I didn't really think it through properly. Some friends I'd been travelling with were heading to the Peruvian Amazon, they wanted to see Iquitos as it is the largest city in the world with no road access. A city in the middle of the jungle? A city? I couldn't imagine what it would be like, all pictures and guide books painted rather exotic pictures, I wondered what the reality was like. I tagged along for the experience. One of my Peruvian friend's in Lima told me I was crazy - even she would find a trip like that hard to deal with. Peru is an amazingly big and amazingly diverse country. It's difficult to make comparisons, it's not like not knowing what Scotland is like if you live in the South of England, or even finding Greece exotic, it's more like travelling back in time and space even (given that the geography is so different). It's mind blowing that Cusco, Iquitos and Lima are all cities in the same country when they are mark more change in identity and way of life from one another than most European capitals, but this is the reality of South America.
I booked my flight with in 48 hours of take-off. Yes, we flew. Yes, I did feel like a cop out but it was because of time issues. Also, flying within Peru is only marginally more expensive than buses and if we had taken the bus we would have stopped a night or two so it actually worked out cheaper. We took to the skies and arrived in Tarapoto where we would make our way though the jungle to Iquitos.
I was sad to leave Lima, I would happily up sticks and live there for any amount of time, it's a cool city. My final night there consisted of more drinks and kisses with the card game expert, followed by more drunken walking around Miraflores. I had to once again sneak back into my hostel late and drunk, falling over to climb into my bunk, failing in the process to get undressed. Classy.
We woke up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport only to find out that we were badly delayed thanks to terrible weather over the zone we were flying to. I should say at this point that other backpackers had actively discouraged us from embarking on this section of the trip since the Amazon was so badly flooded, seeing the worst flooding in forty years, with rivers at the highest levels they've seen in generations. Undeterred, but armed with anti-malaria pills we went anyway. Not a trip I would have done alone though.
I passed out in a miserable exhausted, abused heap at the airport on a very uncomfortable lounge bench. Time for a bit of a detox in the jungle I think. Heathy eating and no more alcohol! It was fun to be at an airport with friends such are my lonesome, solo travel tendencies. I was surprisingly excited and happy to share the mundane check in, go through security and wait in a lounge process with friends.
The contrast of going from Lima, a dry and hazy city, full of buildings, parks, restaurants and shops to the hot and humid jungle town was remarkable. It was such a short flight but we were in such a different environment. In stead of cars there were tuk-tuk like motor-taxis everywhere. It was so green all around. All the buildings were a bit more make-shift, corrugated iron roofs, dusty, pot-holed, tarmacked streets. And it was hot. All the llama printed stuff bought a couple of weeks ago in Bolivia and Cusco is just taking up an annoying amount of space in my backpack now!
The Spanish! They made it to the jungle too!
Palm trees and motorbikes dominate the visual environment here
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