The starts very early so as to beat the airport at 04:20 to check in. The roads were quiet and the journey takes only 20 minutes instead of the usual 45 minutes. Check-in went smoothly until they saw my camera gear but that was soon resolved by putting the overweight gear into Amelias rucksack. Once we were through into the departure lounge I put all the camera gear back into the camera bag. Why cant these minions understand that 2 bags at 10 kg totals 20kgs which is the same as 1 bag at 12kg and the other at 8kg – still they obviously have not got the sense to realise that once out of site of course I will put everything back into the bag.
The flight was uneventful and arrived on time where we were met by the Lodge driver who would take us first to the office and then to the port to catch the Muyuna Lodge ferry. Iquitos was not what I had expected and I suppose has grown but once it was the centre of the Rubber boom and I was expecting to see much more signs of the affluence that the rubber had created.
We descended to the river from the road, some 200 feet below that was easy but what would the walk up be like on our return with a rucksack of camera gear weighting 16Kg and a bag weighing 18kg but that can wait for our return. The port is not on the Amazon itself as it has moved several mile but it was on a tributary that was still several miles across. It is still difficult to see large ships 3000 miles from the ocean. We had to don lifejackets and we were of ion a 3 hr dash up the Amazon to Muyuna some 140kms away. As we passed ship after ship and all the barges you get an understanding of how important Iquitos is to the area. Soon the 150 hp engine roars into life at about 4000 rpm so conversation is out with the noise and at a guess we are travelling about 30 to 40 knots. The first 30 mins is exhilarating but as the minutes pass by the constant noise and the buffeting of the waves as the boat plough its furrow through the water gets monotonous. The passing canoes with families travelling somewhere, the boats with there human cargo going further up river leaving a large wave which causes our little craft to slow down as the bouncing become quite violent. As we progress up the Amazon you get some ideas as to its scale flowing at about 4 knots carry logs, boats ad other detritus and the width must be at least 5 km wide.
After 3 hours we arrive at the tributary we have to use to get to the lodge and as it is the dry season we have to transfer to a smaller boat and to add to this we have to walk as the mouth of the tributary is to shallow to take us. We have to walk about a kilometre to where the smaller boat will meet us but at least it can take all our luggage.
The heat and the humidity by now with the exertion of the walk has meant both my shirt and my trousers are wet with perspiration and being so thirsty I have during the walk already drunk half a litre of water. We eventually meet up with the smaller boat and set of on another 30 minute boat ride up a tributary ranging from a few meters wide to about 100 metres wide.
At Muyuna we are greeted by the Manager and a welcome glass of the local fruit juice. We are given the keys to our room and told that lunch is ready and the bags will be taken to our rooms. Our guide, Clarissa, joins us at the end to let us know that we are going for a local walk. Well the first mistake was not to wear a long sleeved shirt and during the next 2 hours we were lunch to I don’t know how many mosquitoes but I gave up counting after 30 bites despite using Mosquito repellent or may be it was mosquito attraction. The jungle was hot humid and sticky like I have never experienced before as well as surprisingly dark – Ray Mears never made it seem like this in his survival programmes. As it was the dry season I the mud was a minor problem but none the less challenging at times.
Trying to taking photos proved to be a nightmare one minute at ISO3200 to get a reasonable shutter speed above 1/30 second and in the clearings ISO200 would give f8 at 1/250 second so I was constantly changing the settings and sometimes when a monkey appeared fleeting I would grossly under or over expose the image but you can judge for yourself and taking birds in the trees meant I had to under expose by3 stops just to get the colour of the birds but I then burnt out the sky so please don’t be to harsh with your criticism of the quality. We eventually arrive back and again welcomed by a fruit juice.
We are told that Supper was at 19:15 and afterwards we are going for an evening boat ride so we can do what we like until then. The kerosene lamps light our way to our room which is also lit by 2 kerosene lamps and that cold shower is so welcome. What can one say about a cold shower to an overheated body except watch out for the cold water when it hits your back!!!!!!!!!!.
The food and the talk at Suppertime was good – all the usual questions of: where are you from? how long are you staying? what did you do today? and what have you seen? etc.
We meet at 20:00 for our boat ride but I had elected to leave my camera behind. During the trip we saw a red snake, nocturnal birds, a Fishing bat and the guides caught a baby cayman.
Monkey
Iquitos and the tributary
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