Peru 2

Day 251: Wednesday November 24th 2004. Went out and met up with a crowd from school. Another big night...

Day 252: Thursday November 25th 2004. oops, lost another day!

Day 253: Friday November 26th 2004. Finalised leaving Cuzco - paid bills, did laundry, got bus tickets.

Day 254: Saturday November 27th 2004. Caught the overnight bus to Nazca.

Day 255: Sunday November 28th 2004. Arrived in Nazca around 6am. Checked into a hostel for a couple of hours sleep before getting into a small plane to have a look at the famous Nazca lines. The weather was clear, and the lines proved to be a pretty amazing sight;

Trapezoid	Big hands	Hummingbird
Monkey	Spider	Condor

It was the first time I had gone up in a Cessna and actually come back down in it too - I'd have been happier jumping out at 11,000ft!

Day 256: Monday November 29th 2004. Travelled to Pisco

Day 257: Tuesday November 30th 2004. Took a wildlife tour to Paracas national park. The place used to one of the leading places in the world for producing guano (bird shit fertiliser) produced by the colonies of seabirds there. The place is now protected, and is home to sealions, gulls, pelicans, coronets, vultures and humbolt penguins. I managed to get some shots I'm happy with, despite the overcast weather first thing. It was very cool, but I am really itching to get up north into the Amazon....

from the boat	desert all around	colonies	local	local fishermen
sealion	pelican	sealion and birds	vulture	humbolt penguins

Day 258: Wednesday December 1st 2004. There is a transport strike on, and so we are stuck in Pisco for a few days. It's starting to look like a bit of a mission getting up to Peru's best beaches in time for the new year...

Day 259: Thursday December 2nd 2004. The strike is now over, so we caught a bus up to Lima, the capital.

Day 260: Friday December 3rd 2004. The dollar / pound exchange rae hit 1.94 today - so we bought three internal flights for around forty quid each - sweet!

Day 261: Saturday December 4th 2004. Flew to Pucalpa, the gateway to the Amazon. It definitely feels like rainforest, what with the lushness everywhere and the stupidly high humidity. We booked into a jungle lodge (with hot water!) and tried not to think about mozzies as we realised our cabin is on a patch of very swampy ground... Mozzie nets, insect repellent and long sleeves become the necessities...

Day 262: Sunday December 5th 2004. Woke up to the noise of a tropical rainstorm on the roof. The jungle lodge is turning out to be Peru's answer to Butlins, with kids everywhere, bad music etc... We go down to the harbour to find space on a cargo boat going up through the Amazon to Iquitos. We find a boat, and book passage on a boat called the Madreselva (jungle mother) for about 17 quid each for a small cabin and food for 5 days - worryingly cheap!

Day 263: Monday December 6th 2004. We get to the boat at 2pm. We set off at 6pm. We get stuck on a mud bank at 6.01pm. Twenty minutes later, once free of the mud bank, we get get stuck on another a few minutes later. The another. And another. Getting a bit worried about the sobriety of the captain. We are alarmed to see lots of sawmills - evidence that rainforest logging here is very much big business.

Day 264: Tuesday December 7th 2004. Woke up to find us stuck on another mud bank. We have broken down. We wait all day for spares from Pulcalpa. Went for a walk in the jungle - harsh territory, loads of biting insects. Pretty much impenetratable too. What with the heat and humidity - it's the real back and beyond alright! Adapting to meals of bundles of cooked chicken and rice in a banana leaf wrapper. Settling in for a long ride...

The MV Madreselva, broken down at a loggers access point...

We finally got going again late afternoon. During one stop at a village we caught our first Pink Dolphin sighting. It was all too brief to get photos - hopefully we'll get to see more once we get into the jungle proper, after Iquitos...

Day 265: Wednesday December 8th 2004. Lazed about on the boat. Aaron had a need to get really pissed in the evening, so we did. A couple of the local lads asked to use my guitar, so we had music at sunset on the roof of the boat. This really feels like 'real travelling'!

life on the river Ucayali

Day 266: Thursday December 9th 2004. We seem to be stopping at practically every village on the way to Iquitos! People have got off en-route, and there is a little more space. The cargo we are carrying has changed too - we now have pigs, chickens, puppies and even a bull on board. The weather has changed too, with tropical downpours being the order of the day. It's actually a relief after all that sun!

Another village	rainbow

Day 267: Friday December 10th 2004. The rain has eased up a bit, but the clouds have remained. With our new friends from last night, we start drinking before lunch. We stop at a larger village for a couple of hours, so we go ashore for more beer and food. From there it gets a bit blurry...

Fernando and friends

Day 268: Saturday December 11th 2004. Wake up to find the cabin in an utter state, hungover to hell. We pull into Iquitos just as I finish packing. We check into a clean hotel with hot water and cable TV - bliss! After a sleep and a shower, we go out with our Peruvian friends we met on the boat. We go to an all Peruvian concert a have a very good, but late night...

Day 269: Sunday December 12th 2004. Well, it's Sunday...

Day 270: Monday December 13th 2004. We book up for a real 'Amazon adventure' - no lodges or hotels, just camping. Real travelling!

Day 271: Tuesday December 14th 2004. We leave for the jungle. We take a cargo boat back up the river overnight, sleeping in hammocks in one of the holds.

Day 272: Wednesday December 15th 2004. We arrive at a village where we transfer to a motorised dugout and turn off the Ucalayi river up a tributary. We get to 'base camp' and store any unnecessary equipment. We then take the dugout up a tributary of the tributary and have to hack through fallen trees to continue. We have to abandon the motorised dugout because the waterways are so clogged with fallen trees. We continue in small dugouts without motors...

waterways	breaking through	eagle	flower

This really is the most harsh jungle I have ever come across! Utterly beautiful, awash with butterflies and bugs! The noises coming out of the jungle are amazing - birds, bugs, monkeys and who knows what else - awesome. Spotting wildlife here is near impossible though. The jungle is just so thick, you can't see for more than 30 metres or so... It looks like lots of shots of bugs and trees then!

