Tej Turner

Travelblog SA#14: Iquitos – Peru

30th August – 5th September 2018

Sometimes when travelling you have rather romanticised expectations which do not deliver and such was the case when I embarked upon my journey to the Amazon.

The idea was that I wanted to reach Iquitos – the Amazon’s biggest city, an urban pocket deep within the jungle – by cargo boat. It is a famous journey, said to be one of the highlights of Peru. When I arrived into Yurimaguas, I set out to do just that. I caught a tuk-tuk to the port, bought a hammock, and set it up on the upper deck of a ferry which was being loaded with cargo. I had enough food and water to last me for several days, and the plan was to – like many a traveller and local before me – lay back, and watch the Amazon slowly roll by as the boat snaked deeper into the jungle, calling at villages along the way to deliver supplies.

That was my intention, but it didn’t go to plan.

The tuk-tuk driver who escorted me to the boat and helped set up my hammock told me it was due to leave the next morning but, after he left, I chatted to some of the other people there and began to hear a different story. Eventually, I heard it from the mouth of one of the boatmen themselves. The boat wasn’t due to leave for another two days.

And I also happened to know, from reading about other peoples’ experiences online, that if they were saying two days, that likely meant another three or four. That, plus the four days of cruising up the Amazon after it actually did leave, meant I was facing being on that boat for more than a week.

It was a tough decision, but eventually, I decided to abort and catch the ‘rapido’ service – which leaves several times a day and only takes fourteen hours – which was a great shame. I was gutted I would be missing out on something I had been looking forward to, but being stuck on a boat (which for most of the time wouldn’t actually be moving) just because of an idealised novelty just wasn’t sensible.

I bought a ticket for a rápido leaving that night and, while at the office, I tried to sell my hammock to another tuk-tuk driver for less than half of what I had just bought it. I thought it was a very good deal for him but, after taking it from me, he refused to complete the transaction and started claiming he had already paid me for it. There were lots of other people there but they turned a blind eye and none of them stuck up for me. This was a small town, and he was a local. I was just a gringo speaking broken Spanish. Eventually, he drove away while I was distracted.

I felt quite low that evening as I waited for the boat. Not only was I missing out on something I had been looking forward to, but I was feeling isolated. It wasn’t just the guy who stole my hammock. The man who coaxed me to buy the hammock in the first place had misled me too (by lying about when the boat was leaving) and every other tuk-tuk driver I had encountered that day had tried to greatly overcharge me. I don’t want people to read this and be put off going to Yurimaguas or trying to catch the slow boat – as I do believe that everywhere has good and bad people and I just happened to turn up at the wrong time and have bad luck with my encounters – but my overall experience there was a negative one, and I didn’t feel welcome. I was glad to be leaving.

I was tired that night so, even though the boat wasn’t very comfortable, I managed to sleep. I woke up in the morning, opened up the shutter, and stared out at the river. I was feeling better. I realised that my ‘problems’ the previous day were very first-world and that, if it really was my worst experience so far – over a period of three months – then I am doing quite well.

When I arrived in Iquitos I realised that I was there five days earlier than I had expected and had plenty of time on my hands, so I relaxed for a while. The place I was staying – Hospedaje Golondrinas – was owned by a lovely family and it had a pool. Most of the other gringos I met there were on their way to ayahuasca retreats, and I heard some of their horror stories about experiences with greedy ‘shamans’. It reinforced my conviction to not be a part of it.

Iquitos is a little rough around the edges, but it does have a certain charm about it. The bank along the Amazon river has a promenade and it is lined with old abandoned boats which have been left to rust. Belén – a shanty town, further upstream – is rather grim in places but is host to the cities’ biggest market. Iquitos also has some attractions just a stone’s throw away, and I visited many of them at a leisurely pace during the days which followed. The Museum of Indigenous Amazonian Cultures had a collection of tribal regalia along with a great wealth of information. I chose to miss the infamous zoo at Quistococha, as I had heard bad things about the conditions its animals are kept in, but I did go the Manatee Orphanage, which was also home to otters, caimans, capuchins, turtles and lots of birds.

Pilpintuwasi Butterfly farm was just a short boat ride away and I got to see some Amazonian villages on my journey there. Run by an Austrian woman who started out small but expanded it over the years, it is now a refuge of many acres and to dozens of animals such as red uakari monkeys, ocelots, macaws, and even a jaguar.

