La Merced - Chanchamayo

Weekend trip to Chanchamayo, more specifically to La Merced in the jungle.

Last Wednesday, a friend from school and I took a night bus to La Merced and booked an Airbnb. Our bus was supposed to leave at 8:45 PM. Due to evening rush hour and the fact that we were supposed to be at the bus terminal an hour early, we set off at 7:00 PM. The journey was a bit chaotic as we were stuck in traffic and our Uber driver dropped us off 2 km too early. After requesting another Uber, we still arrived at the terminal an hour early. There, we only had to redeem our online ticket and wait for the bus. The bus was over an hour late, which was not a big deal for us since we were originally supposed to arrive at 3:45 AM and we didn't know what to do so early in the morning.

Surprisingly, we had to go through a kind of security with passport control. The bus was also quite comfortable, so sleeping was not a problem. Initially, we even got a little something to eat and a cup of water, cola, or coffee, even though we only paid 11€ for the night bus.

However, there were some problems with the temperature control, as it was momentarily so hot that it felt like you couldn't breathe anymore, and an hour later it was so cold that I had to wear everything I had with me.

In the end, we arrived in La Merced at 7:00 AM. Then we walked to our Airbnb, which was only about 500 m away.

Description of the Airbnb: clean, rock-hard beds, bathroom without a door, shower in the bathroom didn't have enough water for showering, so we had to use the shower in the hallway (also without a door), only cold water, partly still under construction. However, the view was beautiful, the price of 10€ was also great, and the owner was incredibly warm-hearted.

After freshening up a bit, we walked through La Merced in search of a "tour operator". You could book tours into the jungle at every corner, which we had also planned for Saturday. After choosing a full-day tour for 6€, we had a huge smoothie and breakfast for about 1.30€. We started at 10:00 AM and ticked off the program points: coffee plantation, swinging in the jungle, explanation of different plant species, walk over a bridge, swimming in a waterfall, boat tour, Peruvian lunch, visit to a Quechua village.

The visit to the Quechua village was indescribable. All the residents were wearing dresses, feather ornaments on their heads, and face paint. When we arrived there, the "chief" explained the culture to us and suddenly started drumming. The whole village ran to us and started singing. Afterwards, the residents took us by the hand and danced with us around a campfire. Of course, it was expected that we would buy something at the village's street stalls after the dance. Despite that, the atmosphere was incredible. The "show" was probably mostly for the tourists, but I believe that the dresses are also part of the culture.

Despite everything, I liked Sunday even better because the Saturday tour was very touristy and there was always the expectation to buy something.

On Sunday, we walked 3 hours along the road to San Ramón in 30-degree heat. San Ramón was incredibly quiet and almost deserted. We ate something there and then took a TucTuc back to La Merced for 2.50€.

I remembered that on the other side of the bridge from Saturday, there was a path leading to the "jungle", so we went back to the bridge. There, we decided to simply follow the path. That was the best decision and also the most dangerous decision (😂) we could have made. At first, it was still a real path that ran along fruit trees. Later, we climbed higher and the path got worse. In the end, there were only logs with carved steps that we had to walk on. I had to hold onto trees and rocks. While I was incredibly afraid of touching a snake or a poisonous spider, Noortje was incredibly afraid of falling so that we couldn't go back 😂. But the path was worth it. We ended up in a dead end, in front of a beautiful waterfall, illuminated by the sun, in the middle of the jungle.

In the evening, we were able to shower again in our accommodation. We arrived in Lima at 5:30 AM. After an hour of sleep in my bed and a shower, I went to school.

Yesterday afternoon, the school took us to visit the "Basilica de San Francisco" and the catacombs.

In the basilica, there is a painting of the Last Supper. I didn't quite understand how to interpret the painting, as it seemed more like a joke to me. Behind Judas, there was a demon on the painting. There was guinea pig and potatoes to eat. There were dogs and children with red cheeks at the table. The museum guide explained to us that the children, for example, have red cheeks in Cusco due to the altitude, which is why there are children with red cheeks in the painting.