The Upper Amazon

Sunday, March 2

  

In spite of lengthy delays and the chaotic airport at Lima, we made it.  Captain Kirk’s teleporter aboard the Starship Enterprise may have been faster, but in 24-ish hours and three time zones later, we transported from cold Salem to the subequatorial Amazon basin of central Peru.  Air travel, for all of its hassles, is still pretty amazing.

But not as amazing as the Amazon.  We’re we are with a congenial and interesting group of four from Salem and four from other parts of the USA.  We’re staying at Ceiba Tops, an eco-resort on the Amazon founded by a former Peace Corps volunteer.  He has since created three other lodges that employ many people and help preserve the Amazon culture and environment.  The grounds are beautiful, the insects buzz loudly, and it smells like a fragrant oxygen-rich green house in a botanical garden.  We are about two hours down river from Iquitos, which is only accessible by air or water.  With a population of 900,000 it is the largest city in the world not connect by roads to any other town or city.  Most freight travels in barges 2300 miles up the Amazon from the Atlantic.  Where we are now, the Amazon is four miles wide, including islands.  Imagine what it must be like farther downstream!

We spent 2 ½  very full days exploring the river, the people, and the birds, and animals by open boat.  Small huts, villages, towns, water bus stops, birds, people, you name it.  But it is mostly vast horizons and the jungle right to the shoreline.   So beautiful, so much variety, so many sounds.  Our guide grew up in a village on the Amazon and he has a degree in the history of the rainforest, so we’re learning more than we bargained for. 

Beyond the amazing natural beauty, flora, and fauna, what have we seen or done?  We visited a, village of an indigenous tribe on an island, tried our cheeks at blow gun target practice, saw pink dolphins, rode motorcycle taxis to see another town, swang  from vines  of a giant cieba tree the size of a redwood, socialized a lot over Amazonian Beer and Inka Juice, ate some local delacies (including fried moth larve), and tried our luck at piranha fishing, but both of us got skunked.  The others in our group did better, so we’re having piranha for dinner.   

the giant cieba tree

On Monday we go back upriver to Iquitos to catch a two-hour flight to Lima, which is farther south and on the coast.  Then on to Cusco and the Magic Valley of the Incas.   Although we can’t wait for that, we will miss this amazing jungle environment, the people, and the river culture.  We’re glad we opted to do this as long as we were “in the neighborhood” because it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  And to think it wasn’t even on our bucket list!