Amazon Rain Forest and River Cruise

We’re off on another adventure with our friends from Overseas Adventure Travel, this time on board a riverboat to experience the Amazon Rain Forest up close and in living color. The trip included a few days in Lima, the capitol of Peru, and then took us to Iquitos, in the heart of the rainforest, to board our ship, La Arapaima.

From Iquitos, we sailed southwest on the Amazon River, to the juncture of the Ucayali and Marañon Rivers - the official beginning of the Amazon proper, as decreed by none other than Jacques Cousteau. From there we explored these tributaries, as well as several smaller rivers and creeks that feed them. It's a mystical, magical place - complete with rare pink and grey river dolphins, colorful birds, noisy monkeys, and the friendly, peaceful ribereños - the indigenous people who have lived and made their living in this wilderness for centuries, still clinging to their ways in the face of encroaching 'civilization.'

We had a great trip, and we hope you enjoy these words and pictures that attempt to capture a little of what we saw and experienced. Don't forget that you can enlarge the pictures by double-clicking on the image.

Day 1: Wednesday, July 22

The adventure begins - we left home in mid-morning to head for Columbia airport. We flew to Atlanta, of course, and then on to Miami, where we had endless time to kill. After walking over every inch of the Miami airport and meeting several of our travelling companions, we staggered onto our midnight flight to Lima. What a surprise - dinner was served at 1:00 AM - and then everyone tried to get some sleep.

Day 2: Thursday, July 23

We landed in Lima at the crack of dawn - 5:30 am - and were met by our trip leader, Edgard Vascones. It wasn't a very lively bunch at this point, but Edgard got us all rounded up and into a bus for the 35 minute ride to our hotel. Our home for the next few days was the Hotel Jose Antonio, in the Miraflores District of Lima. It is an upper middle-class neighborhood, convenient to shops and restaurants. After a quick breakfast, we headed to our rooms for a shower and few hours of sleep.

The group re-assembled at midday, ready for an orientation walk around the neighborhood. Edgard showed us where to find the essentials - post office, grocery store, banks, etc.

We walked to a nearby restaurant, the Quartier Latin. There were several choices on the group menu, but most of us tried asparagus salad and the local fish, which was served with potatoes AND rice! For dessert we had some sort of mousse made from the lucuma fruit, a relative of the avocado - never heard of it before, but it was delicious.




After lunch, we wandered around Miraflores - we checked out Central Park, an old church next to Kennedy Park, City Hall, the Indian Market, and of course ...





… the grocery store. There was quite an array of fruits and vegetables, including a dozen different kinds of potatoes.














There also were lots of street vendors, this one with fresh fruit and vegetables for sale.










We gathered around Edgard again about 4PM, for our official introductions and briefing about the trip. There are 20 travelers in our group, 15 women and 5 men; there are four married couples, a father-daughter pair, a mother-daughter pair, a couple of sisters and the rest singles. Folks are from 12 different states, from the west coast to the east coast and several spots in the middle of the country.

Edgard gave us an overview of the days to come and treated everyone to a Pisco Sour, the national drink of Peru. It's made from green grape brandy, lemon juice, egg whites, sweet syrup, ice and Angostura bitters - pretty strong stuff - one drink and you're happy, two drinks and you're dancing.

We were on our own for dinner this evening, so we tried out a small cafe across the street and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

Day 3: Friday, July 24

After breakfast at the hotel, we were off for a Lima city tour with a local guide named Adada. She told us a little about Lima, where 9 million of Peru's 27 million inhabitants reside in 43 districts. As we travelled through different districts, it was easy to see that there is great variation in socio-economic status. This picture shows a lovely old house in Lima.




Our first stop was the National Museum of Anthropology and Archeology at Bolivar Square. It is housed in the 19th century Quinta de los Libertadores mansion, which once was the home of a couple of South American independence heroes, Jose San Martin and Simon Bolivar.





The museum covers Peruvian civilization from prehistoric times to the colonial and republican periods. It has a large collection of ceramics, carved stone figures, metalwork and jewelry and textiles from the Incas, as well as other ancient cultures that predated the Inca period.








