Quillabamba to Iquitos Part 5

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Had one last nights sleep on the cow boat and it turns out we are only an hour away from Atalaya our destination to get the next boat. Be glad to get off this one thats for sure.
Upon arrival to Atalaya get a small hostal near the port and settle in here until the next boat to Pucallpa, see how long it takes.
It a quiet town and I am loving the food after the scary cow boat food, there is loads of chinese and juanes typical food from the jungle, what I am struggling with is the fact that the only coffee I can get is nescafe.
A lot of time in this village is spent watching movies in the funniest little private rooms where each TV is competing for the sound and a lot of time playing Nintendo for 2 soles per hour. Excellent vacations.
Also went to a place to swim in the river simple called el Pozo where I had the opportunity to see 5 different hummingbirds, a very pleasant little town for chilling out.
After a few days here its on to the next boat the Atlas II about the same size as the last one but not full of cows, only 6 to be exact.
The boat has people on hammocks all the way up the middle and the usual mix of pigs and chickens and this time the cargo is people , fish, bananas, pigs and chickens. It is quite amazing the fish is collected and wrapped in ice that they have in massive blocks in the jungle. They keep the ice wrapped in rice peel and this way it keeps for 20 days, impressive in 30 degree heat.
All the produce is pulled and heaved onto the boat by guys that are working to pay their passage. They bring on massive fish, full hands of bananas. Really is amazing.
I sleep well until about 4am when people start moving about and the cocks start crowing getting to the toilet is going to be a nightmare so I just hang in my hammock until 6. I spend the day watching the river, the towns the people. I see an enormous raft about the size of 2 football pitches being taken to port with wood extracted from the rain forest. There are 2 tents on top of the raft, must be spectacular to travel on.
People on the boat are restless as they want to get to Pucallpa.

Quillabamba to Iquitos Part 4

I am on the river Sepahua, where there are Piros and Machiguengas living and there is a boat Jiban which will be departing to Atalaya. Okay so that looks like it could be the next boat. I go out to explore the town of Sepahua its quite big and really in the middle of nowhere, there are many families that live along the river, fishermen and farmers. 

I spend a few days here in this strange town that has the chicken places and Chinese food. It is also home to a lodge which I travel across the airstrip on a mototaxi to get to, its all closed up but it may be the time of year. 

I go and check out the local football match, now thats a weird one as you look at the trees and there are lots of sheets hung up, turns out they are actually babies hanging in the trees. 

In the evening I watch a bit of TV turns out it is the priests choice as he controls the cable tv for the entire town. 

The music starts at 5.30am again, I get up about 6.30 for my next boat trip theory says I should be in Atalaya in a day. El Jiban is boat of choice its like a barge that is loaded up with 8 cows, this should be interesting. 

So basically this is a boat that collects animals and takes them to slaughter, these poor animals they are pulled down the high sand banks with 10 men and ropes and put on the boat they go past all the small farms picking up 2 or 3 cows at each, it takes ages I can see that this trip may take longer than expected. 

I am on day 2 of collecting cows and this boat is disgusting, it smells bad can you imagine a floating herd of cows, pigs and chickens, I have to get a pig removed from the bathroom to be able to use it, wow this is all a bit crazy. 

As we continue travelling we hit the penal de Sepa, until 1991 was a prison in the jungle. It was basically open as they flew the worst prisoners in from Lima and dropped them in the jungle, 2 sides are river and 2 sides thick jungle, not much escaping going on there then, there is talk of possibly reopening but with the costs involved maybe not. 

We now have 40 cows on this boat you can just imagine, or maybe better not to, one more nights sleep on the floating farm.