The general Vibe in Iquitos

Iquitos is a strange place. Very strange in fact. The feeling of isolation is palpable. This is the largest city in the world with no road access. The expanse of green surrounding it, the huge river running past. There were touches of the golden era of Iquitos in the city centre with the boom in the rubber industry but otherwise it felt incredibly run down. Motortaxis, stray dogs, strange locals, stranger travellers.

I am pleased to say that it is off the beaten track, even though it remains a traveller destination it takes some commitment to get to and perhaps doesn't cater to all tastes so not too many people make it. Those that do might be the ones of search of shamanism and ayahuasca, we met other travellers our age, but thankfully they were a different breed to the gringo trail masses, party animals with no real spirit of adventure ticking off the gringo trail tour list and trying to get laid. I noticed a few ageing long-term expat residents, long hair, tie-dyed t-shirts - you get what I'm talking about. I don't want to stereotype but I'd say with some confidence that they had probably experimented with the drug. My curiosity didn't get the better of me, although I must confess I am interested to see what it would be like. Not sure if I could handle just how long it lasts, days not hours, it must feel endless and be a true test to your sanity. Not to mention the vomiting, being assaulted by DMT for hours on end and dwelling and exploring your own character at length can't be for the faint hearted.

I have no idea how easy it would have been to get hold of, or how much you should expect to pay as either a tourist or a local but I can say that you can get your hands on pretty much anything in the jungle. The market at Belen was possibly the most authentic experience I had on the whole trip. It deserves its own post.

The warped reality of Iquitos was strange. Collections of boys would be hoarded outside the mouths of some of the more touristy cafes and bars, their only visible purpose or intention was to wind us up. Disturbingly they really had no boundaries, far worse than most other places where locals mildly aggress tourists, there was seemingly no limit to what they felt they could do to us instantly picking us out as young travellers. Possibly the worse occasion was a night we headed out for some drinks and a guy in a motortaxi waiting outside our hostel tried to grab the only guy in our group, he held his ground and wisely didn't show any weakness but it was startling to say the least, for a moment I was scared and really didn't know what the guy was after or how far he would go. On another occasion a young guy tried to point some sort of crystal in our faces, pretty much directly in our eyes. Just how far they would go to over step certain normal social boundaries was extraordinary and we were keen to keep our wits about us. It was difficult to gage and it seemed to restrict my friends willingness to move and circulate around the city to explore with me, although saying that it could simply have been the extreme heat and humidity that they found off putting.

In spite of the slightly stressful feeling when we were out and about and the fact that my friends preferred to stay in the hostel most of the time, max relax out by the river, browse though all the artisan market stalls, Iquitos emerges as a trip highlight so far for its sheer bizarreness. The experience of something really truly different, no protection safety net, no plastic tourism, the real deal on travel and exploration and a real place in its own right. It really stands out to me as one of the most unique places I have ever visited, so far resisting the morphosis and black hole that is modern world, nothing resisting globalisation. Iquitos lives by its own rules, it its own bubble and it was refreshing if not a little bit frightening to experience it.

One evening exploring the markets stalls we found a young family with a pet sloth in one of the stall booths. It made my friend's day, he was even allowed to hold it. It was young apparently, amazingly dazily docile with such a strangely shaped head. The artisania at the market was brilliant, I could have bought an entire collection of ayahuasca inspired busily embroidered throws and pieces of fabric. I got some parrot and toucan earrings as well as a BOW AND ARROW! Yes! A bow and arrow. I wanted as much tribal get up as possible, feathered head dress and well feathered everything. Limited space, limited funds and the worry of border crossing confiscation I was forced to leave the market with a few prudent purchases.

Iquitos was a strange balance of amazing tranquility and incredible frustration. I we only touched the tip of the iceberg of what the place really is. I would be very keen to go back and spend more time to see what it is really like, get a proper sense of it. I'm fascinated by impact the contact with the jungle has on the human spirit, how it affects how we interpret the world together with the long inherited tribal mysticism I would like to get more of a sense of how the place really is. The fact that it belongs to the same country and is governed by the same political body as Lima and Cusco just seems crazy to me, they couldn't be more different.