My real reason for coming to Iquitos though was to venture into the jungle, so I signed up for a tour with Jungle Wolf Expeditions, which are owned by the same family I was staying with.

For more photos from Iquitos, click here.

Travelblog SA#13: Chachapoyas – Peru

25th-28th August 2018

‘Chachapoyas’ means ‘people of the clouds’ in Quechua, and there is no mystery as to why this region was named such way as you are driven there through a series of winding roads cutting through the mountains. I arrived there at night, after a long day crossing the border from Ecuador where I made a new friend, Henri, and together we gritted our teeth through a series of colectivos (Peruvian shared taxis, often with more passengers than seats). I was already noticing that the rules of the road were different in Peru, and my heart was in my throat during the final stretch where we experienced a particularly precarious driver who liked to overtake at corners and accelerate to over 110 kilometres per hour.

Chachapoyas, the town, was prettier than I expected. Its streets were lined with old colonial buildings with balconies. Our first day, we wandered around, getting a feel for the place. We went shopping in the market, which was the centre of life and had a great variety of vegetables, fruits, cheeses, bread, and grains from all regions of the country.

In the afternoon, we caught a bus to Huanca – a village a few kilometres away with wonderful views of Soncha canyon – and it was there we finally got to see the terrain in the daylight.

Soncha Canyon beautifully demonstrates the extremes of this region and was a great introduction to understanding it. The Chachapoya people who dwelt here hundreds of years ago are mysterious. Not much is known about them because they fell into obscurity shortly after being conquered by the Incas who implemented a system of known as ‘mitimaes’ (forcibly relocating subjugated peoples to spread them out and better control them). What we do know, is that they somehow managed to thrive for hundreds of years in a difficult landscape and, one of the ways they did this, was turning its extremes to their advantage and acting as traders between those who lived in the highlands of the Andes and the people of the Amazon.

You cannot easily judge journey times around Chachapoyas. Distances as little as thirty kilometres can take over an hour because of the difficult terrain. The destination is always worth the time. On our second day, we went to see Gocta Waterfall which involved an hour and a half down bumpy roads followed by sweaty two-hour walk.

At 771 meters, people can’t seem to decide if it is the third tallest cascade in the world or the sixteenth. At the bottom, the water has fallen for so long it fumes into clouds. I have taken a video which can be seen here.

It was our final day that we went to see the crowning jewel of this area. Kuelap, an ancient city estimated to have been home to over three thousand people.

Perched upon the top of a mountain, Kuelap can now be accessed by Peru’s first ever cable car system and, while making this twenty-minute journey up the mountain, you can only begin to appreciate how impressive it is that they built it in such steep inclines. At the top, you can see for miles in every direction. The site has an ethereal quality which makes the Chachapoya people deserving of being ‘of the clouds’.

Our guide told us some facts (and speculations) about the place. It hasn’t received too much archaeological attention compared to other areas, but the excavations which have been done uncovered curious things such as human bones ritually placed within bottle-shaped recesses built into some of the walls. There is also a large platform on the south side they believe to have been a ceremonial space. It has the iconic face of a deity imprinted onto some of its stones, and the small opening at the top is perfectly aligned to where the sun shines on one of the equinoxes.

It took a full two hours to make our way through the entire complex, which is overgrown with trees but fairly well maintained. I didn’t realise that it would be so extensive. Kuelap exceeded my expectations in many ways and I do honestly believe that if it was in a country other than Peru – where it is somewhat over-shadowed by Machu Picchu – and wasn’t so hard to get to, it would be a world-renown attraction of much higher regard.

I guess that it is a good thing in a way that it gets such little attention because sometimes the magic of places can be lost when they become too popular.

For more photos and videos, click here.

Also, here is a link to a very interesting BBC documentary about the Chachapoya people.

Travelblog SA#12: Loja & Vilcabamba – Ecuador

19th-24th August 2018

The first thing I noticed about Loja was how religious it was. I arrived there on a Sunday and almost everything was closed, apart from the churches which were so cram-packed there were people spilling out from the doorways. One of the only places I could find open was an ice-cream parlour, so I had cake for lunch.

