Chachapoyas & Iquitos

In Chachapoyas, I got up 45 minutes later, figured that the trip could wait :) When I got to the agency, I was right on time, but I didn't have any breakfast yet, but a few people were just getting their food, and turns out they are on the trip as well. Good think I didn't wake up on time :)On this trip we were supposed to see 2 burial sites. We hiked to one of the sites. The views were really nice with mountains, rivers and waterfalls. The site wasn't impressive because we were like 200 meters away from it, and could barely see it with a camera zoom. There was another site, but here when archeologists find anything, they move it to the museum, so there is nothing left to see. 30 years ago, some village nearby was struck by a disease, and the locals thought that the ancestors got mad at them for some reason and sent the disease to them. So they went to the site and tried to burn it! Apparently some villages here don't have any educations what so ever, so they still live in the past.Went to another site, but again it was far away, and the hike was very long. At least I got some exercise out of it. At 7pm we were back. We all agreed to go out, but I was still too tired, and just went to sleep.Next day went to an ancient city of Kuelap. It's second to Machu Pichu. 2.5 hours drive. The driver was so careful, made a full stop at places where other drivers just jumped over. The guide spoke both Spanish and English, and during the Spanish explanations, I understood like 90% of it :) The walls around the city are 12-19 meters high, with approximately 300 houses inside. Incas conquered the city, but they lived with them. When the Spanish came, they just burnt everything to the ground. All the houses are the same. Very little, with typically 5 people living in them, has a living room, the beds are hung like shelves (it's cold to sleep on a rock floor), a kitchen, animals and a place to bury dead people. And we complain now about lack of space :)Next day went to the 3rd highest waterfall in the world at 741 meters. It was just discovered 3 years ago, because the locals (again) believed that there is a mermaid living in there, and caught people. So nobody went there, and didn't let anybody else near it. Hiked there with 2 french guys. 2 hours up in the sun, then in the jungle. We were walking pretty fast, so after 2 days of heavy hiking, I actually got into a better shape :) On the way there saw a bunch of butterflies, a big snail, and picked up some fruits. When we got there, just stayed for 5 minutes, got all drained, and it wasn't interesting, because the waterfall has 2 parts, so we only saw 200 meters of it. I've seen bigger waterfalls than that. After 5 minutes we started walking back. I went back to Chachapoyas, and the French guys continued to the jungle (Iquitos).Overall, I wasn't very impressed by all these sites.
Next day, set up an alarm at 5am to take a bus that goes closer to the jungle. When it went off, I thought to myself that I'm not crazy, and went to sleep until 6:30 (yeah ... much better :) ). Went to the next town 1 hour away where all the buses leave from. Arrived there at 9, but the next bus leaves only at 12. When I ate at the restaurant, met a girl Melissa who goes to Iquitos too. Got on the bus, and instead of 6 hours, it went for 9 !!! I think they decided to fix the whole road on the way there. Got to Tarapoto, and it was too late to go to the next city, so we stayed overnight. Gosh, the noise ! The city doesn't have normal taxi cabs, it has mototaxies which are noisy as hell.Next day we wanted to stay in Tarapoto to go see a waterfall, but it rained heavily, so we got on the bus to the next town of Yurimaguas. We passed so many landslides, but by that time most of them were already cleaned up. These workers really have a secure job in there. It was raining heavily and we went through some thick fog for a while, with visibility of 3 meters, but then it cleared up, and it was beautiful, all green and warm and jungly like :) When we got to Yurimaguas, we didn't know anything, but the taxi guy took us to the store to buy hammocks, told us everything we need, drove us all around, and took us to the boat that goes to the jungle. When we approached the boat 2 guys surrounded us, took our bags, and went to the boat. They're the local helpers. By that time it was too late to say no, so we kinds unwillingly hired them. They took us to the better spots, hung the hammocks, went and bought everything we needed. I felt as though they were our slaves or something. The boat was extremely weird. At the front there was a space for maybe 30 cows and other cargo. And a capacity for 300 people on 2 levels. Hammocks were set about 1 meter away from each other in 2 rows. So at night if you turn you would definitely kick somebody. So our personal space completely disappeared for these 2 days. The boat was supposed to leave at 3, but left at 5. We were lucky, because sometimes they say, yeah, in an hour, in an hour, and it leaves 2 days later.The boat ride was very relaxing, 2 days, the scenery is pretty but pretty much the same, green on both sides with occasional villages. The boat would stop a few times a day to load and unload cargo, and girls would run around the boat selling sweets. We wouldn't even get off our hammocks. "What do you have?, and you and you?? ", they would all come and offer stuff, which was nice considering that the food on the boat was terrible. Lunch and dinner were the same, a bunch of rice with a tiny piece of chicken and a disgusting boiled