Hello Peru, how do you do?

So, that was it Ecuador, hu?
We finally decided to move on, despite the great, GREAT adventures and experiences we made here. BUT you should always stop and leave when it’s best, right? So, good bye Ecuador, I guess I’m gonne see you no more.

On our way out the country, we had to stop by in Coca, a city on the boarderline between civilization and jungle, from where we’d hopefully get a boat soonish, which would bring us along the river Napo to “Nueva Rocka Forte”, the last town before the boarder. Upon arrival there in the early morning hours, we looked for a hostel, as recommended in the Lonely Planet, and after a good time of searching finally found it and instantly tested our beds for solid 5hrs, to make up for the lack of sleep from the shitty busride.

When walking through the town, to look for unchecked items from our shopping list, we met a friend of me from Montanita “Maxx”, who fled the coast, and told us that the once so magic place was dead and they would soon begin to tear open the streets and build in a sewage system. And although Coca was his hometown, he didn’t speak to fond of it, which is why we didn’t leave the hostel that night to grab some drinks, but rather stayed in and watched Troy and 300 one after the other on the rooms TV.

The next day we got up early to get our boat to the boarder around 7 and were already afraid what kind of boat would be expecting us. At the docks we saw it and at first didn’t think too bad of it, but after the first few hours, the tiny seats and the little space for the legs really got on our nerves. The ride was scheduled for 10hrs and after 5hrs we had our only break at a little restaurant along the way. But the stop was only for 15 minutes, during which we only managed to eat a thin noodle soup and couldn’t even take-away order a proper meal. Another 7 hours later, we finally reached our destination and wanted to directly look for people who could bring us across the boarder in their boat, and preferably take us directly to Iquitos, Peru.

Along the way, we met a Belgique couple who had the same plans in mind and thus we started our search together. After 5mins of walking along one of the 3 streets of Nueva Rocka Forte, we encountered an Argentinian couple and a German girl, who had a boat at hand, that would take them to Iquitos, and luckily for us there was still room to hang our hammocks. It wasn’t really cheap with 90$ per person, but as we had no idea when the next boat would arrive that could take us down the river, we preferred expensive security over cheap jeopardy.

They also were just on the way to the Immigration Office, to get their departure stamps, so we tagged along, I at the back, with a weird feeling in my stomache. On the way we found out the German girl had went to the pub with half the precincts staff the previous night, and said they would be all very cool guys and that I would get my stamp, without trouble. To be honest, I still wasn’t calm about it, and when the police officer in charge finally looked at my Passport, he couldn’t his eyes. He triple checked the current date, to be sure the Ecuadorian visa in his hands really was expired since 5 weeks, and immediately called his superior in the next bigger town. Upon return he mentioned that he would have to arrest me and put me in jail until he was told what to do with me by higher levels of the police.

Anike, our new German friend just went “best-buddy” with him and said that we could easily resolve the issues at hand over a beer of 15 in the nearest watering hole. Unfortunately for us, it was Sunday and thus, no one was allowed to sell alcohol to these “oh so pretentious Catholics”. Also, I couldn’t just offer 50$ to him, as there were at least another 5 people in the room, just doing nothing and already witnesses of me being in the country illegally. In the end, the problem was attended to outside of the precinct where the police officer told me he would like to do a trip to Coca with his friends, but apparently they had spend all their money during the previous night and it would probably cost them 30$ back and forth. Said and done. I handed 30$ over to him and 1 minute later I held my freshly stamped passport in hand and had officially checked out of the country. With a massive smile in my face, and an angry Chris (he had paid his 230$ for an additional visa in Quito) we went to the hostel to try out our newly bought hammocks and then go out to grab some food.

