From Juanjui to Santa Rosa

Although the journey from Lima to Juanjui was already adventurous, the further journey to Santa Rosa surpassed this by far. Early in the morning, Thalia picked me up with her scooter so we could buy rubber boots for me. Then we went back to my room to get the rest of the luggage. From there, I took a tuk-tuk alone to the 'port'. Upon arrival, the people there immediately took my luggage and carried it across the gravel to the other side where the river is and several boats were already waiting. Feeling a bit helpless, I looked around for Thalia but couldn't see her anywhere, so I simply trusted the people who sent me to a boat. Suddenly, Thalia was standing next to me and gave me the final information: as far as I understood, we will have breakfast somewhere on the way, I have to go all the way to Santa Rosa and pay the driver 20 soles once we arrive. Then my luggage was distributed somewhere on the boat and they placed a wooden beam for me so I wouldn't have to walk through the knee-high water. I already felt a bit like a foreign princess since all the locals had already taken their seats and probably didn't receive such a special boarding. At least I didn't fall into the water and embarrass myself additionally 😄. As soon as I sat down next to an old man, he handed me his smartphone and asked in Spanish if I could find the number of the missed call for him. I just thought: Welcome to the Peruvian Amazon 😉.

We traveled by boat for about 1.5 hours and frequently stopped at what seemed to me like random places where new people boarded or disembarked. At one point, everyone suddenly got off and I heard some people saying 'desayuno' (breakfast). I also got off and followed the old man. Above the river was a small village with several stalls selling food. This seemed to be the breakfast spot for all boat travelers. I bought a bun as I wasn't sure about the other items.

After this short break, we continued upstream through the Alto Huayabamba Valley, occasionally picking up and dropping off passengers. After about 3 hours, we reached Santa Rosa and everyone made it clear that it was now my turn to exit the boat. I gathered my luggage and stood by the 'bay' of Santa Rosa. At first, I thought I would have to find my own way somehow when suddenly a man jumped down and greeted me. They were already expecting me, he said. How relieved I was to hear that 😄. We carried the luggage together up to an accommodation. The Castillo family has built a small hostel as they occasionally receive visits from Choba Choba from Switzerland.

While the room was being prepared, I took a walk through the small village (it only has a few houses) and the nearby cocoa and banana fields. Here you can really experience pure nature and the way of life is very much focused on it. Everything happens outdoors: the kitchen and the communal 'room'/dining 'room' are outside under a corrugated iron roof (it's actually a shelter). There are only walls for the bedrooms and the bathrooms, but even those are very open 😅. It's all very simple, but I like it and in the end, it's exactly what I was looking for: less is more and more outdoors 😎.