Tag: river

Itinerary: 3 days in the Peruvian Amazon

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The Amazon is somewhere that I have always wanted to visit but it definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I am terrified of spiders, hesitant with most bugs and I am definitely prefer a comfortable experience so you can see why the Amazon is probably not my ideal location to be in. As I did not want to miss out on the experience of a lifetime, I compromised with myself and booked a relatively luxury Amazon experience at Treehouse Lodge in Peru. It was a great balance of adventure and luxury.

GENERAL INFO

Getting there and away:

The problem with the Amazon is its very much in the middle of nowhere so its pretty complicated to get to. Treehouse Lodge will pick you up from Iquitos and take you there as part of the package but its still a pretty big journey after getting to Iquitos which is a bit of an adventure in itself.

We were travelling directly from the Galapagos Islands so it was a couple of long days of travel for us. If you are coming from anywhere overseas you will need to spend a night in Lima first as there are not many flights out to Iquitos and limited times that you can be picked up by the Lodge.

If you need to stay the night by the airport in Lima I recommend TUPAC Lima Airport Hostel as it has a nice roof terrace and is very secure. Also you can save some money staying here before you spend such a huge amount in the Amazon!

Our flight to Iquitos took 2 hours and landed at 12:10pm – then once we were collected by the lodge staff you spend another 3 hours almost travelling by a mix of car and boat. However, the boat trip is your first excursion on the Amazon river so its very exciting and doesn’t feel too long at all!

Again, leaving is a long trip so for our 1pm flight back to Lima we had to leave around 8am from the lodge. This is just worth keeping in mind when you think about how long you will be staying as a 3 days/2 nights trip is really only 1 full day. We stayed 3 nights and this was only JUST enough time – 4 would have been better.

Accommodation:

Accomodation here is a real drawcard – you will be staying in an actual treehouse built above ground and connected to the other treehouses and restaurant etc. by a series of rope bridges.

Our room was very comfortable and spacious and it was lovely to wake up in the treetops in the Amazon! However, I would say the place was pretty rundown for the price you are paying to stay here – there were gaps in the mosquito netting and we found a large spider in our room at one point.

Hopefully they have made some renovations and updated the condition of these rooms recently! Im sure the Amazon is an unforgivable place but that just means that frequent upkeep is necessary.

Food:

Treehouse Lodge is all-inclusive (apart from alcohol) and the food was plentiful and excellent! Galavanting around the Amazon makes you very hungry and the chefs here sure do deliver. As an extra special touch the chef cooked up the Piranhas that we caught when Piranha fishing so we could taste them!

Getting around:

Part of the all-inclusive fee here includes having a private tour guide and boat driver to take you on any of the activities that you would like to do. Both were fantastic and we felt very lucky to have such great guides with us – they could spot wildlife from a mile off! My only complaint was that they seemed pretty reluctant to head out in heavy rain and considering we were there in rainy season that limited our time to explore a little bit! They also had a more limited range of activities than we thought before we went (Although we did do a couple of off-book things) – many of the activities were combined into one trip although we could have happily done many of these things twice!

Top Tips:

  1. Make sure to keep the mosquito net around your bed always closed to make sure you have a sleep thats free of creepy crawlies.
  2. Don’t miss visiting the semi-domesticated sloths! A local family rescued a sloth and it has since mated and a whole family of sloths now lives in their house. One or two are so tame that you can hug them and you can watch others chill in the rafters and eat leaves.

ACTIVITIES DURING OUR STAY

The activities that we did didn’t quite match up exactly with the advertised activities. The guide tailors the activities for you somewhat but also in reality you just journey around the Amazon seeing what you can see and fitting in what you can as wildlife doesn’t appear to a schedule and the guides have their own ideas about what may be interesting.

Here are the things we got to do:

Insect Jungle Walk – terrifying!

Birdwatching – so many cool birds but a bit tricky unless you have super binoculars.

Sloth Cuddles – as mentioned above there were Sloth cuddles – they were the best!

Wildlife Spotting in the Canopy – Lots of monkeys in particular!

Searching for the Amazon River Dolphins – these guys are a bit shy so this wasn’t super successful and we spent a LOT of time waiting for them to pop their heads up.