We then made our way to the old colonial part of the city, to the main square which is the original center of the city and the site where Francisco Pizarro founded the city in 1535. Much of the original architecture has been reconstructed after disastrous earthquakes; the oldest surviving element in the square is the central bronze fountain, which dates from 1651. The building on the west side of the square, behind the fountain, is the Lima City Hall.



On the north side of the square is the Presidential Palace, where we watched the noontime changing of the guard. Lots of martial music and high stepping soldiers.





On the east side of the square is the Lima Cathedral, which was first built in 1555. The present building is an 18th-century reconstruction of the early version. Its twin yellow towers set off an elaborate stone facade.






Inside there are several ornate altars and carved wooden choir stalls, but the most striking feature is the chapel dedicated to Francisco Pizarro. His remains are entombed here and his life depicted in colorful mosaics.

Just next door to the cathedral is the Archbishop's Palace, which is distinguished by an elaborate wooden balcony.










After leaving the Cathedral, we stopped briefly at the Church of San Augustin (Saint Augustine), which was severely damaged in an 1895 revolution. Restoration is ongoing and the churchyard is a popular spot for people-watching and feeding the pigeons.













Also near the church, there are many vendors, mostly selling handicrafts from the area.











Our tour ended at the Parque de Muralla, which is located at the only remaining portion of the wall that encircled the city of Lima until 1868. Here also is the Restaurant La Muralla, where we had a delicious lunch - first an appetizer of boiled potatoes covered with a cream sauce of cheese, chilis and spices, then fish stew accompanied by roasted potato and rice, and finally lucuma and strawberry ice cream.


After lunch we went to Huaca Pucllana, a sacred pyramid that is an active archeological site right in the middle of the city. The name "pucllana" is the Quechua word for a great ceremonial center built in the fifth century AD, pre-dating the Inca Empire by a thousand years.





The earliest residents gathered, traded, made community decisions, worshipped and sacrificed women and children for some 300 years. Other indigenous peoples, the Wari and later the Incas, moved in later.





Small adobe bricks were made by hand and placed in vertical rows resembling shelves of books. Huge walls and platforms were built using trapezoidal panels up to ten yards wide. They form enclosures, plazas, ramps, stairs, and entrances. Look closely at the first picture - you can see handprints left by the brickmakers.











There are many rooms that were used for storage and public meetings, but the most impressive part of the structure is a large pyramid surrounded by plazas, where religious rites and ceremonies were held.








Even though much of the original site has been overtaken by the encroaching city, Huaca Pucllana once stretched for eight square miles. Even so, our guide told us that it would take another 30-40 years to complete the excavation of the remaining structures.



After a little free time to rest and recharge, we headed off for a special dinner at La Dama Juana Restaurant. The restaurant is located in the Larco Mar Mall, high on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We were treated to a grand buffet of all sorts of typical Peruvian food - with heavy emphasis on meats and starches. The real reason for coming was the after-dinner show: an exhibition of folk dances from various regions of Peru.

Day 4: Saturday, July 25

Today after breakfast, our local guide met us again and we headed along the coast. Our first stop was a fish market in the Chorrillos District, situated on the edge of a large bay with a view of Lima across the water.






Looking over the morning catch, there were plenty of choices - all fresh from the sea.











It was interesting to watch the women cleaning the fish. Working with a super-sharp knife, they keep up a running conversation with each other, barely looking at the fish. You get the feeling they could do this job with their eyes closed.





Down on the dock, others were cleaning boxes of anchovies.







The fishing boats aren't very large - rather like a rowboat. The fisherman use nets of different sizes, depending on the type of fish they're after.







When they're back on shore, their spare time is spent mending their nets. Sea lions are the main problem here - they rip open the fish nets for an underwater feast.





We stopped to chat with this fellow and our friend Sonny tried to give him a hand with his work.










Next we stopped at a local market to pick up some food items such as rice, beans, eggs, and bananas to take to Villa el Salvador.







