Cargo Ship on the Amazon

The most exciting thing you can do in an adventure is feel like you get to discover something. You have the chance to forge your own path and put your skills to the test to navigate uncharted waters. It’s when the real fun begins. Going off of a few outdated blogs and a Google maps sweep of the area, I decided that there was nothing more I wanted to do than take a cargo ship down the Amazon.

A Typical Colectivo Experience

Heading out from Moyobamba, I had to take two different colectivos (read “cramped passenger van”) for 3 hours each. The first one was so sweaty, but the baby I expected to puke on me didn’t and only started crying in the last 15 minutes, so I counted that as a win. For the second, an old man sat down on top of me and acted like he didn’t hear me when I asked for more space in Spanish. I changed seats and ended up next to Mr. D.J. who is another typical colectivo character that is unaware that people might have different tastes in music as well as preference on decibel levels. If you’re lucky like me, he’ll lose his data halfway through the trip.

On the way there we went through so many twists and turns. I was doing everything I could to stave off my motion sickness. I was even practicing breathing and grounding my feet. Looks like those two and a half yoga lessons I took in Vilcabamba were really paying off. Without that, I probably would have been the puking baby on this leg of the trip.

Yuribambas

As soon as we arrived in Yuribambas, there was a flurry of taxis that pulled up to the colectivo. Everyone wanted to take us to town or on tours. My plan of action was to buy a hammock at the market and then head towards the shipyard. I chose a driver but first had to listen to “El Capitan” who wasted 5 minutes of my time trying to sell me a tour of the Amazon. Afterward, my driver took me to the mercado but we didn’t stop. Instead he took me past it to the oficina where I watched him pull an old white hammock out of a bin and blow the dust off. He brought it over to me and said, “40 soles, it’s a great deal”. I already knew that the absolute cheapest people could get them for was 15, but I was hoping for 20 soles. He then offered me some more tours at which point I laughed in his face and demanded to go back to the market. AHORA. We drove back over and I threw 7 soles at him and said thanks. It sucked to deal with, but I totally respect the hustle. Afterward, an abuela took me into her shop and told me I should have only paid him 2 soles; I immediately liked her but still wanted to shop around. I knew better than to buy the first hammock I saw, especially if it was double the price and covered in dust.

The Mercado

I walked the mercado area to look at every hammock available ranging from basic to fancy to a Spiderman one that was unfortunately too small for me. The abuela’s cheapest one was 25 soles so my new goal was anything cheaper. I ended up going to at least 8 different shops, some of which quoted me 50 soles to start. At those, I just laughed and walked away. I found another store with the same cheap ones as the abuela. He started at 25, so I asked for 20. Under his breath he said that’s really cheap, but I got the nod from the storeowner. Now being very familiar with the hammock life due to my time in Korea, i.e. camping under an overpass bridge, I picked up some rope at a hardware store for 4 more soles.

One of the blogs said that the cargo ship doled out food depending on the size of the tupperware container. I’d already purchased a jumbo one back in Moyobamba, so only silverware, bottled water and some fruit were still left on the agenda. While I was buying water, the lady “forgot” to give me 2 soles in change. She at least put on a good show of it when I called her out.

Then, I got in a taxi ready to go to the Puerto Internacional. I knew this should cost around 7-8 soles. The first taxi I got in told me 15 and wouldn’t go lower so I got out. The next guy behind him said my backpack was too big. Next guy said 10 and I said perfecto. He took me all the way to the port except when we got there, the security guard told me it was the wrong place. The blog I was following made it explicitly clear that I had to go there, but it definitely was not correct.

Luckily, this driver was nice (even though he probably knew) and took me to the correct port for another 10 soles that I handed him. My will to negotiate had left my body at this point.

Eduardo X

There was no map on how to navigate this, the blog I had been following just said look for the magic word “Eduardo”. That was the ship I was allowed to crash on. After some confusion over express boats and slow boats in a port office, I walked back out into the street. Then, I just started slinking around the port area but nothing looked like cargo ships. When in doubt, always follow the water. A few minutes later I saw “Eduardo” emblazoned in the night sky. There was my ship and home for the next 3 days.

All day, I had been trying not to fret about what time I got there. I was aiming for daylight, but missed it by a few hours. They don’t really post the schedule online for when cargo ships go down the Amazon. I cautiously entered Eduardo X and found a worker loading things, I asked him where the captain was (not to be confused with El Capitan that has a great boat tour of the Amazon) and he laughed and said, “probably at home with his family”. I was a little confused since I was supposed to check in with him, but he told me I could set up my hammock next to the others and they’d take care of it in the morning before we depart at 8:30am. I’d finally made it.

I settled in and took stock. Somehow, I’d already eaten half my snacks and also forgot to get any silverware, but I had 6 liters of water and a 20 sole bed suspended from the deck above. I hadn’t had a real meal in the past ten hours, but luckily a girl at the front of the ship was selling hot empanadas and flirting with me “Cual es tu nombre?” “Zach” “oh Isssaaac, muy guapo”. It worked. I bought two egg and olive empanadas.

I still don’t quite understand why my brain says:

“NOW THIS IS ADVENTURE! YOU ARE HAPPY!”

In reality, my day was just cramped sweaty bus rides, people trying to rip me off one after another, with a grand finale of swaying from a slightly better place than under an overpass. But from that hammock, with valuables wrapped in my crotch area, I could see the stars shining brightly and the big dipper was sideways. It was the first time I’d seen that. It was then that I took a moment to realize I was on a completely different part of this great big earth. Not only that, but I could navigate it in another language and life was just plain peachy. Or rather orangey since I was about to go to sleep next to 40 crates of oranges.