Visit to a local community – they had a large python in a shed out the back of somebody’s house. What a crazy place. I couldn’t lift it it was too heavy!

Weird and Wacky Plants – There were lots of weird and wonderful plants to look at – namely the giant lily pads of Oxbow Lagoon!

Nighttime Cayman Spotting

Fishing for Piranha

Releasing Baby Turtles into the wild – This was only an option due to the specific time of year – the lodge raises baby turtles until they are old enough to possibly survive in the wild and then they are released into the river.

I hope this post has given you some Amazon inspo!

Erika xx

Visiting San Cipriano

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This little town in the jungle outside Cali is a super unique experience. To get into the town you take a makeshift train made from a motorbike that goes along train tracks called ‘La Brujita’. The little village is situated along a calm river that is great for tubing down on a warm day. It’s a bit of a trip from Cali but worth doing for the experience!

If you want some tips on visiting Cali and things to do there see my post here.

Top Tip for San Cipriano:

If you are just doing a day trip I suggest hiring a tube from a place that has lockers for you to put your stuff – you don’t want to lug all your stuff on the long walk to the head of the river and then try to keep it from getting wet while you are tubing. Best to leave it in town! Take a lock though as the rental place isn’t likely to provide one.

Where to stay:

We only did a day trip to Cali and in our opinion it only needs a day trip but if you have kids or want to spend a bit of extra time just relaxing by the river then there are a few basic places here to stay overnight. I suggest finding something through booking.com as its a really user friendly site and you get a good feel for what to expect from the property you are booking.

Getting there and away:

We visited San Cipriano on a day trip from Cali – you can also visit from Buenaventura in the other direction. You will need to bus to the entrance to San Cipriano then take ‘La Brujita’ into the jungle.

From the terminal, take a bus to Buenaventura (tell them at the bus station you are going to San Cipriano) and get dropped at the Zaragoza entrance to San Cipriano. Buses in Cali are never on time (give yourself plenty of time to get around) but the drivers are very helpful – ask them to tell you where to get off. You can only disembark from the back doors. 

Once you have been dropped off on the side of the highway, cross the road and take the suspension bridge into the village to buy a return ticket for the La Brujita (there’s an office before the suspension bridge but its closed on weekdays).

Transport out of San Cipriano ends at 5pm so if you are doing a day trip make sure to get to the edge of town for 4pm to make sure you can get ‘La Brujita’ out of town before they stop. To bus back to Cali just flag down a bus heading back in the direction of Cali and pay the fare on the bus.

Getting around:

You have to take ‘La Brujita’ into town. There is no other way in. Make sure to allow plenty of time as they break down sometimes. Also, there isn’t a lot of organisation to the experience and sometimes one of the contraptions comes the other way while you are on the tracks. One of the vehicles then needs to be lifted off the tracks while the other gets past. It takes a while…

Also make sure to be ready for the walk along the river from town to start the tubing. The walk is 30-45 mins upstream to La Platina to tube down: should result in 1-2 hours of tubing down the river. It’s a bit of a hike in the heat and difficult if you have little ones who get tired quickly. Also think about wearing trainers even though you will be in the river later. Ones that you don’t mind getting wet or can put in a dry bag.

Food:

The speciality in San Cipriano is large river prawns in coconut sauce. There are lots of basic restaurants in town serving local fare. 

What to bring with you for the day:

  1. Money (There are no ATMs or eftpos facilities)
  2. Water and snacks – most of the day you won’t be near the shops and restaurants.
  3. Togs – you will definitely be getting wet tubing down the river
  4. A rain jacket or jumper in case the weather turns
  5. A dry bag if you don’t want to use the lockers or for any extra items you do want to take with you down the river like food and water.
  6. Bug repellant
  7. Sunscreen
  8. A lock to keep your things safe.
  9. A go pro if you have one or a phone with a waterproof case.
  10. Trainers as it’s a lot of walking.

What to expect:

You will have a great time! Don’t expect a smooth trip though. We went in dry season so the river wasn’t very high and we kept getting stuck! It was fun but hard work. There’s also a rest stop halfway down the river at Charro Oscuro. During weekends/holidays there are snacks and cold beverages for sale here.

