Jungle Town Pullcalpa, Peru
June 13th - 16th 2008
The next day we woke up at 3PM! All three of us. We absolutely had no clue what time it was when we went to bed, so our first though was that we were drugged by the guys who followed us home. Pat and Mike missed work by accident (a.k.a they took the "day-off"). Pat and I got all our stuff together and headed for the airport to catch our flight to jungle town Iquitos.
Our flight was canceled because AeroCondor went out of business the day before. Our best option was to catch the next flight to jungle town Pullcalpa south of Iquitos.
We called a jungle guide Gustavo Paredes beforehand and were picked up at the airport. A group of hungry taxi drivers bombarded us for money but we jumped into a pair of the 3-wheeler motorbike taxis and were whisked off to Gustavo's in the night breeze. Shack-type bars were lively along the streets with Reggaeton and the like blaring behind groups of drunk night-sceners.
At Gustavo's we organized 3 days in the jungle then grabbed a hotel room for the night.
Saturday morning we jumped on the Poseidon with canoe drive Luis (Gustavo's son), the Shaman (there for the nightly jungle cleansing rituals), and Gustavo (our guide).
After an hour we stopped the boat and starting hacking a trail into the jungle with the machetes. Soon, jungle boy Luis was climbing up a tree and hacking his way to what is known as a Brown Faced 3-toed Sloth. Within minutes Pat and i took turns handling this Sloth. This was a crazy experience in itself and a great way to start the jungle tour. When we questioned taking the animal out of its habitat the answer was: it is not endangered. I digress (and admit we were drinking beers to this point which helped excite us rather than turn the focus on animal cruelty).
The very noisy and slow canoe brought us further along the Ucayali River where we stopped off at a jungle friend's house. This guy was crazy and hated gringo's. When questioned why he disliked whitey's he said it was because gringo's are the ones responsible for drugging people to stealing their organs and cut off their faces to sell on the black market. I never really understood
this but it must have been a problem at one point. We collected some fruit from his "garden" and traded him for some fresh food from town. Needless to say, an interesting lifestyle for the loco jungle man who lives in a house stilted over 4 meters of water for 8 months of the year (I should mention his wife had one bad eye that looked like it was blind and was in serious need of medical attention - definitely not a part of their routine (or else she just had a really bad jungle virus)).
Further down the river, the night started to fall, the rain began, and the mosquitoes came out to play. Malaria, Dengue Fever, and Yellow Fever were our worries but we were ASSURED by our guide they were only "poquito" = very few mosquitoes. We still took our Malarone.
After we made the tent, the shaman summoned us to the boat where we were going to go
through a spiritual cleansing ritual. We were given a tiny cup of boiled jungle vines (reddish in color) and soon the chanting began. It was explained that we were meant to close our eyes, concentrate, meditate, and let the sounds of the shaman guide us. Well, let me tell you. When it freshly rains in the jungle just before it gets dark, there are literally thousands of mosquitoes out to get you. Sure, we were covered from head to toe, but these ankle biters were persistent. I was able to meditate with the shaman on a few occasions and at one point he was above my head blowing 
straight down as to align my energy grids. The experience was definitely unusual and the songs the shaman sang to summon the healing powers from the universe still ring in my ear. Very unique, if I may add! Although the experience would have been more authentic if the mosquitoes weren't buzzing around and breaking my concentration, I truly believe the ceremony is meant to be treated like a ritual process. That is, one has to spend more than just one day meditating with the shaman. This was confirmed by Luis who I call a shaman in training; he is doing these ceremonies 3 times a week for the next 6 months (I like to call Luis a 21 year old jungle boy who was so excited after he hacked down the sloth he asked me if I thought he was "loco").
The next day involved a stroll into the local jungle village where we were offe
red lunch. We politely turned it down because there was unidentifiable animal claws sticking out of the soup pot. Not to mention the unsanitary conditions and the brown river water the soup was likely made with. There were a few pigs bathing in the putrid mud below the shanty wooden balcony to top the experience off. The weirdest part was the blind drunk father of the house who was asking his daughter's if they liked "gringo's" and started offering his daughter's to us like they were presents (until the 14 year old daughter told the dad in Spanish "shut-up, you're drunk, eat your food."). His reaction was a huge smile, semi-crossed eyes, followed by 1 minute of slurping soup before his next random comment: "Soy Peruano". Let's get the funk outta dodge........
We were then off to a jungle hike (machete in Gustavo's hand - this is very roughed in trails!).
Our goal was to find some vines and swing along like we remember Tarzan did when we were children. We found the vines and carved out a runway. The only thing missing was a huge ravine. We mastered the best route to swing, took a few videos and set off back towards the boat.
