Then I discovered that the Amazon
river, going to Iquitos, has an affluent in Urubamba, an hour away
from Cusco! But we were too high in the mountains. So I decided to go
straight North, following the river, in order to take a boat either
in Ayacucho or for sure in Huancayo.
The first bus ride was actually 12h
just to get middle way to Ayacucho, followed by a
2-flat-tyres-12h-more-bus to the actual town. 24h. In Ayacucho, the
Peruvian precision about space and time made me miss the bus
station... the bus was actually going directly to Lima! What the
hell? I end up staying in the bus for another... 12h to Lima! 36h in
a row! Started to get insane, but no way I would stay a night in
Lima, so took the first bus to Pucallpa. 55h. Just that. Believe me,
that open air 5 days boat trip was more than welcome!!
Living on a boat for 4 days was
amazing, spending most of your time making sure that your hammock is
balancing because of the heat, relaxing, admiring the landscape... I
loved it. Not much to tell about though, but that one night we had to
stop because of heavy fog; that the following night the captain and
some guys of the crew came back with 2 water turtles to eat later on
the land; and that the ports and boats in the jungle have the highest
rate of gay people! Such a warm atmosphere!
On the boat I met an Italian photographer, Guiseppe Bartuccio (www.gbarte.com) who gave me the honour of using his photos for the blog because I lost my camera during the trip... (all rights reserved). Have a look:
The legend of the pink dolphin:
At many confluences of the Amazon
river, where lots of fish congregate, you can see beautiful pink
dolphins! Yeah, you can actually find dolphins in a river!
The legend said they are kind of
“mermen”, transforming into attractive young men at night in
order to seduce girls on the river banks.
The little Rosita, 18, who use to wash
clothes in the river everyday, once fell asleep and woke up at night
lying next to a handsome young man pretending he was a fisherman.
After several night spent together, she said to her dad she was in
love and wanted to get married. He accepted and also offered the boy
to stay at their place. Mysteriously, the boy would always disappear
before dawn and never come back before sunset. One fateful morning,
he slept in, and Rosita woke up next to something wet and cold... a
pink dolphin! She screamed, and her dad, in panic, shot the animal.
The young fishermen never came to visit
Rosita after that day and was never seen again.
Rosita, who discovered soon after that
she was pregnant, was heartbroken and could never believe that her
lover left her.
But another part of the legend is that
some bad dolphins would drown people to bring them to their
underwater world.
I just red an article in the newspaper
telling the story of Roxanne, a passionate for dolphins, who came in
1982 to observe them. She was in a canoe with her guide at a place
where you can find them, and soon they started to circle the canoe
and dance around flapping their paddles and splashing with their
blow-holes. Dolphins are very friendly animals, so totally exited she
jumped in the water and swam with them... until she got hit by
something! She hurried back into the canoe and saw twilling in the
water for a moment, then all was calm. The dolphins had made the
predator go away and saved her! Later, she got told she was attacked
by a bull shark. Yeah, shark also can live in big rivers! But
apparently at that time, even local people wouldn't believe her. This
can explain this other part of the legend accusing the dolphins of
drowning people.
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