Fascinated and thirsty for more jungle in my life. On my next trip to South America, whenever that is, I'm definitely going back to Iquitos.

Viva Peru! Viva Jungle life...

....more to come......

At last a real shower...in river water again

So when we got to Iquitos it was boiling, muddy and also quite smelly, at least in the port. There was dirt and rubbish everywhere near the port. I was totally convinced I was going to fall off the planks leading off the boat into the water, sandals with no grip, hot sweaty feet a heavy backpack and a rucksack is pretty much a match made in heaven for falling over. Thankfully I made it without making a spectacle of myself.

The port was crowded and busy and with people trying to get us to come with them, talk to them, stare at us. Whilst we were negotiating a price for the motor taxi my friend stopped a small and persistent boy from trying to steal my shampoo tucked into the side of my backpack. We had heard that theft was rife. One girl, we even heard, had had all her money and travel documents taken from her whist she was getting her bearings having just got off the boat, it was probably the guy who had been 'helping' her and giving directions.

Backpacks loaded up on the back and clutching them still from inside the seats of the motor taxi we made our way over to our pricey waterside hostel. I pretty much never pre-book but the friends I was travelling with were significantly more organised then me. I simply rely on turning up and asking some locals, it can mean much cheaper deals than what you find online. In this, case after days on a boat we felt like we deserved a little bit of pampering and it was great to cut out the fuss and panic of looking for a good place, asking, explaining and haggling. The hostel was blissful, looking out on the river a floating room made entirely from recycled wood with an en suite bathroom that used the water straight out of the river. It was great having our own little space after the confines of the boat.

I was first in the shower. I scrubbed and scrubbed and even washed my hair twice. Being clean again felt like being reborn, unfortunately in the high heat and humidity of Iquitos it wasn't a sensation that lasted that long.

A fresh change of clothes at last!!!!

We relaxed for a bit in our own space and then went out for a walk to see what Iquitos had to offer.

The floating hostel

The view from the floating hostel

Some last boat photos

Early in the morning we stopped at a place called Nauta. I woke up and took these dawn photos. Not sure if I expected it or not, but this is what a jungle town looks like.

A petrol key, naturally

Sunrise

Lots of locals got off at Nauta, preferring to make the rest of the journey to Iquitos over land - there is a road apparently, we had no idea about this though. Must be a faster way of getting there though because the boat was practically empty afterwards.

Market, mud, people

I like the type on the life jackets, they were strung over our hammocks and crawling with spiders. I hate spiders! Had trouble sleeping the first night, worrying that one might land one my whilst I was unconscious. Hammock intervened and soon worked on the insomnia bought about by the worry

Hammocks, mosquito nets, this was our boat dorm room. 

And at last IQUITOS

Love the big boats, they look like wonky floating houses, their flat bottoms, they move like slabs in the water unlike their ocean going counterparts who have to cut through waves and swell.

Seriously cool looking boats - I wonder how old they are..

The Boat

What to say about the boat, the most remarkable thing was discovering my hidden talents for napping. I never knew my capacity for sleeping in hammocks was quite as endless as it seems to be. In the confined space of the boat deck, with nothing much to do for amusement, every time I climbed back inside my hammock to read I'd barely get through two pages before I was nodding off. Ok so not strictly true, but even so, with nothing at all to do at night we would easily be asleep before midnight most days - so it wan't exactly like I needed both a mid morning and mid afternoon nap if not more than that. Why are they so comfortable to snooze in through the day and murder to sleep in at night? It makes no logical sense to me, all I do know is that I love the feeling of being suspended, cocooned. It was a big injection of sleep for me. Verging on too much sleep.

But Incredible.

