On the Amazon

After our long bus trips, Mike and I were excited for the boat portion of our journey into the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Not really knowing what to expect, we simply headed toward the boat docks in search of something that would take us to Iquitos (the largest city in the world that can't be reached by road).

Before long we were aboard the Eduardo III, a three-floor cargo/passenger riverboat. The first floor was devoted to cargo, some of which was live cattle. The second floor was reserved for second-class passengers and was extremely packed. We ended up on the third floor, which was for first-class passengers. The slightly steeper fare (about $40 each for the 3-day, 2-night journey and meals) afforded us better grub and a bit more elbow room.



Here's a view of the cattle penned up on the first floor below us.



Their backs were painted before we launched. Apparently branding (with hot irons) isn't practiced in the Amazon.



Some less-interesting cargo stacked aboard.



The second-class accomodations were a bit cramped. This photo was taken before we even left port, so I think a few more squeezed in later.



Mike also took this colorful hammock picture in second-class.



Here's a pic of one of our fellow first-class passengers napping.

Before we even left Yurimaguas we spotted several river dolphins near the boat; unfortunately, this turned to be about all the wildlife we saw on the way. It's the rainy season, and the river is extremely wide. This makes it a bit hard to spot any animals in the trees from the boat's deck. Not that it mattered much -- there were plenty of other things to gawk at along the way.



Sorry, this is the best river dolphin photo we have. They're hard to catch on camera.

We passed a lot of small river villages along the way. Most of them had goods to sell or orders to collect from the boat. If we were dropping off a large shipment we'd dock for a short time; otherwise, the villages would send small boats out to meet us as we floated along.



This is one of the many villages along the way.



Look! A topless villager on the riverbank! Mike was so excited...



Another photo of the Amazon riverbank... Actually, I'm not sure if we were on the Amazon yet since we were on one of its tributaries for a while first.



What a nice tree!



This is one kind of boat quite common along the river.



Here's another popular model.



I think this photo is pretty emblematic of the Amazon riverbanks.



And now for a lovely sunset picture...



Obviously this town was anticipating an exchange.



It was also remarkably progressive. These people are more aware of the outside world than I am. Apparently it was International Women's Day or something. These feminists were picketing on the banks of the Amazon. Rock on, ladies!

Life onboard was pretty relaxed. I spent a lot of time reading in my hammock or watching the scenery scroll before my eyes. Mike spent a lot of time taking pictures. He also tried his hand at shooting logs floating by; one of our fellow passengers had a BB gun.

Most of the passengers aboard were locals from Yurimaguas or Iquitos, but there were a few other tourists and gringos aboard. About halfway into our journey we picked up some american missionaries, too. At one point I was accosted by a pregnant passenger from second-class who wanted to buy a package of Oreos off me. I didn't know what to charge and didn't want a hungry pregnant lady mad at me, so I just gave her a few cookies. She was happy, and I'm pretty sure she told me she was going to name her baby after me. Giving her free cookies might have been a mistake though, because she kept lurking over my hammock. After I refused to give her money (in addition to the cookies she had originally offered to buy) she finally backed off. I was a bit creeped out though... Other than this slightly strange incident, we got along with our fellow passengers fabulously.

After a couple of days on the boat we docked at Iquitos. Our introduction to this city was memorable, but once again I have to wait for the pictures before explaining. Sit tight. It'll be a few days this time though, because Mike and I are going on a 3-day jungle expedition. I'm sure that will produce a few stories, and I have a lot to catch you up on already... Ah well. I'll get to it eventually, I promise.

Journey to the Jungle

Oh my, have Mike and I been busy! What a contrast to our lazy Huanchaco days... I have a lot to share, so I'll start where we last left off.

After leaving Huanchaco and stashing our bikes in Trujillo, Mike and I caught a bus up the coast to Chiclayo. You may remember this town from a brief mention earlier, since we biked out of it on our way south a few months ago. We decided to go there again so that a) we could visit some of its sites, and b) we could break up what we knew would be a loooong trip into the jungle. The bus ride took about 4 hours, and we ended up spending about 2 days in Chiclayo.

The first day was almost entirely wasted in our efforts to renew our passports for another month. Having used up our initial 90 days, we opted to visit an officina de migraciones rather than to cross and re-cross a border hundreds of kilometers away. The system for renewing a passport is truly ridiculous, however. Upon expressing our desire to have our passports restamped, the migracion officer gave us a slip of paper with several document numbers on it and told us to take a cab across town to the National Bank. Evidently, the system is so corrupt that the officers are not allowed to handle money. After visiting the bank, collecting our receipts, and returning to the office, we were told we needed to make copies of multiple documents. Of course, this office, which processes hundreds of official requests a day (not all for passport stamps), does not possess a copy machine. We had to exit the office again, walk down the block to where a woman was running a copying racket through her front gate, obtain our copies, and return once more. After about 20 more minutes of waiting we were finally stamped and ready to go. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to a similar experience in another month.