Again, the next day was an early wake up and we met the others around 5:30am in the kitchen of our hostel, where the host had already prepared breakfast for Chris and me (for ridiculously cheap 3$ per person) and then headed off to the river. There, the tiniest boat was waiting for us, in which we barely all fitted. The Belgian guy had with 1,96m the worst seating on the little boat and really did suffer for the whole two hours it took us to reach Pantoja, the first city along the boarder. There Passports were stamped and we were off to the big boat, already waiting for us along the riverside. We boarded and set up our stuff, and within 1 hour we were on our way to Iquitos.

Basically, we did not much during our 3 days / 2 nights cruise down the river but hang about in our hammocks, read, cook, chill out and once in a while play card and dice games. Concerning the food we had the good fortune of being accompanied by an Argentinian chef, who would cook up brilliant things with very little choice of ingredients.

A few of the highlights along the way were during the first day, when I somehow agreed to let Chris shave off my hair, as the chances were very little that I would ever do this again in the future and thus would never know how I look without hair. I’ve always had relatively long hair, and shaving it off, would be a radical thing to do, but again, I have no idea what I was thinking. I just know that after our first lunch, Chris and I settled on one of the decks and a good 15 minutes later, I was bald.

Another highlight was the first night, during which it started pouring down on us. And as we set up our hammocks under the stars, Petrus fucked us right over. Unfortunately, I had made a mistake when tying the knot of my hammock, and by the time my “bed” was taken off the rails, all my stuff and I were soaked. I then set up next to the engine in a dry spot, without wind, but it was still a very uncomfortable night, which only got better, as by 5:30am the engine was fired up and the heat of it started to dry me and my equipment. Lucky for me, I wore my earplugs against eventual snoring from Chris and hence managed to not become deaf by the engine noise. (We had times before, when Chris’ snoring actually could have deafened me as well, but that’s another story ;-) ). Chris and Anike, on the other side, had no earplugs, and after Chris snatched my spare ones, only she partially turned deaf.

The next day I didn’t get out of my hammock before lunch, as I was still cold and I finally enjoyed not having to get up for anything. So around 1pm I felt like I needed to move and was just in time for another delicious meal by Franco. The morning apparently was grey and rainy and sun only came out during the late afternoon, so in the meantime I read a bit and Chris and I taught one of the captains of the boat how to Kniffel. J

This evening I also helped Franco to catch some fish from the back of the boat and after a nice night with everyone on the reeling, we returned to our hammocks for a last night on the boat.

This night passed without any incidences and although it didn’t rain that night, I preferred my cosy place next to the engine. Unfortunately, I lost one of my earplugs that night and when the engine roared up the next morning, it was deafening. It took my left ear about 7-8hrs to recover from that noise and to regain full hearing again.

Around noon our ride was already over and we reached Manzán, a little town just around the bend from Iquitos. There the seven of us grabbed a Tuk Tuk to cross the island to the other side and there boarded a speed boat which would bring us to the big city. Upon arrival it was loud, noisy and stank like rotting animals. No wonder, we arrived at the production market where indigenas from all around present their hunted game right under the burning midday sun. We walked a few blocks to the plaza de armas from where we thought we could arrange either a tour through the jungle or a boat to the next stop along the river, Yurimaguas. Just before we got the plaza, we were harassed by about 5 guys that shoved their “official tour guide” signs in our faces and wanted to convince us to jump into the next boat with them for a jungle trip, at about 100$ per day, per person. We held them off for a bit to get our own interests set first and then talk to the guys.

In the end, we said that we don’t like the city and wanted to leave as soon as possible. So we grabbed one of them, told them we need to change money and a boat leaving for Yuri. Said, done. The first part was easily done, as his three cousins awaited us around the corner with Peruvian dough; the second part with the boat, not so much. We checked three harbours and everybody told us that the next boat would leave the next day. Hence, we too went to the hostel where the other guys were and settled for a night in Iquitos. That night there was a soccer match on, Peru versus Chile, and I have to say, they really are shit at it. Chile bust their nuts with an easy 3:0 and could have scored another 3 goals more, with a bit more concentration. But with this we went to bed and hoped to really get on the boat to Yuri, as this town just wasn’t the right place for us.