We awoke on the Friday morning to see the damage of yet another overnight storm. Rocks and small boulders strewn down the road, even a very stout log resting in the gutter! Señora Socora told us that the water reached within a few centimetres of cascading through the front door of the hotel.
So much for that piece of information and back to our trip. Mary, our tour organiser, arrived with a very large machete and an equally large bag of bread to give to our guide. Our first thoughts were that we were about to embark on a survival weekend wrestling anacondas, hunting puma, eating roast monkey washed down with strong jungle fruit juice!
After quite a few mobile phone calls and much pacing up and down outside the front door of the hotel our tour guide, Fabian, and our driver, Yonel, arrived and the three day journey began.
The first stop was Tambo. A quick hello to Padre Braulio and his mother and then onto a very nice restaurant for breakfast consisting of fried eggs in bread rolls and coffee. Delicious.
Our host was a funny little man who made us most welcome. Rather more welcome than the two serious faced policemen sitting at the next table with their machine guns resting on the spare seats!
After Tambo we experienced three and a half hours of the most amazing scenery one could ever imagine as we drove through, and over, the western side of the Andes into the edge of the selva, the Amazon Jungle. Small villages and even smaller farms were dotted everywhere. Thank heavens the truck traffic was light as the roads were rather narrow, winding and as usual, hanging off the side of the mountains.
After a quick stop at a police control point and the registration of our passports we arrived at San Francisco.
We immediately crossed the Rio Apurimac and drove into Kimbiri on the other side to purchase supplies for a light lunch. From first impressions both San Francisco and Kimbiri failed to impress and we were rather glad to discover that our accommodation was further on.
The Rio Apurimac was most impressive; very wide, very muddy and flowing very, very fast. We were to get an even closer look at the river later in the day.
We ate our lunch on the roadside just prior to hiking into the jungle to view two waterfalls.
Along the way Fabian pointed out many different fruits and medicinal herbs. We even picked and ate fresh oranges, sampled both coffee and cocoa beans. It turned out to be a veritable ‘fruit salad’ tour.
The leaf-cutter ants were hard at work and did not seem to worry too much about the tourists getting in their way.
The two waterfalls were very impressive; both of them around one hundred and fifty meters high and supplying wonderfully refreshing spray. By this time we were bathed in perspiration, it was hard work for the gringos.
Next stop Sivia for our overnight stay – but first a surprise. Because of a bridge being down due to heavy flooding we had to cross the Rio Apurimac by long, narrow boats.
However, the first task was to clamber down the muddy embankment to board the boat juggling luggage along the way. Your balance had to be pretty good. We thought the river looked fearsome from the road; I can assure you it was even more fearsome from the boat! Nevertheless, the boatman was extremely skilful in navigating the surging river and we literally flew downstream to the ‘port’ of Sivia for the princely cost of about 70¢ AUS.
We did get the initial impression that tourists were very rare in Sivia, however, I must admit the locals were very friendly. The first two hostels we approached had no running water for showers and I have to admit that a cold shower was very high on the priority list. Our third stop was fine, rooms for all and plenty of cold water. And after that even some very cold beers. It was wonderful to get cleaned up and rest after a hard and memorable day.
Sleep that night was rather difficult due to the oppressive conditions and sometime during the night a storm hit the town, lightning, thunder and buckets of rain. During the early hours the entire population of Sivia must have leapt from their beds when we were all rocked by the loudest clap of thunder I have ever experienced. It was a tremendous crash!
Saturday dawned warm, overcast and wet; we sensed we were in for a drenching. After breakfast we crossed the Rio Apurimac and headed for the little town of Llochegua, don’t bother looking for it in your atlas! The idea was to go on a jungle walk checking out all the different vegetation.
However, to reach Llochegua we had to recross the Rio Apurimac at a ‘port’ where most supplies for the locals were being loaded onto the river boats.
When we reached the other side then we had to wade through the muddy water to reach the place.
Initially we used make shift ‘bridges’ of logs and planks before we decided the best way was to take off our boots and socks, roll up the pants and challenge the caiman and anacondas.
A very wet and muddy morning, nevertheless, great fun and much laughter.
We were certain someone was going to take a plunge when we hired a canoe to take us back to the main river but no that never eventuated.
We then visited the Pichari area and the Otari natives. The ‘chief’ was a very interesting man who had three wives; his fourth had died a few years earlier. He also had fifty-four children and numerous grandchildren.
He informed us of many of their customs; we even sampled their traditional drink brewed from yucca, a root vegetable, and human spittle! They continue to wear the long brown robe, sleep on woven mats beside the fire and only eat locally produced foods.
The final visit for the day was the local zoological park. A very picturesque setting, however, the bird and animal enclosures were nothing more than basic concrete and wire mesh cages.
Sunday was the return journey of seven hours to Ayacucho, once again reaching a maximum altitude of four thousand two hundred meters above sea level. Before reaching that point we did stop for lunch at a roadside trout farm and very unique restaurant, the fish was delicious and enjoyed by all.
Although only three days on the very edge of the Amazon it was a jungle experience one will find hard to forget.
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