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.