After three days of lancha, boat reminiscent of Mississippi, the paddle wheels and less, we disembark at the Triple Border - Peru Colombia, Brazil - on the shores of Peru, a small village without electricity. Customs formalities completed, we let ourselves be carried away by a reel and a few minutes later we're on a boat to go over to Colombian Amazonia: Leticia. It is bigger than the hole lost in Peru, besides the name, it is neither exciting nor pretty, and the city not my darling! Our reel takes us to a small friendly hotel, Gustavo, the owner let us her room, alone with a double bed, adjoining the garden, wooden walls and roof of palm. For two days we see how to organize a hike through the jungle, Gustavo finds us a guide and we organized a trip of 5 days for cheap, perfect for us. In addition we provided the hammocks (mosquito nets) and boots our sizes. We occupy these two days we walk in the city and the surrounding area and finally comes the long awaited day. Gustavo from shopping-food we need during these 5 days, during which time we finish our bags and 10 hours the taxi arrives to take us to the port and from there we take a boat "Rapido" for Puerta Libertad, 50 km upstream. In the village, Gustavo, the guide (and yes, the owner of the hotel and the guide have the same name) is waiting for us with a smile. We go home, he separated the races in two bags, one for him and the other Amador, the hunter who will accompany us. For us, water bottles and our small backpacks. It's noon, it's hot, we're closer than ever to the jungle. Gustavo gave the signal, it's time to don the boots and leave any urban landmark. The hunter in mind, backpack san 
Glé the forehead, and Gustavo behind us in the middle. The running order will be honored for five days. Ten minutes to leave the village, we pass by a cassava plantation and a banana, then the forest. A narrow path, often littered with dead trees in a state of advanced decay times. Trees that are not on the ground, rushed towards the canopy covering us with its shadow lace sunny top of its 40 meters. Glad we walk to our camp, announced three hours away. The walk itself is not difficult but one must be careful to branches, trunks, puddles of mud and other obstacles. We will need more than 4 hours of walking and moisture to reach the camp overlooking a small river provided with a cascade of water. Guides install hammocks in the hut, Gustavo tend fire that starts with a ball of resin recovered from a tree known by him to the sap that burns longer. The time for a coffee and a torrential rain disturbs the party, we headed into disaster in the hut with a roof of palm not slow to show its weaknesses. The hammocks are soaked. We drink our coffee with the water streams flowing over our heads and fire drowned in rain, Though tired we go to bed after our sheeted bed nets and no possibility to eat what soir.L dawn rises, the forest awakens slowly and with us. It's 6 o'clock, the rain stopped. Good coffee, toilet, we're ready for our first day in the jungle. The hunter returns to the village to seek a tarp to make the roof of our hut perfectly sealed and his gun. Meanwhile we Gustavo start with the surroundings, he shows us different trees, including one that is used by Indians to turn on the lights. To show us whence the resin, it kills the 
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number with machetes, simple and effective! A tree thirty yards collapses is impressive, falling in slow motion and power. On the back it shows some plants and makes us taste the fruits. Pending the return of the hunter and we eat a piece Gustavo talks a bit about him and us that he is one of three shamans in his village, a power he inherited from his grandfather. During the discussion He shows us a tree near the camp-spirit who watches over us, we are reassured. Unfortunately he has no remedy against mosquitoes. We take this spiritual protection to immerse ourselves in our hammocks. Before nightfall we had dinner, and wait another hour at night is very dense, put on our boots and set off in light of our flashlights. Tonight we will hunt the alligator. After an hour's walk we begin to walk along a stream, our hunter regularly plunge the beam of his lamp in the bed of the river and after a quarter of an hour chasing it flushes out the object of his lust. But the alligator remains invisible to us city dwellers, we will have descended into the water and he put the lamp Amador almost 
SSEUS that we saw him last. Poor caiman blinded by the flashlight has no chance when the hunter's machete slashed her head permanently. He puts the alligator on the trunk of a tree. We continue our journey in search of other prey, the only one we find will be a tarantula spider charming well as big and hairy hand. Gustavo tells us that it is only a child. We return to camp before the evil spirits are out, according to our guide say shaman, they released about 11 hours, a bit like us when we go for a drink ... Tonight we will sleep dry, the sheet was laid in the afternoon and it does not rain. At 6 o'clock we were standing at the edge of the parrot, much nicer than the rooster. Mosquitoes cover the net ready to attack but we have no choice we must leave. While we drink our coffee, a little in the coltar; Amador activated to prepare the caiman by passing over the fire in order to remove the scales below it will be sweet as a baby, he says, without more culinary finesse he puts it on fire. We eat it with cassava and find pretty good. A small cleaning the river, and we put on our boots and our clothes more dirty. We leave for forest ride. Program monkeys and tarantulas that the hunter will try to hand deep in his hole. In return, the wasps have invaded the camp, attracted by the smell of caiman and other culinary leftovers. The guide is preferred that we change the camp. We repackage the busi 
