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Exploring 6 Days On The Amazing Amazon River

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By W. CLIFF McDUFFIE, Special to the Tribune

Published: November 4, 2007

On Sept. 28 we took I-75 toward Miami to fly to Peru. By 3:15 p.m. the car was in storage, and we were at the airport awaiting our 1:35 a.m. departure.

Arriving in Lima at 6:30 a.m., we cleared customs easily, were met by our tour company, Overseas Adventure Travel, and bused to our hotel in Miraflores, an area of Lima known for flowers and major hotels.

There was no time to settle into our room as we joined 20 other soon-to-be friends and headed to a museum in Lima to view ancient Incan artifacts. The bus ride took us by several active Incan archaeological digs, right in the middle of Lima. It was springtime, with the temperature in the low 60s, making a light jacket comfortable.

After lunch, six of us boarded the bus again and visited "Villa El Salvador," a real shantytown located 35 miles from downtown Lima but still within city limits.

This is really an amazing "city." These residents came to Lima to find a new life but had no skills and jobs, so they began this "homeless" city and now have "shacks" built on the side of a dirt mountain.

They have established their own government, rules and regulations and built a small community, with businesses, paved streets and some light industry. They are well known for their furniture making. I found it interesting that all 42 areas of Lima have their own mayors and then elect a "super mayor" to govern them all.

The following day, we were whisked off to the airport to fly northeast to Iquitos to board our Amazon River vessel, "La Aquamarina," our home for the next six days. It was hot! The temperature was like when we left Zephyrhills.

Outside the Iquitos airport, we were surrounded by three-wheel motorcycles that look like rickshaws. They speed along with apparently little concern for road rules; whoever is there first, powers through. As we neared Iquitos, they seemed to be everywhere. They reminded me of bees around a hive, all hurrying somewhere.

We boarded our river boat, settled into our well-appointed cabin (for a river boat, anyway) and set sail upriver. The Amazon headwaters are in Peru, beginning in the Andes flowing north, then east through Brazil and emptying into the South Atlantic. The sun is in the north rather than the south. It was my first time across the equator.

We immediately began seeing local river traffic, all kinds of dugout canoes, river rafts, river taxies, one Peruvian Navy vessel, banana boats and log carrying rafts. The river is the main highway here, so all goods flow either to Iquitos or to Nauta on the Maranon River, a main tributary of the Amazon.

As there is no road to travel, boats are piled high with fruits for market. Native people, who live many miles from town, build a raft of balsa wood, erect a tent on it, pile it high with market goods and then live on the raft for up to a week to get to market. They then sell the raft and ride the river taxi back home.

We lunched with a native family using banana leaves as a table. We took a midnight hike in the jungle, fished for piranha (I caught six) and paddled in dugout canoes with natives.

We visited a shaman and had a rite preformed for us. We also visited a local school (elementary is mandatory) and watched along the river as women washed their clothes, children swam and many interesting birds sought their meals.

We found the Peruvian people very friendly, and most are happy even though they had little more than the clothes on their back. All seem to take pride in what they have.

Homes are platforms built about five feet off the ground. Most along the river had open sides and thatched roofs. There seemed to be no furniture, as everyone stoops or sits on the floor. The main rooms are the living room, bedroom and dining room, with a kitchen off to the side. The men still hunt with bows and blowguns.

We saw Anacondas, giant rodents, a vine snake, spiders, frogs, wooly and spider monkeys, iguanas, sloth, caiman and pink dolphins.

But all too soon, it was time to pack up and head back to the States. What a wonderful, educational experience.

The writer, a former executive director of the Zephyrhills Chamber of Commerce, is the mayor of Zephyrhills.

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