Landing In Lima

There were nervous moments before starting the journey. The terrible drought this year across Amazonia even put the whole project in doubt, we couldn’t be sure that the boats would be running as reports came in of Amazonian towns suffering water shortages. Together with the brutal wildfire season it seemed that we had picked the wrong year, although the real question after 2 consecutive years of drought might be whether there will be better years to come? Hard to believe when I looked at the hydrological data I had loaded for the Amazon basin. At one point I was considering buying a reserve air ticket from Lima to Manaus, which would have been a very disappointing way to do that journey. In the end October brought better news, it rained enough for the boats to run and Johnattan organised a short Peruvian itinerary (including OSM mapping!) which would take us to Iquitos for the first boat down the river. The first of three or four that we would need to get all the way to Belem with an estimated travel time of two weeks.

I landed in Lima on the 5th November and had a couple of days to acclimatise before setting off for the first destination on the trip. Great ceviche in a market stall which the tourist guidebooks will hopefully never discover, and time to see some of the city. Even time to drink a bit too much pisco, but you have to try the local products? Then it was off to Huaraz, located at 3000 metres and lying below the Andean peaks of the Cordillera Blanca. What does this have to do with Amazonia? The mountain chain is where all the debate about the source of the Amazon is focused. You can hardly get more of a landscape contrast than that between the western and eastern sides of the Peruvian Andes. I went up to Huaraz on the bus, and through the desert surrounding Lima then upwards through a semi arid mountainous landscape which differs sharply from the forest to be found on the eastern slopes.