banana. The call for the food was funny though, the loudest bang of metal against metal. After which for the whole length of the boat there would appear a line up of hungry Peruvians with any kind of container they could find. Breakfast was really bad, 2 buns of white bread with margarine in the middle and some white or brown water of I don't know what, and the worst part of it, that it was at 6 am :) I would usually eat half a bun, and then go back to sleep until lunch :) It was a really good time to relax after the long ride to Peru and all the excursions. On the boat there were 300 people, but it was very quiet, everybody's chilling in their own hammock, so I just read, read and read. I read 400 pages in 2 days, which for me is unusual :) One woman beside me was doing her makeup every half an hour, while her legs were completely covered with long black hair, meanwhile her husband was peaking his beard hair out with her twizzlers :)One guy on the boat bought a beautiful Amazonian parrot. I got so mad !! I asked him how much it was, and he said $10 !!! In Canada this kind of parrot costs over $1000. I went to the captain of the boat to complain. I explained to him that it's illegal to buy and sell wild animals, and they shouldn't allow sellers on the boat. And because people buy them, then there is money in it, and a lot of animals are killed because of it and are really mistreated, but they just laughed at me, and said that it's allowed in here. They're so ignorant !! Around Iquitos there are no more animals, they all got killed. Now around Iquitos there are a bunch of zoos where animals are in cages for protection, because if they'll let them out, somebody will kill them for sure. I really get in a bad mood when I see something like that !! :(((Arrived at noisy Iquitos. It is the largest jungle city in the world (500.000) which is unreachable by road. You either have to take a boat or fly in. Taxi driver was super nice, drove us around hotels, and recommended good and cheap tour agencies. We took a hotel off the center (thank god), because it was good, cheap and quiet. The noise from the mototaxies drills your head every time! We just walked around. There was nothing special, a few tiled buildings which remained after a rubber boom.Next day was a touring around day. We wanted to wake up at 5:30 to see some floating neighborhood, and it says in the guide book that the best time to visit it is at 7 am. Naaahaaaa ... continued sleeping :))) Got up at 8 instead. Went to a butterfly farm. Got to the port to take a taxi boat over there, and all the drivers attacked us. 2 remained and continued arguing with whom we should go. So we ended up flipping a coin :) Got there, it was super cool. There are monkeys living in there, but they are not as friendly as the ones in Puyo. They're brown with red faces! They also have cages for monkeys, jaguar, some other cool cat, a crocodile and a sea cow. Butterfly farm was very interesting. Apparently butterflies live maximum to 2 weeks, and it takes 6 months to get born. There is one big butterfly which doesn't have a mouth or a digestive system, it only lives for 3 days, and mates for 36 hours. The females produce a scent that the males can feel from 15 kilometers away. We saw different stages of caterpillars and cocoons, and let a few butterflies out into the jungle.In the farm a big fly bit me, and I only noticed it minimum 15 minutes later. So when the driver killed it, all his hand was in blood, and a huge stain on my pants. We went to some indigenous village presentation, and they had some homemade natural medicine, so I put it on, and right away the bleeding has stopped and it never itched later. In the presentation, there were like 10 people with just a skirt. So all women were topless. The tourists got a hat out of parrot feathers, and they drew three lines of some black paint on our faces. They "sang and danced" their traditional stuff, and we run around with them for a few songs too. But it was expensive. 20 soles (3 soles =~ 1 US) for half an hour! After that we drove to some zoo. It wasn't really a zoo. They had 2 sloths, 2 anacondas, and a crocodile. But it was all worth it just to hold the sloth, he was so so cute, we couldn't stop taking pictures !! :)) Then we got a shot of some jungle liquor.Next day we went to a 3 day jungle trip. In the morning the 2 french guys whom I went to the waterfalls with showed up in the hostel. We were both very shocked! How did they leave a day earlier and arrived 2 days later??!!?? We couldn't figure that out. They said that their boat didn't leave for 2 days, but how come ours did??On the way there I ate half of a fried warm ... man it was disgusting !! Chewy too :)) The lodge was only 60 kilometers away, so we didn't see much jungle and no animals. The trip per day cost $130 soles, including a guide, lodge, transportation and food. Went there with 2 more Peruvians. And in the lodge, there were only 7 of us. Right now is a low season, but in a high season, the lodge is full, with 50 people, and it costs $120 dollar a day. The lodge is really nice, resembling a mini resort. It had a cut grass with flowers planted around, and a very cute and spacious room with mosquito nets instead of windows throughout all the length of the walls. We drove on a motorized canoe. There is a place where 2 rivers merge. Some river with Amazon, and they don't mix, so you could clearly see the difference like a line separating them. Different color and texture. One is darker, and wavier than the other. During the rainy season, the