The scenery was quite monotonous even in it's beauty, river, trees, sky. Endlessly. I wanted to try and convince myself that the trees were AMAZONIAN trees and after the enchanting effect that the Rainforest project had on me as a child at school, I must savour every moment of looking at these marvellous things. It's true they were an abundance of emerald green and twisted knarlled bark, birds nesting in the bright leaves. But seen from afar and not in the depths of the forest where the tress can reach up to 50 meters (next trip then) it was the harmony and dialogue between the river and sky that was by far an away the more breath-taking aspect of the scenery. Sunsets glowing in the sky reflected by the water and the endless change and progression of blue, lilac, peach, burning orange. The pure and celestial quality of the sky and the rippling water. Beautiful.

The experience of being on the boat was unique to the rest of the trip. Buses are just boring, but this felt like a real explorer's experience combining traveling to our next destination with cultural immersion, discovery of people and sights alike. There must have been hundreds of jungle dwellers travelling with us to Iquitos. Two incredibly sleazy men who perved on me and my friend during the dinner queue. I noticed on a separate trip to the bathroom that one of them had a prison style tattoo of a naked woman on his chest - literally gash. Legs spread, his navel was...really what kind of person chooses to do something like that? It was a boat of extremes. Mixed in with the unrefined machismo of the male passengers, surprisingly or perhaps not so, the entire kitchen staff were gay, really camp, really gay.

Older female passengers would assemble around the only table at night and play bingo. There was a girl with a pet monkey. And the very first local guy we talked to, who had rushed over to introduce himself to us as soon as the boat left the river banks of Yurimaguas, was socially inept and very into God. He quickly earned the name God man, or for me, el Senor. The way he had come over made us believe that he was some sort of official on the boat, offering his help, first time round he had our full attention but after we realised that he was just a bit crazy we spent the rest of the trip trying to ignore him. He really wound me up, he would come and hassle me with his God chat and ask me if I'd finished my book yet so that he could read it at the most ill-timed moments in the day, first thing in the morning before I'd ever really woken up, groggy, bleary-eyed, he would come over to annoy us.

The boat itself was hot, sweaty, confined. I actually enjoyed my shower (in the toilet cubicle, that stank, with water that came straight out of the amazon). It was refreshing, a change of sensation and it cooled me down. I was beginning to feel like I was going to rot in my own skin, my hair seriously needed washing and brushing, I felt quite revolting and although a shower like that would normally have the reverse effect, I felt clean! A feeling that lasted all of about 30 minutes. By the end of the journey with the prospect of clean clothes and a clean body firmly within my reach when we arrived at Iquitos we were told that it was going to take an hour before we'd be able to actually get off the boat! Hotter than ever at about 11am, this was the only point were the boat started to drive me crazy. I could envisage us being stuck there until dusk whilst they unloaded - I got the impression from before that the foot passengers were a second priority and cargo actually came first. It was torturous not knowing how long we would have to wait, seeing the dry land meters away, thinking about a meal that wasn't just rice, being able to walk around on streets again in clean clothes and fresh skin. Instead el Senor ramped it up a notch and suggested an exchange of email addresses and offered us a little personal free tour around his city, along with a visit to church, obvs.

I think I could talk about the boat experience endlessly, it combined such opposites and therefore the experience was ever changing even with its slow pace. I'd feel frustrated and confined and all I had to do was look out over the water and instantly feel at ease again. The pervy men felt threatening but then we would be approached by a group of children and play with them on the deck whist their parents sat near by drinking beers, watching over and smiling appreciatively. Even the monotonous rice, rice and more rice based meals we were given were somehow more enjoyable than they should have been. Feeling confined and hot by day melted away at night with constellations of stars stretching out across the open sky and cooler night air. We climbed onto the top deck for some torch light chess with some german backpackers who happened to be doing a similar trip to us. It was fun and I'd definitely do it again, maybe stay in the jungle for longer on my next trip - fingers crossed for the next trip!