Smacking mosquitoes for the whole trip back, Pat and I were fed up. At this point we were eaten alive and we could not bare one more night of a mosquito infested camping trip. There was a reason why we were the only gringo's in Pullcalpa this weekend, probably because everyone else read up on the town and realizes this is not the time to come.
After a small argument with Gustavo, we assured him we liked his guiding abilities and pushed the blame on the mosquitoes. Truly, jungle trekking is for the hardcore traveler who can withstand the thought of getting Malaria (or other viruses) while fending off swarms of mosquitoes and tracking clay mud everywhere. You can just never be very comfortable.
Back in town, we got a hotel room and had Gustavo's son bring us around town to a few bars for the night.
The next day we were off the the local zoo. This was definitely a highlight. I was able to see up close and personal Tapirs, Jaguars, Panthers, and Le
opards (Trigillos). Also I saw a Howler Monkey, some Night Monkey's, and about 5 other species of monkey. The best part was that it was feeding time and we followed around the zoo keeper's wheel barrow full of chopped cow parts. These wild cats were going crazy and some difficult pics were taken (seriously, Pat risked his fingers wh
en he stuck my camera into these cages while the carnivores gnawed on their meat).
With out hesitation, I made my mind up that I did not need to go further into the jungle this trip to the Tefe Reserve. Perhaps when I yearn for some more jungle in the future, I will head to Brazil's Mamiraua Reserve and the true jungle city of Manaus.
We still had one more thing to do. Our last stop was at a famous spiritual jungle artist who's works are exhibited all over the world. Juan Fernando is like a shaman except that instead of guiding people through meditative journeys he expresses himself on canvas. His work is very intricate with vibrant details you know he had to be very meticulous to achieve. I asked him how long a painting takes and what exactly he is painting. He explained that it takes up to a couple weeks and that he is painting his visions and journey during his meditations. He allowed us to take one picture of the original works (they sell for $10 - 15,000 USD), offered to sell us prints for $200 USD, but we settled for miniature postcards for $5 USD each.
Unfortunately, I missed visiting the ancient Shipibo Pottery Studio on San Fransisco Island but in consolation, there was a healthy display of pots at the hotel we stayed in.
We returned to Lima later that night and I booked a flight up to Mendellin, Colombia.
The next day we woke up at 3PM! All three of us. We absolutely had no clue what time it was when we went to bed, so our first though was that we were drugged by the guys who followed us home. Pat and Mike missed work by accident (a.k.a they took the "day-off"). Pat and I got all our stuff together and headed for the airport to catch our flight to jungle town Iquitos.
Our flight was canceled because AeroCondor went out of business the day before. Our best option was to catch the next flight to jungle town Pullcalpa south of Iquitos.
We called a jungle guide Gustavo Paredes beforehand and were picked up at the airport. A group of hungry taxi drivers bombarded us for money but we jumped into a pair of the 3-wheeler motorbike taxis and were whisked off to Gustavo's in the night breeze. Shack-type bars were lively along the streets with Reggaeton and the like blaring behind groups of drunk night-sceners.
At Gustavo's we organized 3 days in the jungle then grabbed a hotel room for the night.
Saturday morning we jumped on the Poseidon with canoe drive Luis (Gustavo's son), the Shaman (there for the nightly jungle cleansing rituals), and Gustavo (our guide).
After an hour we stopped the boat and starting hacking a trail into the jungle with the machetes. Soon, jungle boy Luis was climbing up a tree and hacking his way to what is known as a Brown Faced 3-toed Sloth. Within minutes Pat and i took turns handling this Sloth. This was a crazy experience in itself and a great way to start the jungle tour. When we questioned taking the animal out of its habitat the answer was: it is not endangered. I digress (and admit we were drinking beers to this point which helped excite us rather than turn the focus on animal cruelty).The very noisy and slow canoe brought us further along the Ucayali River where we stopped off at a jungle friend's house. This guy was crazy and hated gringo's. When questioned why he disliked whitey's he said it was because gringo's are the ones responsible for drugging people to stealing their organs and cut off their faces to sell on the black market. I never really understood
this but it must have been a problem at one point. We collected some fruit from his "garden" and traded him for some fresh food from town. Needless to say, an interesting lifestyle for the loco jungle man who lives in a house stilted over 4 meters of water for 8 months of the year (I should mention his wife had one bad eye that looked like it was blind and was in serious need of medical attention - definitely not a part of their routine (or else she just had a really bad jungle virus)).Further down the river, the night started to fall, the rain began, and the mosquitoes came out to play. Malaria, Dengue Fever, and Yellow Fever were our worries but we were ASSURED by our guide they were only "poquito" = very few mosquitoes. We still took our Malarone.