The rest of our experience in Chiclayo was pleasant, however. After the passport ordeal, we wandered over to the market, which was rumored to have a significant section devoted to the products of the brujos (witches, shamans, whatever). We found a few odd tonics and some random animal pieces, but I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't as mysterious and creepy as it sounded.



An assortment of odd tonics are pictured here.



No, I don't know what it is; no, it's not alive; no, I'm not sure what you'd use it for.



Here are some less-interesting brujo ingredients.



Although these look like they belong in the brujo section, they were actually prominently featured in the fish section of the market. We asked what they were and were told that they went into cebiche. I'm not sure if I buy that story, because my cebiche tasted a lot better than this thing looks!

The following day we visited a very nice museum dedicated to the Lord of Sipán and the Moche culture, which was present in the area several hundred years earlier. Most of the artifacts were recovered from tombs and consist of pottery and lots of gold and silver. There were some fabulous headresses and nose piercings and owl necklaces. Since photos were forbidden in the museum, here's the link to the official web site: Museo Tumbas Reales Sipan. The site is in Spanish, but that won't prevent you from seeing a few pictures of the artifacts at the museum.



I know it looks like it tipped over, but I assure you, everything was in place inside. To tell the truth, I was a little bummed. Had an earthquake caused this damage I would have been walking out of the museum with lots of gold jewelry!



But seriously...it really was a fabulously laid-out, modern museum.

After visiting the museum, we hopped aboard a bus for what we were told was a 12-14 hour bus ride. 18 hours later we made it to Tarapoto. Them Andes mountains are tough to get over! The delay was caused by yet another road blockage (landslide, protests, accident, who the hell knows). Peru has perhaps the most ridiculous road system ever. There are very few roads that cross the mountains, and there are absolutely no side routes, detours, or backroads. If something happens to halt traffic, it stays right where it is until that something has been taken care of. There's no turning back on those steep mountain roads, either. Luckily, whatever was holding us up only took about 4 hours to clear. Our time in Tarapoto was mostly spent recovering...not that we stayed there long.

The next day we took a car ride to Yurimaguas. Apparently none of the bus companies are operating that route at the moment since there's a lot of construction en route, but we were kindly directed to a company that shuttles people via cars between the cities -- kind of like a carpool. For once our guidebook was wrong in our favor: most of this road is now paved, and the ride took only about 4 hours rather than the 6-8 our book warned of. Woo-hoo!

Now, I am dying to tell you about our two-day boat ride down the Amazon and our first couple of days in Iquitos, but Mike just hasn't gotten around to prepping the photos yet. And trust me, you'll want to see the photos. Guess you'll just have to come back for more a bit later.

In the meantime, I've prepared a new trivia question for you!! I know it's been a while, but now that we're on the move, I intend to revitalize this awesome Blogger feature. Don't forget to cast your vote!

Cajamarca

Realizing that we had only one more weekend in Huanchaco, Mike and I decided to take a quick weekend trip into the highlands (relatively) nearby. Our destination? Cajamarca. This city is well known for its Carnival celebrations (which we missed) and its dairy products.

I say relatively nearby because although Cajamarca is only 295 kilometers from Trujillo the bus ride takes at least 7 hours. The road pretty much winds straight up into the mountains. We were a bit unlucky on the way there as well. First we found out that our bus had been downgraded to a crappier, less comfortable model. Then, later into the ride we were stopped for over an hour while road crews attempted to clean a landslide from earlier in the week. The ride to Cajamarca took about 9 hours. Bleh. Oh, also we were finger-printed before getting onto the bus. Apparently that's normal in Peru.

Our first day in Cajamarca was quite lovely, though. We took a tour to Cumbe Mayo, which features millenia-old aqueducts built by pre-Inca peoples. The aqueducts are nice, but the scenery, the locals, and the rock carvings are cooler. Our tour was in Spanish, but I think we did a good job of understanding most of what was said.



Here's a photo of an aqueduct. Our guidebook says that Cumbe Mayo is "derived from the Quechua kumpi mayo, which means 'well-made water channel.'"



This was our initial view of the Cumbe Mayo area. After a few quick facts, we were guided through a pitch-black tunnel in these rocks.



Everything was so green (probably due to all the rain).



