Peru - Pacaya-Samiria NP in the Amazon region

It was a real change of climate. At 5 o'clock in the morning, I arrived at the hot and humid entrance gate of the tropics - I lay down first. That's also a kind of acclimatisation. In the hostel, I meet the people from Chachas again and also get to know Raphaela. They have already planned a trip to the nearby Lamas for him. I join them. That is a very strange place. There are already two Plazas. One as usual and the other is supposed to be a kind of alternative Plaza of the indigenous people. And that's not enough. A few years ago, apparently an Italian decided to have a residential castle built there according to medieval models! This was completed a few years ago and is now the main attraction of the village. Of course, for South Americans, it's something special. It seemed misplaced to us, but interesting nevertheless. When we had finished our stroll through the village, we went back to Tarapoto.

The next day we wanted to leave for Lagunas and start a jungle tour from there. Konstantin had said goodbye and wanted to travel by boat via Iquitos to Manaus in Brazil and further to the coast. Certainly also a nice, long tour. But in the rainforest, there is certainly more to see than on a boat trip on the huge Amazon. So there were Raphaela, Roberto, and me left. And that was also a wonderful group.
I had read that you can ride on the cargo ships from Yurimaguas to Iquitos. The journey takes three days and you simply hang a hammock on deck and enjoy the ride through the Amazon region - that's the theory. First, we went by bus to Yurimaguas, which was a three-hour adventure in itself. When we arrived, the moto-taxi drivers asked us where we wanted to go, even though we were still in the moving bus. Next level customer acquisition. At the same time, they were all somehow connected to an agency or even guides themselves. Leading the way was Winston, who provided us with numerous information and drove us to the hotels and ports of the city. But he immediately told us that the last boat had just left and the next one wouldn't leave for another two days. We then drove to the port and took a look at two of these magnificent boats that were supposed to leave the next morning and politely declined. These models were already extremely outdated and not worth a trip. The alternative was to take a speedboat that only takes about 7 hours to get to Lagunas. That wasn't bad either, but not very fast either. I was once again horrified by how naturally the locals simply threw all the rubbish overboard into the water. Styrofoam boxes for food, nicely packed in a plastic bag after use and directly overboard. The children were also explicitly taught to do it that way. The worst thing about it was that it was not the tourists or other visitors, no, it was the people who live on, in, and from the river every day!
We were able to enjoy the trip and the view on the Rio Huallaga nevertheless and then spent a night in Lagunas.

The next morning, the actual jungle tour started with the canoe. Since our arrival in the jungle, it had been raining heavily most of the evening and night, so there were some doubts about our tour. But it looked good at the start. Strong sunshine, tropical heat, and our two guides/cooks, Emilia and José, were already ready. Loading the canoe and off we go.

Loaded.

With some nostalgia and against a strong current, we paddled back to Lagunas on the last day. We cleared some trees out of the way with a machete and suddenly found civilization very close. It was Sunday and in the evening, we naturally wanted to review the past days. However, all 4! open-air discos in the small town were already well soundproofed in the afternoon, so after a short break in the hotel, we could start right away. And they even had a DJ and some visitors. It became a wet, cheerful, and sad farewell from the jungle. The next morning, we got on the boat back to Yurimaguas with a hangover. The jungle is crazy!

From Yuri, we continued to Tarapoto. I didn't do anything else there except endure the heat. And there was surprisingly good internet. That had to be used extensively, of course. So the blog made progress again. Another stop in Jaen in northern Peru, and then it continues in Ecuador.