On the road to La Merced

On the road to La Merced, in the eastern flank fo the Andes, a mechanic repairs our 4WD Toyota truck suspension with a part made by machete from wood.

The general store here has coca cola, inka cola, bottle water, and an excellent selection of leaf springs.

Puerto Bermudez, part 2

Lunch stop on the way up the east flank of the Andes to La Merced. Here a diner approached our table saying "you've got my monkey, right?" We had not noticed the tiny marmoset sitting on my daypack.

Someone remembered to bring a towrope.

Illegal lumber in "tablones" arrives in Puerto Bermudez via Rio Pichis.

Puerto Bermudez, part 1

Fruit salad in Puerto Bermudez.

Towel for sale.

Maybe if we push it back. En route from Pucallpa to Puerto Bermudez.

Liz considers guiso de motelo, stewed tortoise with rice and platano.

Calleria, part 5

Peke-peke to Pucallpa from Calleria with Roger and Elva.

5 am departure, "ya es dia."

A couple hours hunting motelo, searching for fruit trees with fresh fruit on the ground of the sort motelo likes, finding uneaten fruit, finding week-old motelo scruff-trail emerging from a treefall tangle, but no tort. Agusto is thirsty, no water bottle, chops una de gato for a drink of clear tasty water. Agusto wears a thick Nike hoody for skeeters.

Calleria, part 4

Restinga (levee, so higher ground) forest near Calleria.

Liz and Agusto paddle up a cocha (oxbow lake) to hunt for motelo, tortoise, in restinga forest.

Storm approaching Calleria.

Teolinda and her daughter Kelly painting with dye made from bark. Their "brushes" are filed slivers of metal.

Calleria, part 3

Shipibo embroidery, some on clothed dyed with bark and clay. Lots of women make these and eventually bring them to Pucallpa for sale to tourist shops. They also make skirts for themselves in these patterns. Experienced artists generate their own designs, we never saw a pattern repeated on another piece. We purchased a bunch in Calleria.

Roger chops coconuts for Elva and the girls.

Calleria, part 2

Shipibo girl and Capuchin (probably) monkey in Calleria.

Liz and motelo, yellow-footed tortoise.

Calleria, part 1

Calleria is a Shipibo community several hours by river from Pucallpa on a tributary of Rio Ucayali.

Liz Smith documents a tortoise or ¨motelo.¨
Soccer on main street.

Pucallpa, part 1

Waiting for my Peruvian hosts to arrive in Pucallpa on Rio Ucayali I traveled by moto-taxi to the home of Pablo Amaringo, a wonderful artist three of whose paintings of riverscapes and healing ceremonies I had purchased years before from Kat Harrison and Terence McKenna in California. I was chagrined to learn from his son, Juan, that Pablo had died in November. Juan eventually invited me to accompany his brother-in-law Limbert that night as he delivered medicine to a famous curandero, don Fidel Mosombite, who was in the midst of ten days of treatment of a North American expat staying at Juan´s tourist lodge (where three fine Shipibo vessels adorn the deck) on the outskirts of Pucallpa. Don Fidel and the patient were agreeable so I stayed to view the songs and tobacco-blowing which continued until 2am. Don Fidel told great stories of his exploits and misadventures as a teenage wizard´s apprentice and afirmed that he is a sabio now. The next day, thru the magic of the web, I read Terence´s thoughts about his encounters with don Fidel thirty years ago: http://www.salvia-divinorum-scotland.co.uk/otherpsychedelics/dmt/amongayahuasquera.htm

Madre de Dios, part 4

Beer boat to the rescue!

Rio Madre de Dios from Los Amigos Research Center. The terrace from which this was taken was deposited tens of millions of years ago.

Bat from a hollow tree roost on our second night of mist netting.

Madre de Dios, part 3

About 30 squirrel monkeys cruising limbs, leaping, passing then returning, kicking back, but not for long.

Adrian nets a leafnose gnome fruit eating bat, genus Dermanura.

Madre de Dios, part 2

Los Amigos River.

Three of the four giant otters (seal size) having chased off a large black caiman (gator-like) turn their attention to the boat primates.

Mayo paddles up Cocha Lobos, an oxbow lake. The otters are called wolves, lobos.

Madre de Dios, part 1

Motoring up the Madre de Dios River on rising water to Los Amigos Research Station.

Floating aluvial gold mining operations which use mercury to separate gold which of course gets into the carnivorous fish which then migrate hundreds of miles and get eaten by people and raptors which show high levels of mercury even when tested 20 km from the river. People have not been tested.

Anaconda kicks back in shallows of an oxbow lake. It unwound and cruised under our boat.

Emperor Tamarin Monkey. Regal, curious, not at all scared of ground primates.