Today is my 37th birthday and I had breakfast in the Andes and dinner in the Amazon. What a cracker of a way to spend a birthday! Nat, Chloe, Lissy and Jade are all excellent at this birthday business. They organised cake at our farewell to Huaraz dinner with guide Zac and cook Abraham last night. And they showered me with some local gifts this morning at breakfast. I am really grateful to them for putting in such a great effort and it certainly made the day feel even more special.
We spent most of the day in transit from Huaraz to Iquitos. A small 20-seater or so airplane out of Huaraz to Lima and then standard issue plane to Iquitos. Apparently the airport in Huaraz is new, according to Jade it didn´t look as slick last year. We suspect it´s because of the amount of mining going on in this region. While good for local employment, mining has a tenuous relationship with the local environment and the presence of the mines is a contentious issue. On our first night in the Huayhuash we had mining trucks travelling not too far from our camp throughout the night. A shock sound to wake up to when you´ve come to the middle of nowhere to trek!
There is obvious development going on in this region so it will be interesting to see how long these communities stay remote and how long the trails we´ve walked stay untouched.
It was a bit of a shock arriving in Iquitos... hot, crazy, noisy, motor bikes everywhere and nothing like the reserved, cool Huaraz that we have just left. What is it about the heat that makes cities and its inhabitants a bit nuts? We´re all loving the heat and the change is an assault on our senses. Iquitos is a trading port town and evidence of the rubber boom is around in some of the architecture - although it is defintely has an air of grandeur past and none of the buildings have been particularly preserved but it definitely has a cosmopolitan air to it.
Gudrun, who runs the animal orphanage that we are financially supporting this year met us at the airport. She helped navigate those first few hectic minutes of collecting baggage and organising motocaros to our hotel. And joined us for dinner - it was a great early insight into how things work here, what her work is about and the challenges (and wins) she faces.
So all in all, an adventure-filled 2008 birthday - one that hard to forget in a hurry.