mp3mcdonaldsmagix

I am looking for a bit of an adventure and I decide to cross into Peru via the more remote crossing.

The trip ended up being fairly straight forward and a little easier than I was anticipating, and hoping for. But it still definitely felt remote. The drive was through mountains covered in the thick green carpet of jungle. The scares of man made roads have weakened the hills, and gravity is taking its toll as landslides descend in an attempt to reclaim the land. We wait an hour or so for the road to be cleared. Then travel ten minutes further only to encounter the clearing of another landslide. Traffic is busy enough here that after an hour and a half of delays the line up of cars has swelled to two or three cars on each end of the slide. The remainder of the trip was spent on the side of mountains splashing through streams covering the road, and skidding through deep mud threatening to hold us captive. Every once in a while we pass through a small town until seven hours later we reach Zumba.

In Zumba I depart the comforts of a bus and get in a "ranchera", this is basically a flat bed truck with 4x8 wood benches in the back. Try not to sit in the back as you will feel every little bump of the road, and it is a rough one. Two hous later we have arrived at the frontier. The border formalities are simple and friendly, I walk across a deserted bridge and am in Peru.

Next is a collectivo for two and a half more hours on an equally rough road to San Ignacio, where I spend the night. More people means more money for the driver. So, I relive teenage years cramming ten people into a Toyota Carolla.

I have crossed the border and have reached a relatively large city, and am only a couple hours away from a major road. On a map everything looks like it will be pretty simple from here on. I begin my day taking a mototaxi to the colectivo station. Next is a Kombi for the two and a half hour ride to Jaen. I ask around for transport to my next stop and am ushered in to the dreaded corolla. We leave town the same way I entered and I am suddenly unsure if I am in the right car? I ask how far to Bagua Grande? and am told twenty five minutes. We soon turn off the familiar road on to another dirt road, this leads to a small town where everyone gets out?... this is not Bagua Grande!... I am trying to figure out what to say when the a young mother says "Gringo, vamos". The young couple, child, and myself get into a mototaxi (moto rickshaw), destination... I have no idea!

It seems as though I havnt seen a straight road in months. This one is like an arrow and lined with palm trees, and flanked by green rice fields. We are in a wide flat valley bottom, it is hot and dusty as we pass rickshaws every thirty seconds or so, on the rough dirt road.

Where am I?... Flat, straight roads, rice fields, rickshaws... Is this Peru? It feels as though I have been transplanted to another continent. The feeling dosnt exactly subside, as we reach the silty, chocolate milk brown, Rio Maranon. The shore is crowded with food vendors, kids swimming, rickshaws, motorbikes, and goods and people milling about waiting to be transported to the other side. four or five little boats are busy taking the 300 meter journey back and fourth. I have the impression that a foreigner in these parts is a little out of the ordinary, as a crowd has gathered on the shore laughing and staring as I wade into the water to board the boat, following the young couple.

I talk to two cheerful young boys who hang off the side of the boat with water up to their knees. After a few more things are loaded, the boys push the nose of the boat out and hop in. They attempt to slow a leak in the bottom of the boat with some cloth, but instead just do a couple minutes of bailing out the bottom once we have reached the other side.

This side of the river is full of people loading and unloading goods, and taxi drivers offering their services. Off to the side, is a group of eight or so police officers sitting under a tree on some drift wood. They call out "gringo" and wave me over. They are all very kind and seem to be looking for ways to waste time, we talk for twenty minutes and when I ask how to go to Bagua Grande they offer to take me in an hour or so. My trip in the police truck was uneventful and considerably less exciting driving with someone who obeys all traffic laws.

The police drop me in Baugua Grande, and leave only once I have found a ride to Chachapoyas. The driver says we will leave in two hours at five pm. I fill my time by talking to the friendly locals and they are all too willing, a crowd of at least 10 gathers around, to watch me eat, and as is the norm we all laugh at my feeble attempts to speak spanish. By seven we still havnt left. This is south america and it dosnt stress me out to much but I still have another two hours to my destination, and I am exhausted from laughing at myself for the past four hours. At seven thirty we leave. we

Oh what a day. My tooth started aching on Sunday night. Now it's a tooth that is due to come out soon so I thought it was all in my mind. Oh no it wasn't! By 10.30 last night I was pretty sure that I had an abcess. Due to the severe pain I was in, I had two hours sleep overnight and by this morning half of the roof of my mouth had swollen up.

Luckily we have recently registered with a new NHS dentist in the next village along to us. A quick call this morning had an appointment secured for 10.15 this morning. So, I took the boys to the park and let them run around for an hour and a half, then popped them in the buggy, complete with dummies and my plan worked... they fell asleep on the walk up to the dentist.

So, I have a severe abcess, so much so that the dentist said that if it got worse over night I was to go straight to A&E for them to drain it. I have the maximum strength antibiotics and all day I have felt like death warmed up.

Poor Davy woke up after his nap feeling not very well. He didn't eat any lunch, not even any of his beloved strawberries. He had paracetamol and then, while I was lying on the sofa, he came and laid alongside me on the floor and prompty fell asleep for another hour and a half... I woke him up at 5 for his tea.... he again ate nothing, but did manage most of his milk at bedtime... at 7pm he went to bed and was asleep before I left the room.

I'm hoping we both feel better tomorrow as Daddy has taken the day off work and we have a trip to the seaside planned...