This nice mountain stream looks like something out of a fairy tale.



I didn't realize how much I liked the highlands until we'd spent a good deal of time on the coast.



These highlanders pretty much live in the middle of a tourist attraction.



Because they live in the middle of the tourist attraction, they sell everything from cold beer to llama hats in front of their home.



The kids are pretty cute in their traditional garb...



...until they start begging for tips. "Una propina, unaaa propiiinaaa." They have very plaintive voices, and they drag out the words as much as possible. Since Mike took so many pictures, he did tip them.



This kid seemed a bit peeved to find himself the object of so much attention. Most of the tourists are rich families from Lima, and they seem to think that this lifestyle is so quaint.



Mike took about a billion pictures of this golden sheep.



This one's my favorite. Awww...



This old-school photo looks like it could have been taken centuries ago.



This is the only carving we have a photo of, thought there were a few other neat ones. I think the guide said that this is supposed to be a map of sorts.

Our other big excursion while in Cajamarca was to Los Baños del Inca. These natural hot springs were once used by the Inca king Atahualpa. Now they're a steamy paradise. In addition to walking the grounds taking pictures, Mike and I indulged ourselves by renting our own private hot spring bath for an hour. Very relaxing.



A steamy paradise.



I like how the tree frames this photo.



Here's another photo of the hot springs. The water is 78 degrees celsius. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, but it's damn hot. The natural springs have to be mixed with cool mountain water before anyone takes a dip.



The grounds of the Baños were nicely decorated with flowers and creative bushes.

In addition to our Cumbe Mayo tour and our trip to the Baños del Inca, Mike and I roamed the city. We had a few extra days to do so, it turned out. When we went to board our bus on Monday, the company told us that there would be no buses leaving until Wednesday. Yay, an extended weekend.



Here's a view of the city from a hill above it.



The plaza in Cajamarca is colonial and similar to Trujillo's, though not quite as colorful.



Mike was disappointed that this fountain wasn't working.

Well, that's it for photos of Cajamarca. The trip was nice despite the exceedingly long bus ride. My only gripe is that I picked up a horrible cold because of all the rainy weather. Mike's not complaining though -- I lost my voice.

We're all moved out of our apartment now, and hopefully we'll be on our way to the jungle by tomorrow afternoon. Since it's such a long trip we'll be breaking it up with a few stops on the way, but we'll be posting pics and stories the whole time.

Can you believe it's March already??

TTFN, Trujillo

Now that we're about to leave the coast, I figured it was time to post a few pics of Trujillo. Although we were living in Huanchaco, Trujillo was our second city. It's where we went to go to the movies, visit the mall, or eat at "Papa Juan's" (mejor ingredientes, mejor pizza). Trujillo is one of the largest cities in northern Peru, and its colonial architecture is a highlight. Here's a late-in-coming photo tour:



The Plaza de Armas is the central square of any colonial city. The one in Trujillo is especially lovely. It's a shame we didn't take any pictures when it was decorated for the holidays -- there were Christmas trees everywhere. One of them was Shrek themed.



I present to you the focal point of the city of Trujillo: some naked guy in a cape. It's kind of like an up-skirt shot.



This church is very prominent in Trujillo's Plaza de Armas. I really like the way the brightly colored buildings make the city seem so happy and friendly.



This elaborately decorated building sits directly on the Plaza de Armas.



This is one of the less attractive buildings on the Plaza, but it reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Mmmmm...my favorite flavor.



...yet another colonial masterpiece on the Plaza.



I'm not sure why I like this one, but I do.



These bizarre wood balconies (like the one in the foreground) jut out from many of the colonial buildings. They're very Trujillo.



The windows in Trujillo are quite fabulous. Mike's photos of them make a perfect sequel to his Antigua, Guatemala door series.



This window's even nicer with the building's two-tone paint job. We almost got arrested for this photo though; the window belongs to a bank. Since we got caught simply casing the joint, we decided to postpone our bank robbery plans for an easier mark.



And now for a less attractive image from the Trujillo files: this building is in disrepair, as I'm sure you can see for yourself. Take special note, however, of the broken glass lining a portion of the roof. The owners obviously calculated exactly how much space they would need to arm with bottle shards in order to deter criminals who might shimmy up the window bars, leap onto the protruding metal arm, and swing onto the roof. Clever.



Mike suspects that this man was locked out and therefore had to set up shop on the sidewalk. As if.



I don't know how many of the signs you can read, but this entire street is lined with Opticas. Guess you know where to go when you need an eye exam.

Tada! There's Trujillo in a nutshell. Come back soon for photos of our weekend get-away that left us stranded in the mountains.