CLAUDIA & CARSTEN'S WORLD EXPEDITION

Iquitos

Houses next to the river in Iquitos

We visited Iquitos in October 2015, which was the dry season. In wet season these houses will float.

Boat trip to Pilpintuhuasi sanctuary

M/F Jorge Raúl

This was our transport from Iquitos to Santa Rosa, the border between Peru, Colombia and Brazil.

Our beds on the ship

The sailing trip between Iquitos and Santa Rosa takes three days and two nights. You sleep in hammocks as we did here.

A normal stop along the river

Ships like M/F Jorge Raul have many stops along the way. They carry people, food, blocks of ice (remember there is no electricity in these areas), soft drinks and all kind of goods these small villages need. Local people come on board the ship to sell their products, such as these watermelons, which were very tasty.

Local kids along the river

As in Africa, big stomachs are a clear indication of malnutrition; most likely too many soft drinks and too little clean water available.

Sunrise over the Amazon River

You cannot see them clearly in the picture, but there were dolphins swimming around.

View from the rear

Sailing on the Amazon River is much like you see in this picture. The river is sometimes more than 20 kilometers wide, so it is just as wide as sailing on the ocean. On all borders of the river section, through which we navigated, the original trees and vegetation had been cut down and replaced with grass and agriculture plantations. Erosion is a big problem and we sometimes saw big chunks of land sinking into the river, with trees included. Much like a glacier where the ice is melting.

This is how you know you are close to Brazil