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we started. We will arrive an hour before nightfall, leaving time for the guides to show us their expertise in forest survival and build less than half an hour shelter to sleep. The location is not as good as the previous one, no water and light to dusk, mosquitoes are taking action. Unheard of. Suddenly I killed three of my foot. We are constantly frustrated by their roar, they are so numerous that they produce a sound that gives the impression of being at the heart of natural plant that never stops. In short no time to lose, we ship the evening meal and we took refuge under our mosquito nets with our books. During the night, I see that our guides take our security very seriously, barely time to get up to go pee that the torch lit by Gustavo to check if everything goes well. Besides, the next day we will see pray while smoking his tobacco, he will explain that this substance is harmful to the uninitiated, but very good for shamans, I think I'll become a shaman! In the afternoon we start to tease the fish, we is not appropriate because it does there is only one pole of the guide because he forgot to prepare one. No serious fishing'm bored deeply. While we suivo 
ns moving along the waterways in search of our future dinner, we watch the green plants, ferns tree, flowers, processions of ants, butterflies, dragonflies, mosses ... in short all the nice little ecosystem that makes up the Amazon. We are trying to spot toucans, the favorite bird of Laetitia, we hear them but the canopy is too high for us. Back from our fishing expedition we are preparing for a nap, direction hammocks. I note the presence of small beings called termites that wander on the net, and I `m more I see approach, they are hundreds, not thousands. I am the light that highway, it dates back to a junction or a road takes direction from the top of the tree, while the main thoroughfare, equal to a highway made in the USA, plunged to the ground ... And that bump termites, they are already grooming the field with their secretion brown rope, my bag and mosquito netting are already bie 
No paved. Change of attachment point for the seat, clean the rest and a nap can begin. A short walk solo around, I discovered a lot of cute houses rising like beetles small chimneys on the chaotic floor of the jungle. A little before nightfall we prepare our young fish, pan, fish, onion, small pieces of carrot, a pinch of salt, we expect that the magic of fire works and we savor the taste before us by mosquitoes which begin to gather for a final night attack, but we prepare our defenses and we sprinkling repellent maximum power. Rapid 
no way our hopes are dashed against the voracity of these mosquitoes undoubtedly mutants and carried by the power of the Pacha Mama. Fortunately tonight we go for a walk in search of night monkeys which takes us away mosquitoes, to believe they have gathered in our camp. Equipped with our lamps we follow Amador who regularly puts out his torch implicitly inviting us to do the same. We are plunged into total darkness, losing our first sense, our hearing is over, so sought by the incredible number of sounds coming from all sides, cawing, flapping all close, hooting and whistling, crackling branch in the distance, cackling ... and the light comes on again and Amador took a direction by getting rid of some branches by reeling with his machete. Him, the hunter, heard a noise, nothing we still embedded among the thousands of sounds that the forest product continuously. We make several stops at each of which the hunter reorients our race and he ended up leading his lamp to the treetops and we see two eyes light up in setting ourselves ... that we saw a monkey night, it's great. We retrace the way, we arrive at camp to be eaten by these bastards of mosquitoes, the word is not too strong, I assure you. We took refuge under our mosquito nets to gather before a teen ready for dermato.Le next morning, coffee mosquitoes. We leave the camp to the village, our last walk in the jungle, we open your eyes and ears. Two hours of walking. Gustavo regularly gives, as usual, blows machete in a tree sounds like a tom-tom. Unlike other times, today there is an answer. We're getting closer to civilization; few minutes later we arrive at a camp, many people in the village are there to bring down the trees, soon to be replaced with banana or cassava. We spend our path followed by two brats glad we were there. We skirted several fields and heat slowly becoming stronger as we leave the shade of the canopy. Reached the village, the hunter returned to his home and that we Gustavo. Early discussion with the wife of Gustavo, a necklace and result two bracelets sold. This purchase allows us to realize that the village was severely affected by illiteracy. As Gustavo who actually read the text by his son, his wife asked his daughter to the addition to find out how much I owed him. Then we have lunch, good pasta with tuna, surrounded by the whole clan, Gustavo and his wife are the proud parents of 5 children. A nap before the hunter is joining us for our boat ride on one arm of the Amazon. At first the boat slips through the trees giving the impression of going through aquatic pathways. During 
