From Manaus to Iquitos and Back

[amazondk]

I left Manaus last Wednesday on a 1 PM flight from Manaus to Iquitos, Peru with a group of associated on a mission to start up a monthly barge service to and from Iquitos, Peru from Manaus. The barge company belongs to a friend of mine and he asked me to lend a hand securing the backhaul export business to Manaus. The idea is to send 40 foot ocean containers up to Porto Velho, Rondonia via the Amazon and Madeira rivers. From their load the 82 containers on the two barges and then return back to Manaus and up the Solimões (Amazon River) to Iquitos, Peru. Once in Iquitos load the container with wood, mostly destined to Mexico and deliver them to the container vessel in the port of Manaus. I am at the end of the trip right now and will return to Manaus via Tabatinga on the Brazilian border tomorrow. It has been an eventful and adventureous trip. The return should be no different we are taking a military float plane back to the Peruvian side of the border. And, go over to Leticia, Colombia which is right next to Tabatinga and return to Manaus tomorrow evening arriving home at 8 PM. Although my trip does not focus only on palms there are plenty of pictures of them. And, it does give a good insight to life seen from a business trip perspective in the tropics. It is quite different travelling on business. You don't get to see as many sights normally. But, you see sights and meet people that as a tourist you don't get to many times. I believe that I will be back as the results of the trip show a lot of progress. This picture I just shot a few minutes looking out from the Cyber cafe where I am writing this post. I hope you enjoy the journey. It will take a few days to complete the story as I have quite a bit of material.

dk

[amazondk]

Leaving Manaus you fly up the Amazon River for nearly four hours to Tabatinga on the Peruvian and Colombian border The plane stops 3 times in Tefe, Fonte Boa and São Lourenço de Oliveira. As you fly over the Amazon forest it is always impressive just how big the place is and just how many trees and rivers there are. Looking down on the clear afternoon the forest goes on forever.

The black waters are north of the Amazon in these pictures and the muddy large muddy water river is the Amazon or called Solimões in Brazil, that is the last picture. The snaking muddy river is the Jurua River which runs down to the state south of Acre. It is the river with the most swithbacks in Amazonas. Unfortunately I took a lot of pictures of the trip with my travel partners camera as well as the arrival in Tabatinga and he lost the images some how. So, I am going to take a few pictures of the airport on the way out.

[amazondk]

Tabatinga is medium sized Amazonas town in the sort of dicy area of the Peruvian and Colombian border. It is easy to back and forth to the countries. You have to go to the Federal Police office to check out and in of Brazil. We were scheduled to take an express river boat the next morning at 4 AM. That is 4 AM Peruvian time which is an hour earlier than Brazil. We went across the river to check out the boat. And, it a worse boat than I had expected, but what can you say there was no way out. You can notice how the river has dropped and left a lot of muddy silt on the river front. The big boat is a Peruvian river transport boat that services Iquito. They normally clean this off before the river rises again. Which will be in October. Here are some shots of Tabatinga, the river front, and our 1 star hotel for the night.

[amazondk]

We went back to our 1 star hotel, the Novo Hotel to get ready to go out to dinner. Tabatinga did not really strike me as a place that would have many options for restaurants. And, I was not to anxious to eat in one of the street food stops. The view off the hotel balcony had some nice Euterpe precatoria in the background.

[amazondk]

Since the options in Tabatinga for dinner were not to great we went to Leticia, Colombia for dinner. It is actually just crossing a street to go from Brazil to Colombia and there are not restrictions. We walked around a bit. Had a few drinks in a corner bar. And, then went to a nice restaurant for dinner.

[amazondk]

The next moring at 3 AM we got up and got a boat across the river to Peru. The expres was a 200 HP outboard aluminum boat with not too comfortable seats. The trip was to be 12 hours, but would turn out to be 14 hours. There was a German couple, a few English ladies, some French, our group of roudy Brazilians and an American, and the locals. It would turn out to be an interesting day. And, once I get back to an internet connection, probably on Thursday I will post some more of the trip. And, there are plenty of palm trees to come. Not much in way of jungle walks, but palms in the life of an Amazonian city and the region. As we got settled in the boat the attendant aske for the gorditos, fatties, to sit on the other side of the boat. So Guilherme my business associate and I ended up in the back of the boat and unfortunately for Guilherme he got the broken seat.

[bgl]

Don,

Absolutely fascinating! Interesting combination of colors on the hotel! And Tabatinga doesn't exactly seem to cater to tourists... Looking forward to the rest!

