The Travel Actually Begins

 

I’ve been backpacking in a rather rough manner since the age of 19, more or less 17 years ago, and I generally backpack alone, meeting people and joining forces along the way. Nevertheless, for this much longer travel, with the Amazon River to be crossed, I asked some friends if they would be interested and available to join for at least part of the way. My Spanish friend, Xavi Diaz, whom I met whilst we were both living in the Mediterranean island of Malta (my father’s native country and my home for many years), told me that his work contract in Malta was about to end at more or less the same time as my contract in Lago Agrio. He was my first recruit - and a good one too since we had trekked quite a lot together in Malta and had also travelled to his hometown of Pamplona for the crazy San Fermin festivities. His girlfriend, Catia, will join us on 10^th October in Manaus, a large Brazilian city along the Amazon River. My own girlfriend, Sofia, is due to join us a couple of days later, also in Manaus. Both girlfriends could not join straight away due to pending work commitments.

Selfie taken by Xavi, with Sofia and me at Cuicocha - not far from Ibarra - before we set out on the actual travel

One element I do love about free-spirited travelling is that it is full of unexpected twists. The first one occurred straight away, requiring a very quick and painful decision to be made. I had always envisioned this travel to start from my very own (adopted) hometown of Lago Agrio. The idea was to head to the neighbouring town of El Coca, catch a boat to the Ecuadorian border town of Nueva Roccafuerte and cross over to Peru, arriving at Pantoja. From Pantoja, there is a cargo boat that sails down the Napo River every few weeks, arriving to the Amazon River and, finally, to the Peruvian city of Iquitos. I told my girlfriend, Sofia, that I’d see her in a few days in Lago Agrio, en route to El Coca, when I kissed her goodbye in the mountain town of Ibarra on 7^th September. The following day, I realized that the plan had to change since the Napo River was really low and the boat that we were planning to catch was not going to arrive in Pantoja for probably another two weeks, remain a few days in Pantoja before leaving, and then navigate slowly for several days down the river – taking longer than usual to arrive due to the low level of the river.

Boats along the shore of the Napo River in El Coca

The Napo River flowing through El Coca at dusk

Xavi and I need to get to Manaus, in Brazil by approximately 10^th October – almost a month away – giving us ample time to arrive without too much hurry, but not if we take three weeks just to get to the Amazon River itself. There must be another way, I thought to myself. Descending the Napo River isn’t the only way to get to the Amazon River without catching a plane (I am not fan of planes).

I was aware that Iquitos is also reachable through rivers in Peru itself and that it must be connected by regular boat transport to the rest of the country, given that it is the largest human settlement in the world not connected to the outside world by road. A quick search pointed to a jungle town called Yurimaguas in Peru, where almost daily cargo boats left for Iquitos, taking a few days to arrive. The question was: how to get there? Yurimaguas seemed to be quite a difficult town to reach from Ecuador – but not impossible. The new plan was to head down to the south of Ecuador, to the city of Loja, and then catch several different means of local transport that would eventually take us across the mountains, to the border with Peru and beyond. The roads in that part of the world apparently aren’t in the best of conditions and pass by rather high and steep drops.

The decision to take this new route was made in minutes thus changing the entire initial route. I called Sofia to tell her that I won’t be seeing her for a while. She understood that there was no option but was very sad. I was sorry not to go back to Lago Agrio to see my close friends for one final time before leaving on the travel. Nevertheless, at the same time, I felt a big sigh of relief now that the timing of the travel was in our own hands and not at the whims of a boat that may or may not turn up for weeks. Nobody ever seems to know exactly when the famous cargo boat leaves from Pantoja. Waiting for a few days to a week would have been fine – after all, backpacking doesn’t need to be clockwork precise. It is a problem, though, when the waiting time could be as long as three weeks due to the low river and other factors. Crossing the Amazon by boat is just the beginning of a much longer travel. The idea is to get to Patagonia by the end of December, during the summer period in that part of the world. This meant that three or more weeks to get to Iquitos was not an option.

Realising that we had some more time on our hands due to the change of plans, Xavi and I decided to head to the Ecuadorian coastal town of Puerto Lopez for a couple of days, hoping to spot some whales in the Pacific Ocean before the season ends. Moreover, Xavi had never swum in the Pacific Ocean so we wanted to change that. It occurred to me, when jumping into the cold waves of the ocean, that I was eventually going to arrive to the opposite coast of South America a number of weeks later, probably in Guyana or Suriname, after a very long travel across the continent.

The beach of Los Frailes, near the  fishing village of Puerto Lopez on the Pacific Ocean

Whilst in Puerto Lopez, we went out on a boat one morning and were lucky to spot a couple of humpback whales out in the ocean. Apparently they migrate as far north as Ecuador and even beyond from the area around Antarctica in order to reproduce, remaining in this part of the ocean approximately between June and the end of September. After that, they start heading back down towards Antarctica, where they have access to the food they require. I always dreamt of seeing whales playing around freely in the sea, so it was a delight to follow this couple of adult whales around by boat as they swam to the surface, flapped their fins, and occasionally jumped out of the water before splashing back into the sea. I wished to keep on following this seemingly happy couple for the whole day but the boat I was on eventually headed off, leaving these delightful companions behind.

A humpback whale playfully jumping out of the ocean

A couple of adult humpback whales whom we followed around for a while

The whale's tail

We left Puerto Lopez early in the morning of 11^th September. Leaving the coastal town, I really felt that the true travel was about to begin. Puerto Lopez was more of a relaxing two-day holiday. What was to come next was a very long journey to Peru, with several means of land transport to be caught over three or four days. We caught a four hour bus ride to the busy city of Guayaquil and almost immediately took another approximately nine hour bus ride to the southern city of Loja. We had a fishy start to the travel since our backpacks were placed in the luggage compartment of the bus next to boxes of iced fish between Puerto Lopez and Guayaquil and got soaked by the stinking melted water from the boxes. Both smelling of fish, Xavi and I decided to laugh about it, wondering what else we’ll end up smelling of by the end of our travels.

Fishing boats along the shore of Puerto Lopez

The little fish market on the beach of Puerto Lopez

Fisherman's catch - a medium-sized shark lies on the beach