After Machu Picchu we took a flight to Lima then another one to the 400,000 person city of Iquitos. Fun fact for ya: the city of Iquitos is the largest city in the world that isn’t accessible by road. You can only boat in or fly in to the city because it’s basically on an island, surrounded by rivers. One of those rivers is called the Amazon, and it starts about an hour up river near the 35,000 person town of Nauta. Nauta is the second largest town on the river island and is where we lived for a month with Joel and Amy and their daughter who are missionaries in Nauta.
The city of Nauta is on the Maranon River, just a few miles upstream from where it connects with the Ucayali River to form the beginning of the Amazon River. Our job was to visit the villages on the Maranon and Ucayali rivers, all the way down to the Amazon, to find out how big they were, what they thought their main needs were, and other basic information like that so that Non-Governmental organizations, Missionaries and the government would have a better idea about what was there and how to help. We went into the villages with a translator and a survey to ask the village’s chief about their village. About six months ago, some of the pastors and missionaries in the area came up with the idea to do this survey; around the time Daniel and I were looking for places to volunteer at in South America, and the timing ended up working out for everyone.
While the villages we visited were at times very basic, they weren’t undiscovered tribesmen deep in the jungle wearing loin cloths, they’re just forgotten. That was the feeling many of the chiefs and leaders we talked with shared, in some villages they said we were the first people that had ever come to help. The villages in this region are largely forgotten because since the city of Iquitos is so hard to get to it’s considered the jungle, so then the city of Nauta is considered the deep jungle, and then the villages hours or days up river from Nauta (The villages we went to) are never even thought about, because they’re in the deep deep jungle. Oftentimes resulting in help not reaching those villages that could use it the most. This survey was part of an effort to help change that.
Because almost everything has to be flown in to the region there aren’t very many cars. About 85% of the vehicles that are used are motorcycles that are frankensteined to either look like a three wheeled truck or a model-t looking vehicle called Motokars. At first it looks really crazy, like everyone’s driving around in go-karts, but after a while we really started to like ‘em. They’re really open which is nice because it’s so hot.
There’s not many tourist attractions in the town of Nauta aside from a large public pond here that has tons of turtles, fish with whiskers, Pikchi (which are huge fish) and a small alligator. You can buy a bag of stale rolls for .33 cents to throw off a viewpoint to feed the aquatic creatures. The Pikchi are about 6-8 feet long usually and attack the bread, thrashing the water around. It’s pretty startling, it makes me jump almost every time, even though I know it’s coming. It looks like the really big fish on the Wii fishing game. The other fish and turtles in the pond are kinda just there, stealing food from the Pikchi. Then there’s the alligator, which is a pretty scary creature. You’ll be looking around for it, swearing that the thing you’re looking at is just a log and then it’ll slowly submerge, and you know it knows you ate an alligator burger 2 weeks ago.
Fun facts:
There are vampire bats here, as well as the parasite that will swim up your urine stream if you pee in the river (have a sporadic stream).
Most of the rivers here are muddy, but on a couple rivers the water’s completely black, like there’d been an oil spill or something, but it’s all natural.
Back to the survey:
For the survey we’d typically go upriver 2-3 days at a time. Joel would drive us in his missions boat, which was nice because the locals get around on ferries that move slower than drift wood, or they use canoes that have weed eater type engines on them. Even though we were using the missions boat and with a missionary we always specified that the survey was not affiliated with the church, because we wanted authentic answers, not canned responses that they’d think we wanted to hear.
Because we spent so much time on the water, we saw a lot of pods of gray and pink river dolphins. The pink dolphins get their most colorful during mating season, and the ones we saw must of been feeling some type of way because they were super bright pink. On side rivers we also saw a sloth and super tiny monkeys. The sloth was actually moving pretty fast, (for a sloth) and it was pretty camouflaged because algae/moss grows on them during the rainy season, because they’re sloths. We only saw it cuz our translator works as an Amazon River guide. We also saw a rhinoceros beetle and a few tarantulas. At an animal rescue center we also saw some otters, manatees, and more monkeys.
Currently we are in the rainy season, which means that pretty much every village we visited was flooded. In other parts of Peru it’s a state of emergency right now because of the flooding. The flooding here is bad too, but it happens every year, that’s why all the village houses are on stilts. Most houses in the villages you have to take a boat between, and you always need boots. I flooded my boots the most, not to brag or anything. All of the villages are right along the water because they use it to fish, drink, and as a sewer some of the times (a lot of the times). The villages are also right along the water because the jungle is so thick; in most places it’s really not possible to go farther back, so they just build their houses on stilts where they’re at.
One of the days we were pretty far up river when the motor started acting weird, so we turned around and then 2 minutes later it decided to die. The lower part of the engine had broken, so we were just floating down river. The translator and I were on the bow paddling, but it wasn’t doing much good, we couldn’t even keep it straight. (I think the boat breaking was my fault though, cuz that day I’d seen some people on a giant raft with plantains floating towards Nauta and wondered what that’d be like. So I’ll take the blame.) After about 45 minutes of paddling a local fisherman came by and helped tow us to the nearest village, another half hour away. That village was so flooded we tied the boat off to the stilts of a house. Then that fisherman took us downriver to catch a ferry, which we missed because we had 5 people and gear in a little wood canoe. The water was pretty close to the edge of the boat, but it made it pretty cool when some dolphins jumped next to the canoe. Fortunately we were able to catch another ferry (barely) that was headed back to Nauta, and in the end we got to see the sun set over the river. Ferries are a really peaceful way to travel (aka super slow, but still a good experience).
About a third of these villages you had to have a guide or else you wouldn’t find it. They’d be up tiny side streams that connect to a lake that connect to an even smaller creek which eventually leads to a village. The abundance of side canals and places to hide means that a lot of the places areas over here are notorious for piracy. Fortunately, Jack Sparrow was busy making another movie though.
In one village we were in the middle of a conversation with the chief and his wife when it felt like a bull ran into the side of their house. Everyone immediately rushed outside because we were having an earthquake, and wooden stilt houses aren’t designed for those.
All in all we visited 66 villages, although 6 were unreachable because of the flooding. So, we were able to interview heads of 60 different villages on the Maranon, Ucayali and other smaller rivers. The average village had between 100-200 people that lived off of subsistence farming and fishing. Common needs were drinking water, electricity, sewage, and a medical post. Between them all, there were 43 other needs stated as well. None asked for a Taco bell, although it is a major need.
The end goal of the research is to make a website out of the info, with a google map of the river and communities, so that people and organizations can better see what the needs are in the area. The idea is that it can help bring more help to the region, but also better facilitate those already working in the area. To be a database of the communities and their needs in the area, but also of where existing organizations are working and what they’re doing. In order to be more effective and to encourage collaboration. Unfortunately for them I am pretty technologically inept, figuring out this blog is about the extent of my abilities. So that’s a project for someone else, but we definitely got the ball rolling.
Visiting Nauta and the jungle was by far the favorite part of our trip, everyone we met was incredible and welcoming, and we really feel like we helped put these forgotten villages on the map (literally), and got them closer to getting the support that they all desired and needed. Plus Amy made us some delicious American food, which was amazing because real American food’s the biggest thing we’ve missed down here. Talking about what we want to eat when we get back is what we do most often. We have lists. Long lists.
Right now we're in Lima Peru and fly back to Oregon on Thursday! It’s all coming to a close here.