Bo-Göran

[SubTropicRay]

Don,

As always, excellent stuff. Thanks for sharing this.

Ray

[Gbarce]

I just love these kinds of threads you post for us.

I hope there's more.

[realarch]

Take your time Don, like to e n j o y these posts.

Tim

[amazondk]

Hi everyone. I made it back to Manaus last night at 830 PM. It was a long day. We left Iquitos on a Peruvian Air Force float plane at about 730 AM and arrived at the border with Brazil at the small village of Santa Rosa at about 930 local time, 1030 AM Amazonas time. It was an experience to put it midly. I will continue with the trip where I left off and eventually get back to the ride home. As always it was great to get home.

dk

[amazondk]

The guy in the photo is Manoel one of my associates on the trip. He is the guy that manages the barge operations. He is quite an Amzonian character. As we continued up the river the main vegetation is what we call here in Amazonas, varzea, or flooded river plane forest of muddy water rivers. The boat stopped at several places along the way. The first one is where river traffic clears customs in Peru. We did not have to do anyting as we had already done that in the village of Santa Rosa when the boat left. The river bank is river silt, mud in essence and does not make boarding or leaving the boat an easy trip. The Capitania is where the barges check in and Aduana is customs. As you can see the customs don't look too busy. Since there were no easily visible rest rooms I sort of wandered out behind the area into a banana grove to take care of this necessity. I did find this rest room, but it did not look too inviting.

[amazondk]

Bo,

Tabatinga really does not have much to offer tourists. Leticia in Colombia is quite a bit better. I did see a few low budget travellers there though. Mostly the back pack group.

dk

[amazondk]

A little further up the river we stopped again. The boat was greated by a group of kids and probably the mother of one or more of them. She came in the boat selling a back of what looked like snacks. Manoel decided to buy some. Once he got the bag and lady had left the boat he discovered that they were raw turtle eggs. I don't know what he eventually did with them. They were making, or at least had attempted to make a river side rest stop here as well.

[amazondk]

It was a beautiful day on the river. Even though not the most comfortable one. They had drums of gasoline behind where we were sitting. And, the seats were not really totally functional. The toilet also had a barrel of gas in it that had to be taken out if someone wanted to use it. There were stops where riverside dwellers would give the boat crew packages to deliver in Iquitos as well. We saw the return Express boat that we were scheduled to return on the next Tuesday.

[amazondk]

The next stop was the town of Pevas. We did not get to see the town only the river front. Which was an experience. They were selling fruits and vegetalbes at the street fair market. And, there were some women selling turtles and turtle eggs. I bought some regional tomatoes from them and took their picture. I figured the regional tomatoes would do well in the climate of Manaus as they grown them there. Going up the river bank to the market was an experience just to get to solid ground. But, I did get my booty of tomatoes.

[bgl]

Don,

Wow, what a place! Did you see any paved streets there? Looks like it could be a real mess after a heavy rain. And since I'm sure I'll never make a trip there, I'm enjoying the photos even more...!

Bo-Göran

[realarch]

Boy, being a turtle and tortoise lover, the one picture is hard to look at. I realize the cultural circumstances though, so it is what it is. Probably red foots or yellow foots. Other than that, the pictures are great, I could look at them all day. Too bad you won't be going with us to the Ecuadorian part of the Amazon Bo, I have a feeling it would somewhat similar to Don's photos.

Tim

[Walter John]

Great stuff, love the local people pics. Pretty happy bunch.

[amazondk]

Bo,

I am not sure if the town had paved streets or not as I only was at the river front. Iquitos is a pretty well structured place though as you will see in coming pictures. It has either concrete or asphalt paving. Fortunately it is the dry season and it did not rain so I was spared the experience of going ashore in the rain.

Tim,

The turtles are river turtles called tracaja here in Amazonas. Since they come ashore to lay eggs in the low water the people now are harvesting. Here in Amazonas they love to eat turtles and turtle eggs. But, it is illegal to do so. So, the consumption has dropped. In Peru there is no control over this as well as I could find out. I think that the area of the Napo where you will be the rivers are quite a bit smaller and the high ground forest is much closer than this area. But, I imagine the people live pretty much the same.

