From Yurimanguas it was time for us to get on a boat (known as a launcher) for three days to sail up the river to Iquitos. Iquitos is the largest jungle town which is only accessible by air or river. From Iquitos the road goes for about 1.5 hours to Nauta but that's it. No more road.
This was quite a crazy afternoon as we needed to figure out how and where to take the launcher. Lucky we had the Isralita family to help us. We also needed to stop by an orphanage to visit a ministering friend. We were glad we stopped by but wished we had more time. We also needed to buy our hammocks which we'd be sleeping in for the next 3 days. Plus some food... Why we were so rushed is we didn't actually know what time the launcher would be leaving. Some said 4pm. Others 8pm. Others... One thing we knew is that the launcher would leave whether we were on it or not.
Lots and lots of hammocks on the launcher
After rushing back to the boat it of course wasn't leaving at 4pm. By 6pm Aleeza and Stephen went off the boat to buy some dinner for us leaving Natalie and I to guard our stuff. Someone had to be with our stuff at all times otherwise it would've disappeared. 10min after they left and our launcher starts moving, without them being back!! Natalie and I start panicking that we're leaving them behind, Natalie texts them frantically telling them to get their butts back on the boat pronto, I run to try find anyone who looked like they worked on the launcher (hard to find!) to find out if we were leaving and to try to explain that my friends weren't on the boat. He told me to relax, we were only leaving in half an hour. Then why was the launcher moving?? Quite obviously because it was only turning around. It landed up leaving at 7:30pm. Clearly not 4pm or 8pm.
How a launcher works is there is the option of cabins or sleeping in a hammock on the deck. There are two deck levels, the top one is for tourists and the bottom one is for locals. We of course travelled with the locals, in spite of many of them kindly directing us to the tourist level. We prefer the more authentic experience.
Me in my hammock - home sweet home for the next 3 days!
Everyone ties their hammock wherever they find a spot and that becomes home for the next 3 days. It's pretty crowded with people tying hammocks anywhere they can find even a tiny spot. I never knew I'd be able to sleep a night in a hammock on a boat!! An interesting thing about this form of travel is not really knowing you'll arrive. I'm not talking within an hour, I'm taking what day!! What was fun was hanging out with and getting to know the people on the boat. We had many ministry opportunities through just getting to know those around us. One testimony was "the nose guy" (so named because he had a massive plaster across his nose where he'd had an accident and I think a chainsaw had whacked him in the face, really destroying his nose badly), we prayed for him and he said the pain went away.
Breakfast on a launcher is at 6am - a very sweet porridgy stuff with quinoa and two bread rolls. Lunch is at 11:30am and consists of rice, a plantain and a bit of meat and veg. Dinner at 5:30pm is the same as lunch. During the day when we stop at little ports people from the village jump aboard to sell us stuff to eat. This was a lot of fun trying new fruit and other foods.
After 3 days we pulled into Iquitos. As fun as the launcher was, I was glad to be on solid ground again! I never was a fan of boats... We found a really nice hostel which was to become home for the next few days. After 3 nights of sleeping in a bus and hammocks we were happy to finally be sleeping horizontal in a bed!
The view from leaving our boat of the port of Iquitos, it's kinda crazy...
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