What a way to finish....

Don´t get too excited. I don´t have a particularly epic story from my last week of my trip. But, it was a sweet on an incredible beach!

But... before that were a few other adventures....

After finally dragging my but out of Pisac (not easy - what a beautiful farewell!) Nick, Rani and I made our way into the jungle. Yep, the Amazon Jungle. Maybe you have heard of it? After 3 days on buses we finally rolled into Puccalpa, a city of about 300,000 people and basically the end of the road. literally. Everything travels by boat from here. We explored Puccalpa for a bit and checked out some Shipibo villages (interesting indigineous tribe known for their amazing art which is inspired by the halucinagenci plant medicine Ayohuasca). We bought up the place! Very cool stuff.

A family in San Fransisco (Shipibo village)





From Puccalpa we embarked on what would end up being the craziest boat ride of my life (I havent taken many boats...). As I mentioned, everything travels by boat, so these boats are big and have a complete lower deck full of cargo and then 2 upper decks full of people in hammocks. pretty crazy scene. likely close to 200 people. We scored the top floor which turned out to be a bit hotter but not nearly as crowded. The captain informed us that the boat would be leaving tomorrow and that we were ok to sleep on the boat that night. So we did. But it would be 2 more nights before we woudl even leave the dock of Puccalpa! The trip was supposed to take 3 days. Well 3 days in we finally left town. Once rolling though it was beautiful. Small villages along the river banks, beautiful jungle, beautiful sun sets and sunrises. Basically it was endless hours of relaxing in our hammocks. Reading, sleeping, eating, making stuff (made my first necklace from a piece of jade I have been carrying around for almost 10 years. sweet!). Some quality down time.

An old man fishing along the side of our boat. Still docked in Puccalpa....



¨chocolate water¨ as the locals call it....

ONe thing about this journey was hygiene needed to be forgot about completely (not hard for NIck and I!). The only water on the boat (sinks, showers, etc) was coming directly out of the river. This doesnt sound so bad but when you look over board into the water you quickly realize that this is one big sewer. shit coils floating right before your eyes! All the towns along this river dump their sewage and all their garbage into the river. Nice one. So yeah, I didnt shower.

And then there was the food.... (yep, cooked with the river water too. at least it is boiled...). Chicken feet soup for the first couple days.... MOstly we just grabbed plates of rice and doctored them up with our stockpile of vegies and various fixings. we ate pretty good. we even scored fish a few times. thanks Captain!



Chill chill times!






ONe of the many small villages we passed.




So after a couple days of cruising down the river, as evening was rolling in, rumours started to circulate around the boat that there were bandits (river pirates, whatever you want to call them) up ahead and that they were going to rob the boat. people freaked out! people were all over the place trying to hide their valuable things (or whatever... no doubt there were a few drug trafficers on this boat). The captain decided to dock the boat, seemingly for the night. With the crew running all over the boat, some carrying rifles, we all tucked in to try to get some sleep..... Not much later the engines fired up and it became clear that we were going to make a run for it. All the lights were turned off, the plastic sheets lowered over the open windows and with the occasional gunshot fired (seemingly used as a teterant in case anyone was approaching), we rolled on into the night. pretty damn scary! I did not sleep well. But morning eventually came and all was fine. It was a beautiful morning.




A couple days later, 7 days after boarding the boat in Puccalpa, we rolled into Iquitos at 6 am. still half asleep and 7 days away from civilation made for a major shock to the senses! but at least we back on land. and it was shower time!

Iquitos was a good time. Myra, a Nelson beauty that we met in Pisac, flew over and met us in Iquitos so the four of us had some good adventures. A few interesting Ayohuasca ceremonies. Nick, Rani and I spent 4 days going to this local medicine man who basically just sings.... all his customers are locals and the stories of what this man has done for people is incredible. I could definitely sense his power and believe that he can do some real magic.

After a week or so in Iquitos it was time to get my ass to Columbia. I wanted to spend my last week on the beach before my flight out of Bogota and the 22nd was coming up quick.... So, i jumped on the fast boat (10 hours vs 2 to 4 days...) for la Frontera (the spot on the Amazon river where Columbia, Brazil and Peru all meet). what a wild place. pretty lawless but beautiful and the people are great. Walked into Brazil for a beer just because I could. The next day I caught my flight to Bogota and then immediately found a bus to Santa Marta on the northern coast (hellish 20 hour ride! - last one though!).

The flight made for some amazing pics of the Amazon River. so cool





There is a park outside of Santa Marta called Tayrona Park. It is incredible. MOnkeys, massive blue crabs, tons of lizards, butterflies and the ocean.... crystal clear, lots of fish, octopus, coral.... I spent my last 4 days of chill time in the park, sleeping in a hammock and lounging on the beach all day. Just what the doctor ordered. speaking of doctors.... could use one. have been sick basically for the past couple weeks which is a major bummer. first a weird fever, and now a sinus and ear infection... the flight to Toronto tonight should be fun!! thank goodness for cheap over the counter pain killers!





Rad little lizards.

Still dont know what this crazy thing was. He was friendly.



A final pic of scruffy ol´ me relaxing on the beach..... Love it.


Well, that wraps it up. I am off to Ontario for an unknown amount of time to visit with my Grandma, likely a stop coming in MOntreal, then maybe the Maritimes...... why not!


Much love to you all,

Joel