I caught a shared taxi into the spectacular cloud forest and mountains between Tarapoto and Yurimaguas, eventually descending to a curvy road which the driver insisted on taking excessively fast through palm-oil plantations and more on/off regrowth and subsistence style farming. I was met by courteous Marcelo who escorted me to the hostel where we arranged the process for me to get to my trip into the selva. That night I hung out with some Argentinian girls who were quite distraught after having travelled 3 days straight from their paradise in Vilcabamba, Ecuador into crazy Peru and receiving the `rich gringo` treatment as I have so lovingly described previously.
In the morning I arrived early for a 2.5hr late barge to Lagunas - in the meantime Marcelo brought me a local indigenous film-version of the events surrounding the Bagua massacre near Tarapoto last year. I havent seen it yet but should make for intersting viewing considering the predictably bull-headed and bullshit `official findings` I received from the Peruvian Embassy in Australia. On the cramped trip I met an insanely drunk local who constantly annoyed me with ´mister´, unintelligible words and `Lagunas`, insisting that he was llooking out for my bags - he finally slept it off. I also met Ivan from Italy who was also journeying into Pacaya-Samiria the next day - we chilled out on the grand Huallaga River and soaked in the sunset from the top of the boat, watching the village-dotted jungle pass. Later the landscape changed to pure jungle, although I assumed it had been selectively logged previously. I also saw several fellow passengers simply throw their plastic rubbish into the river. We arrived in Lagunas late at night to our waiting guides - Ivan left with another company and I with my young guide Josuey to the `House of Clever`.
There I met Clever`s family, arranged and paid for the trip and went to sleep. I was woken by a strong desire to go to the loo and soon realised I had my first case of Bali Belly, Latino-style. I took some magic pills for it and then discovered I had lost my camera charger and battery somewhere in the last few days. Bumm¡¡ So with our `bike-utes` loaded with stuff we headed out of muddy Lagunas, passing a few settlements farming yucca and eventually reaching the National Park outpost on a large creek, where I paid my entrance fees and Josuey loaded the boat. The jungle experience was set to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment