boat tickets and took me to Belen market, which was nuts. They were selling toroise meat, alligator skulls, grubs, monkey and all sorts.
I then went back to the hostel and met the girls who had a been on a tour with Marcel, the owner, to the market and a butterfly farm. They got back at 6pm and Marcel was off his face and having a massive argument with his girlfriend so we hid in the dorm whilst the girls showered and then went out for dinner to avoid any trouble.
I left at 4am the next morning to get to the port, had to walk up the stairs in the dark and one of the steps was broken making it impossible for me to get up with my bag, luckily a guy was just coming in from partying as I was walking up and gave me a hand. I got in a tuk tuk that was at the top of the stairs and he took me to the port. Again I felt very unsafe as it was dark and I got to the port and there were only locals there and i had to walk down some steps. I checked with a respectable looking older man who confirmed that I had to get the boat from there.
Then my angel arrived! I met a girl from California who has lived in Mexico for two years and speaks fluent Spanish. She got on the same boat as me, which was tiny and filled with people from Haiti (why i dont know) and we spent 15 hours on the boat that was meant to take 8 hours to get to the borders of Peru, Brazil and Columbia. We arrived late and went to get our stamps out of Peru but were told we couldnt because it was 7pm and the immigration guy was out partying so we have to go back in the morning. There was also a nice Danish couple who are with us as well. Thank god i was not on my own as it definitely would not have been safe and i wouldve panicked as my spanish is basic. We got back on a water taxi to Brazil and then had to get a taxi to our hostel in Leticia, Columbia. The taxi was four guys on motorbikes with luminous yellow jackets with handles on. So we all put on our helmets and were driven to the hostel. The hostel is amazing compared to the one in Iquitos and the people are really nice who run it, there is also a lovely dog called Pedro. There is a lake, with a little boat, a swimming pool and loads of parrots and the driveway is lined with orchids and what look like mango trees. The hostel is called Mahatu Leticia Hostel.
We arrived late so popped out for dinner at a local street place and had a huge load of chicken on a stick and some rice and potato stuff, it did the job! Tomorrow we have to go back to Peru to get our exit stamps and then get our stamps in to Columbia and Brazil and book the boat. Lauren (Californian) and Geta and her Nicolai (Danish) are also getting on the same 4 day slow boat to Manaus as me so I have friends, yay!!
5th Dec - Day 2 at the tri border has been fun. We have been to Peru, Brazil and Columbia about 3 times each today. We took a moto taxi (man on motorbike) and a moto boat to Peru to get our exit stamps in our passports and then to Brazil to book our boats and get our entry stamps. We checked bought our boat tickets and then went back to Columbia where we are staying to get our hammocks, then back to Brazil to check out the boa. We met the 'Capitan' and he showed us round and put up our hammocks for us, he was a nice jolly man and showed us his control room, he has a proper pirate style ship steering wheel I love it! We got good hammock spots and apparently there will be 280 people on the 3 floor cargo boat tomorrow which is going to be insanely cramped. The Danish couple we met on the boat from Iquitos have got a cabin so maybe we can store some stuff in their room.
We left the port and as we walking back saw a sign for ACAI, Nim had told me about how cheap the acai berry juice is in Brazil and how it costs so much from the health stores in England so we stopped and asked to try some. It just an 80 year old man outside his house selling bananas and acai and he was really sweet. We sat and ate acai juice with sugar and cereal and it was yum, dont think it would taste too good on its own though. We had some lunch of soup, followed by chicken and rice and beans (standard cheap south american lunch) then we headed back to the hostel and I had a quick swim. Tonight we are going to just have some dinner and chill out and enjoy our last night in a bed for 3 days! eek, im excited! Have also just realised that our boat arrives on the Friday which means I have an extra 2 nights in Manaus that I hadnt planned for which is great. Am doing a jungle tour when I get to Manaus which will be so much fun. Will be out of contact for a while so who knows when I can post this online...
Amazon boat trip - Tabatinga - Manaus BRAZIL
We boarded the boat to Manaus at approx. 09:30. A taxi picked us up from the hostel, me Lauren and Nicolai and Getta. It was pouring with rain as only it can pour in the amazon rainforest. The taxi boot didnt shut properly so when we arrived at the port and our bags were searched for drugs etc. i discovered that my bag and most of it's contents was drenched! We got on the boat and found our hammocks in the same spot where we had hung them the day before. More and more people started to flock on the boat and by the end of it we were in the middle of three rows of about 100 hammocks, it was literally like a can of sardines. I must point out here that my hammock is the most pathetic piece of Mexican crap compared to all the other huge cotton hammocks, buy your hammock in Peru! Mine barely fit me in it and was made out of netting, not comfy, luckily i had my sleeping bag to pad it out a bit.
We 'set sail' at about 2:30pm and we went to go and find out when lunch was going to be served, turned out we'd missed it. The eating times were as follows: Breakfast; 6:20-7:20, Lunch; 10:40-12:10, Dinner; 16:40-18:00. Unreasonable if you ask me! Breakfast was a cup of sweet milky coffee and a bread roll with one thin slice of cheese in it, lunch and dinner consisted of noodles, rice, beans and a form of meat which we could see open in a bucket on the lower deck with no covering, before it was cooked for our dinner, gross. I was so fed up of rice noodles beans and mingy meat by the time we got to the 4th day. But t was all part of the experience.
We passed the time by playing shit head, me Lauren and the danish couple and then got chatting to a german couple, we were the only 'gringos' on the boat. We also played a few games of Bee Fe Puf Fe with the Capitan. He only spoke Portuguese but he was so sweet! I also read two books and slept alot in my shitty hammock. Though it was impossible to sleep most of the time. The brazilians love their mp3 players and play them as loud as they will go. One morning some big black guy was sat on the top deck playing a celine dion song on repeat. And they would blast the worst whiny portuguese songs out at us after breakfast over the speakers, that would then go crackily and turn into pure static, but they carried on playing the static for two hours regardless.
On the second night i could not sleep at all, someone had moved their hammock which pushed mine so that i was pretty much sleeping on top of lauren. I tried the floor but it was really uncomfy so I went to the front of the boat in my sleeping bag and slept on the bench there. It wasnt comfy but at least it was dark (they left the lights on all night in the hammock deck) and I saw three shooting stars.
Another thing that really annoyed me about the hammock situation was the fact that i was next to a couple from Haiti (there were loads of Haitian immigrants on the boat) and they kept staring at me everytime i got in or out of my hammock or packed up some stuff, like they had never seen a white person before, and when i looked at them staring at me, they didnt even bother to look away! how rude. On reflection they were probably just baffled and amused by my crappy hammock. Though the woman did remind me that id forgotten a pair of leggings that id hung up to dry just as i was packing up my bag so i shall forgive her for her weird stariness.
On the last night we had a few beers (we took a crate on board with us but shared them with people) with a gay couple from Manaus who run a show called 'fantasy boys' (not child porn) basically a gay/transvestite show, one was the producer and the other did hair and make up and they were very very sweet. I was lucky that I had Lauren with me to translate as most of my conversations with the Portuguese speaking Brazilians was basically a game of charades. I learnt how to say snake, monkey and spider all by making actions.
All in all the trip was challenging but generally enjoyable. Despite the horrific state of the toilets that also housed the showers. The sunsets and sunrises and the secenery in general was stunning though.
One night in Manaus then I set off for a jungle tour. No wifi again for the next 3 days.
Peace and Love x
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