Erika xx

Itinerary: 2 days in Varanasi

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Varanasi – the ‘Holy City’

Varanasi is everything that people love about India combined with everything that people hate. It’s a must see destination in my humble opinion. Varanasi combines winding alleyways with life on the river; rural with city; smog with cleansing properties; beggars with tourists and life with death.

GENERAL INFO

Getting there: An Auto-rickshaw is approx. 250INR from the airport while a taxi is approx. 700INR. I suggest a taxi as its a long way and quite cold at night. We booked through our hostel at a higher rate of 900INR as we were arriving at night and as you get close to the Ghats the streets are narrow and maze-like – your taxi can’t enter. Our prepaid ride meant someone from our hostel met us where the taxi stopped and led the way to the hostel.

Accommodation: Our hostel in Varanasi was Bhadra Kali Guest House: it was really close to the ghats which was a huge bonus and the staff were very helpful. They booked a boat ride for us at 5am the next morning at a fair rate and helped us out when we couldn’t figure out the hot water (having hot water isn’t really a sure thing either!). If staying near the Ghats one thing to be aware of is the houses are all really close together so its very noisy. Next door to our hostel there was a family screaming and crying all night as somebody in the family had just died.

Food: There were some great food places in Varanasi – the trouble is discerning which ones are good and which are the fake copies of the good restaurants. Also, if your hoping to get a beer you are out of luck. No alcohol is permitted near the holy river Ganges. Some highlights in Varanasi were:

  1. Keshari Restaurant is a great option for lunch or dinner. They do great Thali and other cheap indian dishes and it’s a popular spot with locals so a great place for people watching. Find it 20m down a side street off Dashawamedh road. There is a bad copy with Keshari in the name around the corner from here.
  2. Brown Bread Bakery is a tourist hotspot on the first alleyway back from the ghats. It does organic food and has a great rooftop terrace.
  3. Open Hand Cafe is a long way from most of the action but a great rest stop after a long walk from one end of the Ghats to the other. They have ACTUAL coffee (a rarity here in India) and its really good.

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Enjoying coffee at Open Hand Cafe, Varanasi

Top Tip: Go on the dawn boat tour – even though its at 5am! Tours run at dawn or dusk but activity is much more frantic at dawn. You feel more of the energy of Varanasi. If you have time then do both but I do suggest being on land for the 7pm river worship ceremony at least once (you can’t see it very well from the boat and part of your tour is spent stopped here).

DAY 1

You will need to wake up at 5 am on both your mornings here – its absolutely necessary and you can always have a nap later in the afternoon or go to bed at 8pm (like we did!). There is no beer to drink anyway!

On the first day I suggest taking a boat tour along the Ganges (your accommodation can arrange this for you or you can haggle with the boats down the river  – anything less than 1000 INR is a good price for a few hours).

We got ripped off while on this trip (the only time in India!) because some boat floated up beside us and gave us offerings – they kept handing them over until we said no thank you and then tried to charge us a huge price for them. We made 3 blessings with the offerings and they were beautiful but i wish we had haggled the price first! We forgot to be suspicious because we were in the middle of the river.

The rest of your day can be spent eating and wandering the alleyways around the Ghats – there are surprises around each corner. At 7pm there is a River worship ceremony at Dashwamedh Ghat – find a great spot to watch the beautiful show.

DAY 2

Spend your second morning (you can sleep in a little later!) walking the Ghats from one end to the other.  Make sure you get to the following ghats:

  1. Munshi and Darbhanga Ghats – these are the most photogenic
  2. Dashwamedh Ghat – lively and colourful
  3. Manikarnika Ghat – the main burning ghat (please be careful not to take photographs here. Photos are fine from the boat but if you try to take pictures from land you will get scammed).
  4. Scindhia Ghat – peaceful: there is a partially submerged temple here.

You will likely end at Assi Ghat which is very close to Open Hand Cafe – time for a well deserved coffee.

I would spend the afternoon shopping. Varanasi has some great shops hidden among its alleyways and an entire main street of sari stores – I purchased my sari in Varanasi and it was a crazy experience!

If you need a break from the shops a good stop is Vishwanath temple – foreigners need to enter at Gate 2. Be aware this temple can be very busy – when we were there the alleyways surrounding it were full of people it was difficult even to figure out where to go.

Erika xx