Villa el Salvador is an urban, largely residential district on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. It began in 1970 as a shantytown in the vast, empty sand flats to the south of Lima because of the urgent housing needs of immigrant families who had left the mountains of Peru. These squatters formed a makeshift community housing thousands of people living in tiny reed and plastic 'homes' with no electricity, water or school. Villa El Salvador evolved into a huge urban zone, self-organizing to eventually gain recognition as an official district of the city of Lima. Largely through the efforts of its inhabitants, the neighborhood now is supplied with electricity (borrowed or bought from private homes nearby) and water (trucked in several times a week).









A women's federation has helped to organize activities such as public kitchens, health committees, milk for kids program, income-generating projects, and committees for basic education. One of their projects is this soup kitchen (Comedor), where we dropped off the food we had brought. Much has been done, many challenges remain - We were pleased to make a small contribution to their efforts to better themselves.




The children thought we were pretty interesting - they loved seeing themselves in the digital camera.

Day 5: Sunday, July 26

We were up early this morning to catch the first flight out to Iquitos, the major port city of the Amazon River. As we flew across the snow-capped Andes Mountains and the winding rivers of the rainforest, we left behind the urban jungle in anticipation of the rainforest jungle, where our "real" adventure was about to begin.

Even on Sunday morning, Iquitos is a lively spot - the overwhelming impression is of noisy traffic.






Most of the noise comes from the thousands of "motokars" - three-wheeled vehicles that are used for taxis. Very few people own a private car, so they use these things to go everywhere. Not that they can go too far - there's only one road out of Iquitos - a fine paved road for 63 miles upriver to the town of Nauta.




We had a quick tour of the city, checking out the busy market, the main square and church, and the Eiffel House - a metal house designed by the creator of the Eiffel Tower.

While we were stopped at the square, we had a surprise visit from Edgard's family. Edgard lives in Iquitos, but he was born and raised in a much smaller village on the Amazon. We are about to learn how special it is to have a 'river boy' as our guide - he knows the area, the people and the customs.

Finally we arrived at our home for the next week - the good ship Arapaima, named after a huge fish that lives in the Amazon and its tributaries. We met the crew, including the ship's naturalist, Neil Guerrera - his mom named him after Neil Armstrong! Neil and Edgard are long-time friends, both natives of villages in the Amazon rainforest - they were a dynamic duo for sure - once again, we were fortunate to have excellent guides!

We got underway immediately, sailing from Iquitos upstream on the mighty Amazon towards the distant Andes Mountains. After room assignments, we gathered for lunch, a Peruvian style buffet, with Dorago catfish as the main course, accompanied by rice and potatoes.

Each mealtime opened with Neil making a dramatic presentation about the food being served. There was a big emphasis on using local products and traditional Peruvian recipes., which meant that every meal was based on fish, rice, potatoes, and bread. We did have lots of local fruit and fruit juices, but we sometimes wondered if these folks ever eat vegetables!

After a little time to relax and unpack, we piled into a smaller motorboat, the Caiman II, for a little exploration along the river. Our guides reminded us that they would not be able to tell us what we would see or experience - every trip is different, schedules are totally flexible, and things change on a moment's notice. So forget the printed itinerary - this is an adventure - sit back and see what happens next. But …each evening after dinner, Edgard did tell us the plan for the next day, as well as what to wear and what to bring with us.

We quickly met up with a couple of ribereños (river people) fishing for their supper, so we stopped to see what they were catching. We gave them a gift – a couple of bags of salt. That might sound strange except that there is no source of salt in the rainforest, and the local people must have it for food preservation. It was nice that we could give them something useful – and save them a trip to the market (which is NOT just around the corner).

We saw the first of many interesting boats heading up and down this river - here are three: a ferry, a water taxi, and a dugout canoe.

We also got our first look at a typical village along the banks of the river. Houses with thatched roofs are built on stilts or even floating on the river. No doors, no windows, no electricity, no running water ...just a very basic shelter.

As we headed back to the ship, we found out what was in the ice chests in the back of our little boat. The big one was full of wonderfully cold water. The small one was filled with rolled up wet wash cloths that had been frozen. This was a routine that we all appreciated - an icy cold wash cloth is pure luxury in the rain forest!

Back on the mother ship, Freddy the bartender gave us a lesson in how to make Pisco sours - a delicious learning and discovery event as we passed the juncture of the Ucayali and Marañon Rivers. As darkness fell, we headed up the Ucayali.