the dry season these passages can be borrowed off but we are still in the rainy season and the river level is 15 meters higher. The eye in the alert, the hunter spots a thing to the top of a tree, we might try to upset the boat by scanning the tree tops, we see nothing. We leave and immediately after passing a bend, Gustavo gets a machete at another guy from the "pueblo" and we begin a turn to reach the tree where Amador has spotted its prey. Gustavo, a machete slung climbs the tree with unexpected dexterity. Within two minutes he joined the canopy, a minute later we tumble hear something, we fear the worst kind of Gustavo who missed a class or a decapitated monkey. Amador is leading the boat to the point of impact, going behind the tree and starts to fight hard with an animal that does not sound very conciliatory. But Amador will win this fight and uneven balance that brings lazy as a sack of potatoes in the dugout. Immediately the beast wants to take a tangent but it is seized by the colbac 
k and rebalanced at the bottom of the boat. Gustavo joined us during which time the lazy retry a breakaway, nothing to do. This time the hunter's home and we leave. The sad look on her house looks lazy to go. Bluff because the rope was not properly secured and it succeeds, with the complicity of Laetitia, who had seen the possibility of escape and like any self-respecting Corsica was able to hold his tongue. Our hero plunges into river. Much more clever in water than on land, he began a long towards the shore with amazing speed. The hunter does not like this escapade pivots the boat and was joined before it is time to reach the trees. This time it is finished for freedom, he spent the rest of the way to the bank and looking sadly back to when we will come back before the place of his capture he will tend his arm, as did a character in the famous turnip of Steven Spielberg. We are saddened by the fate of the lazy and ask what he intends to do, not kill him at least? Poor lazy is promised a bright future bit. Amador explains all happy that he will serve as a photographic model for tourists visiting the village. It's better than ending up on a plate, but still worse than typing a nap in the treetops, looking at the flight perroquets.Avant the dusk, the village receives its supply of tourists daily. One of the guys dons the costume of the village of Indian forest to his show, small souvenir stands settled along the aisle in minutes. Monkeys, parrots, sloths are released after a string ready to be photographed with anyone who will drop a few pesos. The village is transformed for the occasion and regain his composure and his appearance as the tourists left. After the evening meal, and that income is Gustavo shamanic consultation, we have a disc
ussion with him, during which he will make a prayer for us. We thank him and his family and we go to bed. At dawn the village wakes up when the rooster crows. Two hours later we in a dugout on the banks of the Amazon, we expect the shift of the Rapido to Leticia. Gustavo aboard with us, probably to retrieve the fruit of her work with the other who also Gustavo awaits us on the dock in Leticia and seems amazed that the guide is back with us. We take a taxi to the Posada Gustavo guide will want to walk, we invite you to come with us. At home, both Gustavo will have a private discussion. We invite Gustavo guide to come have a drink. Gustavo owner opposes almost. All three of us take a good breakfast and then we move into a cafe, Gustavo would we were creating him an email address but we will make it can neither read nor write and he does not know his date of birth. Hopefully he will be assisted by one of his children who themselves have the chance to go to school. We leave here happy days we spent with him in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Tomorrow we leave for Manaus, still several days by boat to the rhythm of the river and this time we will buy hammocks worthy of the name. Gustavo de la Posada offers us his help to buy tickets the next day, perfect. At night we go in search of a small restaurant for a romantic dinner, it's good to sit face to face with a plate, a real meal and a beer. No mercy for travelers morning, we start with bicycles in the heat of Gustavo Amazon to validate our output of Colombian territory, and our entry into Brazilian soil. First Executive Airport Leticia, resulting in a buffer and a liter of sweat. Fortunately, the customs office has air conditioning. We will resume our bikes to Tabatinga, sister city of Leticia Brazilian side, a new liter of sweat spent and our input buffer. The race continues, we must find money for our tickets, we can not find a distributor Brazilian side, withdraw from the Colombian side, then change our pesos in reals. Back at the inn, I'm leaving on a motorcycle with Gustavo for the Port of Tabatinga. Gustavo discussed with the recipient, the contact is bad. We leave for another port, a smaller boat in less good condition but the welcome is warm on "Dom Manoel," I have even a small discount, 150, we go to 140 by my middle name : Manual. Often people prefer to use my middle name, Stanislaus is too complicated to pronounce, much more familiar Manual for Latin 
has U.S. connections. We install the hammocks on the Bridge and back to the hotel to look Laetitia. As an aside, we have a little chat with Laetitia, that reminds me that Gustavo told us that if there were two boats we could touch the ticket 100. We talk to Gustavo, who because he could not ask for refund because it was from the city and would have been inappropriate for him to claim a preferential rate. In retrospect I remember that during the discussion with the lady, I thought I heard the word "commission" and the doubts cast on the probity of the man. All this is no big deal, we go to lunch in a cheap restaurant. It is 13 hours, we a minibus in a state limit but still manages to destination. We ship, return to our hammocks, there are many installed on the deck, much more than just now and during our journey to get to Leticia. The weather is cloudy and heavy rain fell on the port. 
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