The following day the shops and restaurants opened their doors again but, for reasons which remain unclear, the museums were still closed. Perhaps it had something to do with the Fiesta de la Virgen del Cisne event going on that night; the real reason I had come to this place.

The Virgen del Cisne is a local cult figure whose physical representation has several different homes across Ecuador. Each year, on the 20^th of August, she is returned to Loja, and it is marked by a huge festival.

While I waited for this event, I did some sightseeing and spent the morning wandering around Loja’s churches and the castle gate.

And later on, I caught a taxi to the Jardín Botánico just outside of town, which had over eight hundred different species and was also a good place to spot birds.

Just over the road there was a park owned by the University. I kind of strolled on in casually, believing its trail would be a breeze, and instead found myself climbing up a steep slope and then having to grit my teeth (fear of heights, my old friend) as I made my way down a knife-point ridge to get to the bottom again. There were some wonderful panoramas along the way.

Later on, I assembled outside the castle gate with hundreds of others to await the Virgen del Cisne.

And waited…

During all the waiting, there was some entertainment. A band was playing and there was also some traditional dancing. I couldn’t see much of it though because there were some rather selfish people at the front holding up umbrellas (even though it wasn’t really raining, just a slight drizzle which wasn’t strong enough to damage my camera). I held my camera up high and caught a few videos, including this one you can watch here.

Eventually one of the musicians began to narrate, as he could tell people were getting impatient. He kept telling us the Virgen del Cisne was coming soon. After half an hour of this, she finally did. We could see her in the distance, being carried across the bridge. We all cheered…

And then… she was carried to the side somewhere and vanished from view. The man began to narrate again to keep the crowd from getting impatient while preparations were made. A brass band needed to assemble nearby… a man went to inspect the perch she was due to be placed upon and made adjustments. None of these were things which could have been done sometime during the two hours we had all been stood waiting, of course…

It began to get dark. The narrator told us to all to wave in greeting, because the Virgen del Cisne was coming soon… but nothing happened. He told us to do it again a few minutes later, but it was a false alarm… just some men with flags.

By the time she actually did come, I was so jaded by all the false alarms I almost missed it. A firework display commenced the moment she was placed on the perch, which was quite spectacular. You can see a video here.

She was then carried through the town, and I rushed towards the central park outside the cathedral, where she finished her journey. I have uploaded a series of videos from the rest of the festival which can be found here.

Overall, I was glad I went to see this as it was interesting and I had never seen anything quite like it before, but all the latin faff was a little frustrating.

The next day I caught a bus to Vilcabamba, where I would spend my last few days in Ecuador in a nature reserve called Rumi Wilco. I finally got to use my new tent.

I had the campsite to myself a couple of the nights I was there and enjoyed the isolation. Every evening, close to the place I would sit with my laptop (editing photos and writing), a pair of birds kept appearing, and one of them – which I guessed to be the male – always made a display to the other. I caught a video of it once (click here).

I also did some hiking. Rumi Wilco is owned by an Argentinean man called Orlando who lives there with his family. He is always very willing to help with information (or even just chat) and has created a great variety of trails around his reserve, all of which are marked and have information displays. One of the routes goes high up the mountain, where you can catch a great view of the surrounding valley.

I also went to Cascada el Palto, which took several hours but seeing more of Vilcabamba’s stunning scenery made the journey worthwhile (as well as having a dip in the waters to cool myself down before I made my way back).

I also made a few trips into Vilcabamba town itself, a place which has been taken over by baby-boomer expats who have retired here and now have the run of the place, spending their days languidly sat in cafes drinking wine and talking. There is some great food to be eaten in Vilcabamba if you have been on the road for a while and are beginning to miss first-world treats such as cheesecake and falafel but, be warned, whilst waiting for your food you may be subject to overhearing conversations about David Icke books, the dangers of gluten, the latest conspiracy documentary about aliens, a novel someone has been writing for over ten years and still not finished, and some new yoga class someone has just started.

The rest of my time in the area I spent chilling out at the campsite, where I caught up with friends and my blog. I also reflected upon my time in Ecuador, a place I have spent almost three months now and grown rather fond of.

Tomorrow I am crossing over the border into Peru, where I begin the next chapter of my journey.

Click on the following links for more photos from Loja and Vilcabamba.