Wal,

I am glad you are enyoying the trip. In reality people are normally the best part of any trip. I have a lot more people pictures coming. As well as a good amount of palm and other shots.

dk

[amazondk]

Our Express boat had to refule in Pevas and was out in the river manuvering to come back and pick up the fuel. Which would end up in the drums next to where I was sitting. After we left Pevas the next stop was Iquitos. After 12 and half hours on this craft that was a great feeling. After we left lunch was served. It was not the greatest I have eaten, chicken, rice, and yams. But, hunger has a way of changing ones perception of what is good to eat.

[Jeff Searle]

Don,

What a fascinating trip to say the least. It reminds me so much of some of my time I have spent down there in that part of the world. I always enjoy your travels, and the interesting culture that goes along with it.

Jeff

[amazondk]

Jeff,

It was a pretty interesting trip. It has been a while since I was out on a road trip of this sort. The differences between here and there are a lot less than the similarities. It was good to practice my Spanish a little as well.

dk

[amazondk]

By the time we got to Iquitos after more than 14 hours on the boat I was not really too interested in taking pictures. My main goal was to get to the hotel and take a shower and lay down for a while. It was good to be on solid ground again. After a rest I went for a quick walk near the hotel. Iquitos is sort of like Manaus was maybe 30 years ago or so. There are a lot of similarities in with the two cities in the middle of the jungle. The most striking difference was the fleet of every present motocycle rickshaw type taxis zipping around everywhere.

[amazondk]

After a rest we went walking around the Plaza de las Armas, the central plaza of Iquitos and down to the riverside Boulevard area to have a few drinks. Then we took some motor taxis over to a Chinese restaurant. Peru has a lot of these Chifas as they are called. The next day would be getting down to business to sell our barge - export project via Manaus to the world.

[amazondk]

I forgot to include this photo. It was taken while crossing the street near the hotel on the way back to the hotel. The buses were pretty interesting too.

[_Keith]

Don,

I think you must lead the most interesting life of anyone I have known. I really appreciate you taking the time to post the pictures. It would be interesting, from time to time, to know some of your internal thoughts on what you see as well.

[Gileno Machado]

Great pictures Don, as always.

Where are the Peruvian palms, amigo?

[simona]

I also enjoy following you on trips....Thanks for sharing.

[amazondk]

Don,

I think you must lead the most interesting life of anyone I have known. I really appreciate you taking the time to post the pictures. It would be interesting, from time to time, to know some of your internal thoughts on what you see as well.

Keith thanks for the suggestion. I will see what I can do. What I have done the most over the past twenty years or so is sales of transportation and logistics in Latin America. Although I have been working as a lumber trader for the past 4 years, I always end up in some way back involved with this business. Business has taken me all over South America over the years and into a lot of places most people would not go. To be able to sell on a local level one needs to understand quite a bit of what is going on culturally, economically, and politically in the area you are working. Understanding this is really what allows me to do what I do. During this trip I learned a lot about Amazonian Peru a place I had not visited before. When you drop into a place as we did there are all kinds of things to figure out. The main thing is what the people you are dealing with up to. That is who are the players and how do you get to where you want. What I did most on this trip was talk to people. Since my focus was two fold, securing customers for the barge export program via Manaus, and suppliers for my lumber customers in Europe and the USA there was a lot to talk about. I asked a lot of questions about how things work and how to get things done. The main focus for the lumber exporters is Mexico. They supply a variety of lumber, virola, to Mexico and the USA. Much of this wood ends up in Home Depot and other places as mouldings, door frames, and other products. I did a lot of asking about how enviromental policies are handled for forestry and comparing them with what happens in Brazil.

Aside from all this I always kept an eye out for plants that I found interesting. Although I really did not have much time for this. For the most part the vegetation there is pretty much like around Manaus. There are some differences. But overall not a lot. The area around Iquitos is lowland forest with many swampy or seasonally flooded areas the same as are found along most of the course of the Amazon River. These areas are called varzea here.

Wait until I get to the float plane trip back to the Brazilian for interesting. At least we made it to the destination. I guess my life is somewhat interesting. At least I work and live in a place somewhat different from that of many people. I do get out to some pretty remote areas. And, have some interesting experiences. I guess that is what make life interesting.

Come visit and I will show you personally some of the world from my side.

dk

[amazondk]

Gileno,

There are some palms coming. But, not a lot. This trip had a pretty much business focus and I did not have much time to get out on my on or stop and look around. For the most part the palms around Iquitos are pretty much the same as Manaus. I did see some interesting Attaleas from the boat back from the river bank. But, there was little I could do but watch them go by in the distance.

