COCA (Ecuador) - NUEVO ROCAFUERTE (Ecuador)
NUEVO ROCAFUERTE (Ecuador) - PANTOJA (Perú)
PANTOJA (Perú) - IQUITOS (Perú)
El barco que cogimos estaba cerrado, contaba con unas cuantas ventanas en los laterales y tenía "cómodos" asientos. La verdad es que echábamos de menos nuestra canoa, donde teníamos a nuestra disposición, solamente para nuestros ojos, la selva entera, donde respirar era un placer (está claro que más oxígeno que allí no íbamos a tener en ningún lado), y donde el viento amazónico nos refrescaba la cara… Si esa mañana hubiéramos tenido la oportunidad, nos habríamos bajado inmediatamente de ese barco y, aunque fuéramos a tardar el doble, habríamos vuelto a nuestra balsa. Había costado llegar hasta allí, pero el viaje había valido la pena. Salimos de Santa Clotilde y nos llevaron hasta otra población y de allí cogimos otro pequeño barco. Por fin, al cabo de unas cuantas horas, el gran puerto de Iquitos apareció ante nosotros.
The next day we woke up early to catch our next "jungle boat" of the day. In fact, it was a newish double propelled speed boat with "comfortable seats" and life jackets. The works.
To be honest we wanted to be back in our routinely canoe, that we had once called our home for a few days, where we could admire the tranquil jungle scenario and breath the cleanest air in the world (they don't call the Amazon "the world's lung" for nothing). But we knew that our canoe was long gone and on it´s way to Ecuador, so all we could do was sit in our new seats and wait to get to our next destination. The actual boat ride was very fast, too fast to be honest. We had gotten used to navigating in our slow canoe, drifting down the Napo river with the breeze whistling through our hair. This time we were rushing through the Napo river and in about 4 hours we had made it to the next town. On arrival we took a mototaxi to take us to another dock. This time the river was different, it was wider and had more dead trees floating in the water. We had made it to one of the most important rivers in the world, we had finally made it to the famous Amazon river.
Here we had to take another speed boat (again) to take us to our final destination. So with a few quick naps and a final view at the virgin jungle, we were in Iquitos a few hours later. The peer of the city appeared out of nowhere. To be honest the image was a bit horrid, loads of cargo boats, dark, petrol fumed water and in the back drop, the skyline of a small city situated in the heart of the Amazon jungle.
