Amazon Jungle Adventure 1

You can't go to the Amazon River and not do a Jungle Adventure or 2 so we did 2!!
Firstly we were lucky enough to meet a lovely fellow, Brian Landever who has built a small haven in the jungle called Nature's Hospital and there is a resident Sharman there and they are into medicinal plants....he was taking some scientists and professors out there to see it so we went along.  One of the other visitors was Dennis McKenna who with his brother has been into this for many years, Bill who is head of Pharmacology at a NY university and Manuel who studies the use of medicinal plants for cancer and another disease so this made for a very interesting time.

The track was pretty muddy - 20mins walk

Karen White and I outside sleeping quarters

Giant worm or leech

Amazing root system base to a living tree

Brian, Bill and Dennis discussing one of the plant's properties

Mariella, daughter Bill, Claudia (wife of Alfredo), Alfredo (Sharman), Dennis, Brian & Manuel

Very comfortable bed

Muddy but Wellies were great

Getting to Iquitos and the Amazon River Adventure

Where do I start...Firstly to get to Iquitos my friend, Karen and I decided to go from Trujillo to Yurimaguas by bus then by boat to Iquitos - an epic journey....Trujillo to Chiclayo 9 hrs then had to stay overnight there because there was no room on the bus until the following day to Chachapoyas then an overnight bus to Tarapoto where we went to a cafe for a lovely coffee and I decided to find out about our trip to Yurimaguas and it was leaving in 10 mins so quickly downed the coffee and hopped in a car for 2 hrs to Yurimaguas!!!  The scenery on the way was amazing - jungle below as we drove through an scenic mountainous area with low cloud and small villages scattered throughout. In Yurimaguas we went straight to the boat office and found there was one boat leaving the next day for Iquitos.

Scenery through the mountains from Tarapoto to Yurimaguas

Motortaxis are everywhere - cheap and fun!

 They let us sleep in our hammocks on the boat for free that night but we also decided to get a cabin/jail cell for the security of our gear - a wise move, even in hindsight - normal passage was 100 soles and a cabin was 150soles.  One great benefit of this was that our meals were brought to us first and all other passengers had to line up for theirs and there were about 150 others on the boat so that was really a bonus.

Cabin/Prison cell but great for security of bags

Eggs anyone?

Our gay chefs who you thought would produce great meals - but they didn't - same thing every meal!

Well, boat was to leave at 8am but left at around 12:30pm - so much had to be loaded onto the boat - many men worked continuously through the night carrying heavy loads like 100kg rice time after time....
The conditions were fine - the toilets ok - washing out with muddy river water and the showers were just above the toilet with only cold water but it was a welcome feeling just having a shower when the weather is so humid.

All men carried 100kg rice on their backs over and over

 

The timber came off the boat and provisions for downstream loaded on

First sunset

Lunch and dinner eaten in 'style' Marjon, Peter and Karen

Sunrise on the Amazon

Most of the local villagers traded bananas

Strange cloud formations - looked like a UFO

Our daily and nightly positions - it was comfortable...I was surprised!

Floating restaurant off Iquitos - very nice!

Amazon 4 metres high caused many houses to be flooded

Trujillo, Huanchaco and the pre-Incan Ruins nearby

After the hard trek in the Cordilleras, the beach seemed a great idea - so came to Trujillo then headed north to Huanchaco beach - once a sleepy fishing village with dark sand, but plenty of sun, surf and peace.....
Although large parts of the boardwalk had been washed away by large tides and unrelenting waves - it was still charming, (except for the large number of street dogs...)
Recent news announced that there had been huge numbers of dead animals, fish and birds washed up and they were still investigating the reasons for the deaths so for me, swimming was out, as was cerviche......
But the amazing high-ended, cigar-shaped reed fishing boats (caballitos or little horses) didn't disappoint and I was surprised to see them still used as fishing boats today.

Fisherman still use these boats.

Karen at beach in Huanchaco

We made a great hostel overlooking the beach our base - Nayland - and ventured to see the ruins of the ancient pre-Inca cultures of the Moche (~AD100-700 they built pyramids near Trujillo at Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol), the Sipan Tombs and the Chimu (who built the city of Chan Chan ~1300AD).  So interesting seeing these ancient skeletons in their tombs buried with either a guard, a wife, mistress (or both but the mistress has her face covered with a metal plate, sometimes a child and llama or dog)  Some of the amazing artefacts are in the museum along with the jewelry, pottery, swords, face masks and robes.

Beautiful original tiles in the Huaca de la Luna

Markings in the adobe (mud) bricks

Huaca del Sol still being re-discovered

Magnificent Mural seen above with many of their myths depicted

Chan Chan Palace and the designs were amazing

Karen with a model of a very short guard

Then to a museum which housed many of the artefacts and some skeletons and representations of how the royalty were buried.

Beautiful detailed pottery piece

Then to see the real thing - tombs dug up and left on display......

He was buried wit a few people and an animal and many artefacts

Buried with guards, woman (upside down) and a child and animals 

Site of  more excavations