Departure

I awoke at 6am to some policemen prodding my hammock asking for documents. My brain wasn’t able to Spanish yet having just woken up, but I was still able to mumble out some jumbled up phrases before handing over my passport. No problems, just a routine check. I walked around the area a little before some gringos/my new friends showed up. Then the ship really exploded into life. They were loading all kinds of things such as furniture, bananas, motorcycles, etc. Surveying the area the night before, I thought the entire top floor had been for drying seeds, but now it was full of live chickens hopping around and squawking. On the upper deck, there were also puppies for sale that had recently lost their mother. We were being moved around too, like the human cargo that we were.

This is about the time that I met the other gringos, two of which had shared the exact same collectivo with me to Vilcabamba a week earlier. On that journey, I remember thinking to myself, “WHEN WILL THEY STOP MAKING OUT?” I was having a little trouble finding the romance in a shuttle where you’re literally butted up against a stranger (me). But, hey, if Rihanna can find love in a hopeless place, I guess in the back of a shuttle van isn’t too far off the mark. I had, “I really hope you two have a private room” locked and loaded on the tip of my tongue. I’m glad I held it in thought or this would have made for an awkward reunion. After getting moved around again, we all put our hammocks together and were a solid group of 5 from then on.

Before the ship left, we journeyed out together to find some breakfast, snacks, and a spoon. I spent the whole time hoping that the ship wouldn’t take my well-fought for hammock for a ride without me. Our only warning the ship would be leaving was to be a quick blast once all the cargo was loaded. We rushed through breakfast because we were supposed to head out at 8:30, then 9:30, then 11:30… We finally set off with a couple toots of the horn at 1:30 p.m. 5 hours past scheduled time, but still earlier than we had imagined.

Up the River

You pay the captain 100 soles (about $25) for a three day cruise to Iquitos, meals included. However, on the first day we didn’t get fed until dinner. R.I.P my second round of snacks. We soon found out at dinner that the chickens up top weren’t only for cargo delivery. Any that didn’t make it during the trip, certainly did not go to waste.

After dinner, we shared a celebratory beer and toasted to making it on the slow boat to Iquitos. Dessert came in the form of Cherimoya juice mixed with rum. The fruit is regarded as one of the most exquisite in the world and can only grow under certain conditions (mostly in cold mountainous regions like Peru). It has a secondary name of custard apple due to its sweet taste and creamy nature. All I’m trying to say is mixing it with rum was a perfect river boat cocktail.

Now that we were in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, the sun dipped low and the night sky opened up to us completely. I stared into galaxies I’d only ever seen photos of and searched for constellations around the Milky Way. We lasted about an hour before the drinks and the long day caught up with us. We all retired to our hammocks for what turned out to actually be a decent night’s sleep swaying in the gentle breeze.

Life on the Amazon

The next morning, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and then milled around all day. I had stocked up on activities to the point that I felt like I was at a retirement home. Here at Cargo RiverView, we believe that just because you’re getting older, you shouldn’t have to sacrifice any quality of life. That’s why we start each day with 6 am stretches at sunrise and a hot breakfast at 8:15. After that you have 3 hours of free time. Feel free to color in your journal or watch a couple of hours of television on your smartphone. If you’re looking for something more challenging, grab your personal copy of Harry Potter y La Piedra Filosofal and try your hand at translating some pages. Make sure to grab your tupperware for lunch time at 1pm and remember your happiness is our priority! Etc. etc. etc.

Even with all of those activities, my favorite thing to do was to just… look out. From my hammock, I’d watch the passing palms and shores dotted with huts and little villages. Birds were flying overhead and dipping in and out of view between the trees. It was a simple kind of peace. We’d stop occasionally to drop off some chickens, vegetables, or grains at nearby villages. It was a cargo ship after all.

Capturing the Stars

Between the five of us, we had everything we needed from medical supplies to toilet paper to snacks. Even to a joint that we shared on the upper deck in welcoming the sunset of day two. Over the course of the day, I managed to get enough signal from random towers to download an astronomy app. With no moon in sight, we spent hours looking up at the stars and telling all the stories we knew about the constellations. Meanwhile back in civilization, there was a big soccer match for Peru. They hadn’t been to the finals of Copa America in 44 years and this time they actually had a chance. The ship was abuzz with talk of the semi-finals. People were walking up and down the boat trying to find the best spot to get a clear radio signal. Cries would ring out over the quiet jungle with every big play.

The highlight of the night was a short pit stop at a tiny village where a tv was hooked up to a generator and a satellite dish. It was the only one in town and all the locals were gathered around it. The hut was too packed for me and I was more interested in finally having the chance to capture the stars. There’s no way to get a long exposure on a constantly moving boat. Just as the match was wrapping up, I had finally figured out the right exposure time (90 seconds) and managed to get some of the photos I had so craved. Peru won the match and after all the excitement we were back on the boat and asleep within minutes.

Iquitos

We woke up to our last sunrise and some rice milk with bread. I hadn’t showered since Moyobamba, but the shower toilet combo that takes brown water directly from the Amazon wasn’t really calling my name. By now though, it was a necessity and I knew I’d be showering again at a hostel later that evening, so I decided to put my immune system to the test.

We watched our map all day as we crawled closer and closer to Iquitos finally arriving around 2:30pm. When the ship docked, the workers took their positions around the cargo to protect it. Drivers waited at the barricaded door with hands pounding on the windows to be let in so they could “help unload”. It was like a scene from a zombie movie or like the car scene in Titanic but instead of being sexy it’s just 20 Peruvians yelling from inside. After everything was accounted for, they let us off the boat. I was a little sad to be back on land, but being welcomed by the sound of civilization (hundreds of motor scooters) and the promise of a clean hot shower was the perfect end to my time spent with Eduardo the tenth.