Day 273: Thursday December 16th 2004. Went out in the small dugouts to search for animals and gather food. We drank from vines and felled a 'jungle spaghetti' tree for the palm hearts. We ate the palm hearts later with lemon juice - tasty.

water filled vines	big old tree	jungle spaghetti

Day 274: Friday December 17th 2004. Returned to base camp. We go for a walk around the camp, returning with a tree resin that smells like inscence when burnt and some (slightly manky) mangoes. Ayawasca night.

beetle	grasshopper

Day 275: Saturday December 18th 2004. Last full day in the jungle. We went to see a lake with giant water lilies and to go fishing for piranha. We had no luck with the fishing...

tough territory	giant lilies

Day 276: Sunday December 19th 2004. Left base camp for home. Went to a village to 'buy a coconut' (i.e. get a picture of the tattooed tribes people. We also stopped to see pink river dolphins en-route. Our dugout canoe journey ended at a small village where our guide found a full grown Rhino beetle that appeared to take a liking to my phone... The Rhino beetle is the strongest animal (for it's size) in the world.

tattooed tribeswoman	what piranhas?	local girl

Nokia love!	butterflies

Once on the ferry, we had a few beers with a Peruvian doctor who proved to be an excellent guitar player. The sunset was also one of the best yet:

sunset over the Ucayali

Day 277: Monday December 20th 2004. Was good to get back to civilisation - showers and laundery! Booked flights heading towards Mancora, Peru's best beach...

Day 278: Tuesday December 21st 2004. Flew from Iquitos to Lima, then Lima to Chiclayo.

Day 279: Wednesday December 22nd 2004. Caught the overnight bus from Chiclayo to Mancora. Sun and surf for christmas this year - sweet!

Day 280: Thursday December 23rd 2004. Arrived in Mancora, lazed for the rest of the day! Had a heavy night, watched the sunrise from the beach around a fire. Met Paulo, a Spaniard working in Lima.

Day 281: Friday December 24th 2004. Lazy and hazy...

Day 282: Saturday December 25th 2004. Christmas day on the beach - sweet! Stayed up drinking very late with Paulo and Carlos, a local.

Day 283: Sunday December 26th 2004. Today was supposed to be a day of recovery, only we had to move hotels, as 'Sol y Mar' was fully booked for new years.

Day 284: Monday December 27th 2004. So we moved to Arena Blanca, with help from Paulo. Went for a walk up the beach at sunset to take some photos...

flowers	sunset

Day 285: Tuesday December 28th 2004. Not much to say really - hung around the hotel, general holiday sort of stuff.

Filming a Pepsi ad

Day 286: Wednesday December 29th 2004. Holiday stuff again.

Day 287: Thursday December 30th 2004. And again. Managed to get my phone stolen though...

Day 288: Friday December 31st 2004. Spent new year's with Brendon and J, the east end boys, and an Argentinean couple. After we had wandered for a while, until we found a comfy bar where we talked in the new year! After midnight we went down to the beach, and joined in around one of the multitude of bonfires, meeting all sorts of freaky types...

Day 289: Saturday January 1st 2005. Was still in the party mood, having not slept, and so spent the day on the beach, swimming, talking to locals and drinking beer.

Day 290: Sunday January 2nd 2005. Loafing day, recovering from the rigours of a Peruvian style 'nuevo ano'!

Day 291: Monday January 3rd 2005. We decided to stay another day, but unfortunately wasted it trying to re-confirm our flights - damn!

Day 292: Tuesday January 4th 2005. We checked out this morning, and got a ride to Tumbes airport, which has turned out to be utterly desolate and basically shut. We have no water, food or anything for the next four hours, so I'm taking the opportunity to catch up with the website...

Eventually caught our flight to Lima, and checked into a hostal in Miraflores. Went out for burgers and beer - all good after all that seafood.

Day 293: Wednesday January 5th 2005. Our flight to Juliaca was delayed, so it was another long wait in an airport... We landed and caught a bus to Puno. We're now at altitude again (3800M) and I'm feeling it! It's good to get a last taster of the Andean culture before we get to the lowlands.

Day 294: Thursday January 6th 2005. Woke up at 7am to the sound of building work in the hostal. Went out for breakfast, returned and moved hotel.

Day 295: Friday January 7th 2005. I ended up going to see the Uros Islands - the famous islands made from only reeds. The reeds slowly sink, so the islanders are constantly adding fresh reeds to keep them afloat.

Floating villages	water's edge	fishing boats	reed boat	reed weaver

Everything is made from reeds - the houses, boats, the lot. Some of the boats were particularly impressive. They don't have mains electricity, and so they all use solar panels for their TVs and radios.

Day 296: Saturday January 8th 2005. Admin day - clean clothes, banking etc... Booked tickets to Copacabana, Bolivia for early tomorrow.

Day 297: Sunday January 9th 2005. Got up early to catch our bus to Bolivia. We were due to be picked up at 7am to get to the bus station for 7:30. At 7:15 no-one had turned up so we got a taxi to the bus station where we were informed the bus had just missed us at the hotel, and we had to wait whilst the bus did a round trip around town...

Onwards to Bolivia. Peru was cool - the genial people, the mountains, desert, jungle and beaches - you can't really ask for much more! I actually ended up spending more time here than anywhere else on this trip (3 months here, 2.5 in South Africa...)

Bolivia

index