river rises 6 meters, widens a lot too, and a lot of villages are flooded. That's why all the houses are built on high sticks, but some times even that doesn't help.That day it was raining. We went to some zoo, saw monkeys, toucans, crocodiles, anacondas, and the coolest prehistoric turtle ever!! Its face is triangular, with the longest neck ever, and stuff hanging out of it. Later we saw a sun set which was beautiful, all 360 degrees were lit with red, yellow and orange colors, and the river became red as well.There is no electricity at the lodge, so all the paths are lit by gasoline lamps, and we had a lamp in our room, which makes the room a little bit lighter than pitch black :)The next day we went for a walk, learned some about medicinal plants, but it wasn't interesting, I didn't even take any pictures. Then got out cane juice out of a sugar cane. Then fished piranhas, the guide caught 3, and I caught some other little fish. Then drove around looking for pink dolphins. They're really hard to spot, you have all this space around you to look, the water is really brown, so you can't see through, so you have no idea where they will surface, and by the time the guide yells "over there", all you could see is some water splashing. But we saw a few very very close to the boat. One swam just beside a boat, a few centimeters from it, but it didn't surface, we only saw bubbles coming from underneath, and then it surfaced a few meters away. It was cool nevertheless. What's sad is that at some lake nearby, one fisherman poisoned and killed 20 dolphins because he believes that these are humans turned into animals !!! I hope he's gonna go to jail for that, but the law is not really enforced at that part of the country. At night we went for a night walk. I really liked it. You can't see absolutely anything. There were bats flying around, and we found 2 spiders, 1 of them was a scorpio spider, and 1 frog. But it was interesting, because you can't see anything, and there are branches breaking off like a few meters away, and you have no idea what it is. It's also fun walking around of course :))Next day we went to a black river through some village. People there look like normal people. They go to school. But they live in wooden houses made just out of anything. Holes patched with broken umbrellas or some plastic bags. They have cloths, but they're all ripped and dirty. Girls usually have babies around 13. We got into a canoe, it was nice. Finally felt like a real jungle. There are some trees that have roots in the water, and the roots give off black substance that make the water in the river black. There were birds flying around, and it was very beautiful and relaxing until we got into a very closed area (to go see some big trees) where the mosquitoes attacked us. We were all swinging our arms around and hitting every spot on the body where they sat for like half an hour. And they're much bigger and faster. Usually the normal mosquitoes will slowly fly around, find a spot to sit on, then pock around for a bit looking for a good bite. But not these ones, they're like rockets, straight and solid attack. Thank god we had boots on, and rain coats, so the only thing bitten was the butt and upper legs. I have over 100 bites which were itching for 4 days. That day we left back to Iquitos. Overall it was a nice trip. But we didn't do or find anything super exciting. To be in a real jungle, you need to go way way deep, and it costs a fortune, definitely not done on a backpacking budget!Next day we did manage to get up in the morning to go to the floating houses neighborhood. It was very interesting. You walk through the dirtiest market, and then hire a canoe. Our guy was nice. He charged us 5 soles less, and the trip was 20 minutes longer. Should've left him a tip :( Anyway ... it's this poor neighborhood with long sticks coming from a ground somewhere beneath, and the houses are tied to it. So they go up and down with the level of the water. The house there costs $500 dollars. It's a very poor neighborhood. People there get sick very often with infections and worms, they don't have an access to clean water. They wash their dishes and cloths in the water, swim in the water, and go to the washroom to the water. It was very strange to see some businessmen in clean dress pants and shirts taking the canoes and I have no idea where they were going :) Some houses on the mainland are not built on sticks so all the first floor is flooded right now.In the afternoon we got a plane out of Iquitos to Lima. It is strange for me to go to Lima, since it's completely out of the way, but a plane to where I needed to go, costs more (although it's 1 hour less of a flight), just because there is no competition, and then I would've had to take a longer bus ride to the coast. So now I'm in Lima and have to take a 12 hour bus ride back up, and then come back down. In the airport, the official taxis cost 45 soles, but in the guide book it says to walk a bit further and get a regular taxi for 30. So we did, and bargained until we found one for 30 soles. Got to the hostel, Melissa gave him 30, and he's looking at me to receive my 30. OMG I got so mad. I said that in taxi you never pay per person, and what do you think we didn't take an official taxi for 45, and now you want to receive 60? We're tourists, but we're not stupid. Took our bags and got into the hostel, but oh he was a good actor, with such a sad face, looking at the money at hand and looking at me ... GRRRR !!!!!

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