After we made the tent, the shaman summoned us to the boat where we were going to go
through a spiritual cleansing ritual. We were given a tiny cup of boiled jungle vines (reddish in color) and soon the chanting began. It was explained that we were meant to close our eyes, concentrate, meditate, and let the sounds of the shaman guide us. Well, let me tell you. When it freshly rains in the jungle just before it gets dark, there are literally thousands of mosquitoes out to get you. Sure, we were covered from head to toe, but these ankle biters were persistent. I was able to meditate with the shaman on a few occasions and at one point he was above my head blowing 
straight down as to align my energy grids. The experience was definitely unusual and the songs the shaman sang to summon the healing powers from the universe still ring in my ear. Very unique, if I may add! Although the experience would have been more authentic if the mosquitoes weren't buzzing around and breaking my concentration, I truly believe the ceremony is meant to be treated like a ritual process. That is, one has to spend more than just one day meditating with the shaman. This was confirmed by Luis who I call a shaman in training; he is doing these ceremonies 3 times a week for the next 6 months (I like to call Luis a 21 year old jungle boy who was so excited after he hacked down the sloth he asked me if I thought he was "loco").The next day involved a stroll into the local jungle village where we were offe
red lunch. We politely turned it down because there was unidentifiable animal claws sticking out of the soup pot. Not to mention the unsanitary conditions and the brown river water the soup was likely made with. There were a few pigs bathing in the putrid mud below the shanty wooden balcony to top the experience off. The weirdest part was the blind drunk father of the house who was asking his daughter's if they liked "gringo's" and started offering his daughter's to us like they were presents (until the 14 year old daughter told the dad in Spanish "shut-up, you're drunk, eat your food."). His reaction was a huge smile, semi-crossed eyes, followed by 1 minute of slurping soup before his next random comment: "Soy Peruano". Let's get the funk outta dodge........We were then off to a jungle hike (machete in Gustavo's hand - this is very roughed in trails!).
Our goal was to find some vines and swing along like we remember Tarzan did when we were children. We found the vines and carved out a runway. The only thing missing was a huge ravine. We mastered the best route to swing, took a few videos and set off back towards the boat.Smacking mosquitoes for the whole trip back, Pat and I were fed up. At this point we were eaten alive and we could not bare one more night of a mosquito infested camping trip. There was a reason why we were the only gringo's in Pullcalpa this weekend, probably because everyone else read up on the town and realizes this is not the time to come.
After a small argument with Gustavo, we assured him we liked his guiding abilities and pushed the blame on the mosquitoes. Truly, jungle trekking is for the hardcore traveler who can withstand the thought of getting Malaria (or other viruses) while fending off swarms of mosquitoes and tracking clay mud everywhere. You can just never be very comfortable.
Back in town, we got a hotel room and had Gustavo's son bring us around town to a few bars for the night.
The next day we were off the the local zoo. This was definitely a highlight. I was able to see up close and personal Tapirs, Jaguars, Panthers, and Le
opards (Trigillos). Also I saw a Howler Monkey, some Night Monkey's, and about 5 other species of monkey. The best part was that it was feeding time and we followed around the zoo keeper's wheel barrow full of chopped cow parts. These wild cats were going crazy and some difficult pics were taken (seriously, Pat risked his fingers wh
en he stuck my camera into these cages while the carnivores gnawed on their meat).
With out hesitation, I made my mind up that I did not need to go further into the jungle this trip to the Tefe Reserve. Perhaps when I yearn for some more jungle in the future, I will head to Brazil's Mamiraua Reserve and the true jungle city of Manaus.
We still had one more thing to do. Our last stop was at a famous spiritual jungle artist who's works are exhibited all over the world. Juan Fernando is like a shaman except that instead of guiding people through meditative journeys he expresses himself on canvas. His work is very intricate with vibrant details you know he had to be very meticulous to achieve. I asked him how long a painting takes and what exactly he is painting. He explained that it takes up to a couple weeks and that he is painting his visions and journey during his meditations. He allowed us to take one picture of the original works (they sell for $10 - 15,000 USD), offered to sell us prints for $200 USD, but we settled for miniature postcards for $5 USD each.
Unfortunately, I missed visiting the ancient Shipibo Pottery Studio on San Fransisco Island but in consolation, there was a healthy display of pots at the hotel we stayed in.We returned to Lima later that night and I booked a flight up to Mendellin, Colombia.
posted by Justino at
12:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home