Iquitos! Peru

well, where shall i begin? let´s start with my river boat journey. i was on deck by 4, and the boat was supposed to leave at 5. the deck, which when i had previously been there was bare of only one hammock besides mine, was now completely full. it looked more or less the way i had expected it too, based on the internet prodding i had done and rick´s description (the man from the yukon i´d met at the hostal in huaraz) hammocks were strewn ¨cheek to jowl¨ as he described, all along both sides of the main deck, and more, in the same fashion, on the upper deck, which was a lot smaller and open, therefore a lot breezier, and after realizing this i sort of regretted handing over my hammock right away to the guy on the main deck, who was one of the few people there at the time, who skillfully tied it up in seconds. oh well, i wouldn´t be sleeping there, or at least, wouldn´t have to, as i also had the luxurious option of bedding down in my coffin-esque cabin, which came equipped with a simple metal frame bunk bed dressed with flimsy dirty mattresses, bare of any sheets or a pillow..well, what could i expect? plus, the little room stank, horribly, and i actually chose to try out hammock sleeping for a night out of fear of feroucious bed bugs. naturally, as events such as these are ran according to ´peruvian time´the boat didn´t actually get moving until around 1 the next day, so i, along with many others family members who had been unluckily named as guardian of all personal belongings that had been loaded that day, spent the night on the still sleeping boat. i was happy i didn´t have to pay another night in a hotel, at least. you know, sometimes i´m a little amazed when i look at the laid-back, accepting reactions the people have to situations such as these. whereas in northamerica something like this, for example, would undoubtedly cause a whole lot of fuss and whining, it doesnt even seem to phase these people that something inconvenient has just occurred.
´pedro martin´, that was it´s name. the walls of the deck are all lined with simple wooden benches that also run all the way down the centre of the boat. so i´ve got more or less two options as to where i´m going to position myself. seated there, with my back against the wall, or curled up awkwardly in my hammock, which, i just want to add, aren´t quite as luxurious as you might have heard. or, i could stand up front and bare myself to the wind, body leant against the front railings overhanging the nose of the ship which is cluttered and packed with cargo. the bathrooms were..well, let´s just say, every time i felt the voice of my bladder cry out to me i tried to ignore it for as long as possible, putting off the inevitable..dread. i opted to go the 4 day stretch without a shower than to brave the conditions. i mean, it wasn´t quite outhouse, but it was more disgusting in other ways. i´m really not one to whine about stuff like that, but that´s just part of my description. that first night once the engine began it´s metallic symphony, i tried the cabin out, and was kept awake for hours by this strange clanking symphoney that seemed to sound in each of the four walls i was enclosed in, along with the fact that i was practically sleeping on a board of wood. this symphony i´m talking about, this was really something that characterized the entire journey in a kind of special way that can only really be kept to myself as a little secret pleasure, as it became so by the time the trip was over. what was slightly appalling, though not to be unexpected, was just how pulluted this river is. all garbage goes straight into the river with absolutely no second thought, along with all the sewage...and this is the water thats being sucked right back up that you might very well be baptized by if you decide to use the shower facility..a pipe right about the toilet that squirts out the murky brown water. i wish i had known that the kitchen would only be serving one meal per day, as i had the naive notion that i´d be being served breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and hey, maybe even a coffee or a tea in the morning! no way, they don´t even provide you with a plate or cutlery. i´m glad i figured that out when i was approached by a desolate looking woman offering me a piece of tupperware and a spoon for a ´very cheap price´, before i had even boarded the boat. i would´ve brought way more snacks. at least there is always the option of buying whatever randomly comes your way as a whole other kind of joyful symphony sounds the boat when its docked at some town along the way and village people, mostly women and their children, rush on with bags of fruit and drinks and sometimes bread and whatever else is in abundance in that particular place. i once ended up with this huge bag full of exotic looking fruits that looked to me like a type of orange, or mini mangos, and got laughed at by an elderly couple when they noticed how i was trying to peel the wierd fruit with my knife. turns out the slightly bitter peel is basically the only edible part of the fruit, as the rest is this big hard seed that i was trying to sink my teeth into..oh well. i gave them away to some kids, who seem to love the stuff. there were many families on the boat, and a good amount of crying to go along with it. it felt very intimate. that was probably my favorite aspect of the trip. the days wouldn´t get boring because there were always so many things to watch, so many touching interactions to observe, though i, feeling kind of quiet for much of the time, didn´t do much of that. on the third day i finally befriended the group of 4 american women that were shacking up next to me in the cabins. an intriguing group, with one of the young beautiful women being in a wheelchair.i learned they were made up of 2 pairs of sisters. the woman in the wheelchair was rehabiliting from a spinal chord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down. she was recieving natural treatments in lima. i´m not exactly sure, but there is an ancient medicinal practice here that is generally unheard of in northamerica, entailing all kinds of herbal remedies. ¨sometimes western medicine can do more harm than good,¨alisha said. she had had enough of the invasive and abrasive procedures. ¨and have they helped you?¨i asked. ¨oh, definitely.¨¨and you do believe you will walk again¨i said. ¨definitely, i never thought, oh shit, this is the end.¨ it sounded like even her voice box had been affected by the snowboarding, as it was, accident, and her voice was soft and wispy. it was touching to hear her story. i sat next to alisha while she was gently massaging )i forget her name! the woman in the wheelchair)´s, back, head, and neck, where i noticed some gruesome looking scars. i had also seen this woman working with her hands the previous day. she had bright pure blue eyes and a light, warm personality. ¨you do healing work?¨i gently asked. ¨i do¨, she said, turning to me with those intense eyes and smiling, ¨but we´re all healers.¨ and from there it seemed that´s where the conversation was deemed to go, and i felt like synchronicity had just come into play. i´m not sure why, but i began to open up a little about my own journey, i was practically vibrating, almost shaking, as though they were the first words i´d spoken in a very long time. ¨what a wonderful thing to meet likeminded people,¨she said, and i think i was probably beaming when, after inquiring a little about my astrology, she mentioned that i might be one of the ´indigos´, or´crystals´. i think in that conversation was the first time i have said, with conviction, that i am interested in studying and doing healing work when i get back to calgary, a frequently asked question..but it´s also something i am hesitant to speak about, (although i think it´s important that i do, as a lot might be learned if shared with the right people) since it is still very new to me. i can only really focus right now on my own healing that is taking place!
that night we were hit by a fantastic wild storm that transformed our peaceful little ´lancha´as the cargo boats are called, into a screaming water world! one thing i like about a storm is the way they seem to unite and connect everyone who is together enclosed in the same space or seeking shelter when it hits. everyone, some frantically so, were quickly rescuing any personal belongings or baggage, or children for that matter, that might be in the line of fire- a fiercing blowing rain whipping down both sides of the deck drenching everything in it´s path. everyone was huddled together at the centre of the boat, and as lightning stung the sky and thunder rolled, i got into a long conversation with one very jovial man in the hammock next to mine which somehow ended up in (and i´m really not sure how, i kind of lost him after a while) receiving a book entitled ´the ten commandments´only in spanish. he even scribbled down a little note for me on the front page. i was happy that my last day on the boat i wound up connecting with a few people, laughing, and giving warmth.
i arrived at the dock in iquitos this morning, around 7 a.m...and what an extraordinarily full day this has been! i do not have the time at the moment, but i will soon write again. tomorrow, however, i will begin my jungle trek with a peruvian couple that i haven´t yet met, a 3 day trip that entails, oh i´m not even quite sure, jungle walks and boat rides and what not. i´m not doing any of the organizing, so i really don´t care! ciao, for now.