Simona,

I am glad you like the trip. Since I am at about half way there is a lot more to come.

dk

[Al in Kona]

Don, this account of your trip to Iquitos has been most interesting and I look forward for the rest of it to continue. Many years ago my wife and I visited some of the areas you are mentioning, namely Leticia, Colombia and Iquitos, Peru and some of the surrounding area, staying at a jungle lodge for a few days. Your descriptions along with the many photos almost make me feel I'm along for the ride! Wish I was! This part of the world and these out of the way areas fascinate me a lot. Tengo ganas de regresar a visitar de nuevo este lugar.

[amazondk]

Al,

How long ago was it you were there? I has been a while since I have been in either Colombia or Peru and from the brief contact I had things seem to be pretty up beat economically. Iquitos is going to be impacted by a lot of investment from the oil business. Due to the good business environment in Peru in contrast to its neighbors, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela there seems to be lot of focus there now.

dk

[amazondk]

The central Plaza in Iquitos is Plaza de las Armas. Some of the night photos above are from there. The use of palm trees in the landscape is really nice. They used a Mauritia in each corner. This has a great effect. This tree is very common in the area and I is a great touch. I wish it was used more here in this kind of application. Iquitos is reallly quite a well maintained city. Since it is not full of buses and trucks the streets are in pretty good condition as well. The first picture is an African oil palm right next to our hotel. There are quite a few of these planted around town.

[amazondk]

There is only one road out of Iquitos and that goes about 100 kms if I remember right. I went out on this road to look a sawmill of one of our potential customers. He is a major supplier of wood to Mexico and has a nice operation. He intends on making value added products of which I will try and get some sales. On the way back I asked him to stop so I could check out the palm tatch factory. Tatch roofs are used extensively in Iquitos. I think that use some sort of Attalea fronds, but I am not sure. The guy at the tatch factory told me the name of the palm, but I did not record it. I am going to use some tatch roofing at my place in Paricatuba on the other side of the Negro River here in Manaus.

[amazondk]

The motorized rickshaw like vehicle, the mototaxi, is widely used in Iquitos. In fact probably 80 percent of the transportation is via this vehicle. There are small buses in ciruclation. And, there are cars. But, since there is no where to drive out of town basically and the mototaxis are readily available not a lot of people have cars. Not to mention that most people do not have the money for them. This form of transporation gives Iquitos a unique flavor. It also makes the city very easy to move around in at a cheap price.

[amazondk]

Here is a video I took of a mototaxi ride.

[amazondk]

We had ceviche for lunch a few times. Ceviche is the Peruvian national dish made from raw fish in lemon sauce. It is quite good and there are several varieites coming from different parts of the country. While eating in the restaurant the first day a guy and his came into the restaurant playing Peruvian folk music. This added a nice touch to lunch. Here is video of them -

[amazondk]

Manoel and I went to the port to check out how the operation of unloading the barge will be done. There is a lack of infra structure at Iquitos port to load and unload containers. But, it is possible. The in bound containers with sugar or cooking oil have to be unloaded manually on the barge. The cargo comes loose loaded in the containers. With 82 containers this will take a while. Then the empty containers are lifted onto the floating pier and loaded with the lumber bundles. The whole operation should take about 10 days. After we explained to the port what we were doing we walked around the port. There is a quite a bit of pipe moving in now for petroleum exploration. The port will become real busy once the oil startes being drilled in large scale. There are only two ways to Iquitos. One is from Lima to Pulcapa by road and then down the river. The other is up the river from Manaus. They are going to need a lot of oil barges built to support the oil field development. The area being explored for oil is up the rivers toward Ecuador. The barges covered in tarps are loaded with wood that is going to be shipped down to Tefe in Amazonas state of Brazil to be loaded on the vessel to Tampico, MX, Houston, and Port Everglades. The vessel only can reach Iquitos during the high water for six months. Even then it can not reach the pier and has to be unloaded onto barges in the river and then transfered to the port. There were some intersting tourist river boats next to the port.

[amazondk]

We were there over a weekend. So on Saturday we went down to the river front. Manoel had spent time in Iquitos before as he operated two barges earlier. The area sort of reminds one of areas of the river front in Manaus. In fact Iquitos is a lot like Manaus of 30 years ago. The cumbia music was blaring and the afternoon was hot. There are people selling all kinds of things. The lady was selling food and turtle eggs. I like to hang out in these kind of places. I sort of feel right at home. Just like Manaus there are mangy dogs hanging around the riverside and markets. I guess you would call it a dog day for this dog.