The Amazonas
June 12th 2019 (entry for June 11th-12th)
In the afternoon, I finally found the courage to walk up to a couple that I had overheard speaking French several times since starting the trip. I was glad to hear a language that I could somewhat understand, but at the same time wasn’t sure how to start a conversation. I decided to just ask them if they were headed to Iquitos as well and that question turned into a one-and-a-half-hour-long conversation. Francois is from France and Vicky is from Argentina. (As so often, I only found out their names the next day and after having talked with each other for quite a while.) They are both super nice and after not having talked to anyone in over a day, it was really nice to have a not-one-sided conversation. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading, only taking a break when dinner was served. I took a nap from 7:30pm to 9pm and then read some more until after midnight. That night wasn’t as restless as the others, finally. And even though I woke up briefly around 5:30am due to the “sunrise” and heavy rain, I was well rested when I completely woke up 2 hours later.
It was just in time to buy breakfast from one of the vendors that came aboard while we were docked somewhere. I had two empanadas, thinking I had missed the breakfast that’s served on the boat by sleeping in. It was tasty and only cost me 2 Soles, so I didn’t mind spending that money even though breakfast was served not too much later. The breakfast provided on the ship consisted of a soup of some sort (served in a cup, which is why I had mistaken it for coffee the day before) and two small bread buns. I’m sure that if I hadn’t been bored out of my mind, the food provided on board would have been more than enough. But there is only so much staring at the river/the rainforest and reading one can do before that becomes monotonous and one resolves to eating out of boredom.
Looking out at the water did pay off, though, because I got to see a bunch of river dolphins. They didn’t show much of themselves – mostly just their blow holes – but they were unmistakably pink and grey dolphins. Over the course of the day, I tried to spot more animals both in the river and in the jungle, but apart from the odd bird, there wasn’t much to be seen. Not that that stopped me from looking and searching the trees and bushes every once in a while, when I took a break from reading.
In the late morning, Francois came up to me and told me that we’d be arriving in Iquitos that same evening and therefore only 48 hours after having left Santa Rosa. I had thought the boat would take at least 12-24 hours longer than that and was a bit sad to not be able to spend another night on the river. I talked a bit more with Francois and Vicky that afternoon (only finding out their names when I sat down to write this entry and realizing I didn’t know their names yet). Speaking of Francois and Vicky: the day before, we got to witness two cows being loaded onto the boat. I’m glad I took videos, because it’s hard to describe with words. It seemed unnecessarily cruel, the way they did it and I had to laugh in disbelief or otherwise I would have probably cried. I hope I can embed the video so you can see what I’m talking about.
Francois and Vicky had originally intended to couchsurf in Iquitos, but that didn’t work out. Knowing that I didn’t have a hostel yet, they told me where they would be staying and asked if I wanted to join them. I was grateful that I wouldn’t have to find internet and then an accommodation in a strange town in the dark after all. I just hope that the hostel has a good enough internet connection so I can research flights to Lima, hostels there and the Peru Hop bus. And maybe Amazonas tours into the jungle (if my budget allows for it).
PS: I wrote the blog for the Amazon by hand and only edited it slightly, what might be obvious when reading it.