Ucayali river

A distance from Pucallpa to Iquitos is close to 1500km following the river and it takes about 4-5 days in cargo boat. According to my map we were sailing with winding Ucayali river that will later change to Amazon river in Iquitos. But local people doesn´t distinguish rivers here and calls it just the Amazon river as it begins in Peru near Arequipa.

On one hand we were going downstream that makes my boat quite fast, but on other hand as water level is low now, boat needed to choose route very carefully and that was slowing us down. I really didn´t mind. I took my time watching birds, dolphins (swimming up and down again) and plenty villages with wooden and straw huts. From time to time we were stopping in one of this villages to take or to unload something or someone.

My cabin (caramota - I have paid 150 S/. with bath, 3 meals per day, without water ) is rather small and stuffy so it is impossible to stay there all day. Deck is better as moving boat make a little breeze. Unfortunately there was no place to hang my hammock somewhere so I went watch landscapes.

-eres de polonia?

-si, porque?

-solo una pregunta…

The person was working on the boat and it turned out that I was in restricted area. I exchanged a word with him, well I was the only tourist on this ship He has told me that there is 8 Henrys and each one is repeating the distance from and to Iquitos twice a month.

Just before dusk we arrived to bigger port and few people left, making space for my hammock. So I could watch beautiful sunset.

Even though, now we are sailing as well by nights, landscapes stays pretty the same:). The weirdest thing I have ever seen was unloading ice cubes, when we stoped in one of those villages, as local fisherman use ice to keep their fishes fresh. But after that I have noticed it wasn´t nothing unusual and that we had more ice on board.

Well people here don´t mind throwing trashes directly to the river. The other thing was that they were a bit afraid of me at the beginning. But after one day they saw me talking to some people around suddenly I became the biggest attraction on my level. Sometimes it was so nice as people was giving me fruits or food (I have never seen before) to try.

Food that was served to cabins was a bit different, than food from hammocks but I had expected something more after paying 50 S/. extra. The good thing about it was I didn´t need to have any plates or cutlery while those from hammock had to have everything with them and then wait in long queue to get something

Every place for hammock was used so I put mine and I didn´t think about taking it off, maybe I was just to lazy.