The Semana Santa (Easter) is coming up and Huaraz begins to animate for the beginning of the season of trekking and mountaineering in the Cordillera Blanca. This splendid mountainous chain, that extends along 180 kilometers in the National Park Huascarán, includes the highest peak of Peru (Huascarán, 6768 meters) and one of the most beautiful mountains in the world (Alpamayo, famous for its north-western pyramid shaped face). Beside the most popular circuits, Santa Cruz trek (5 days between lagoons, snowy sloops and passes up to 5000 meters of altitude) and Lagunas de Llanganuco (see photos), exist numerous footpaths for trekking of varied difficulty, among which: Laguna Churup trek, Quilcayhuanca trek and Ishinca trek. All offer wonderful sights of the snowcapped peaks of the Cordillera Blanca. There are also numerous options of ascension to the summits of the mountains, without forgetting the neighbor Cordillera Huayhuash (Huayhuash trek). For further information on trekking and mountaineering in the region of Huaraz, a good starting point can be the Asociacion de Guias de Montaña de Peru. For the best sights of the Cordillera Blanca, cover the numerous paths of the Cordillera Negra, by foot, mountain bike or horseback.

A dawn in Huaraz is worth the show of 30 snowcapped peaks coloring themselves of the flush transported by the icy wind. A dawn in Huaraz is worth the smile of a trembling old woman, crying aloud “¡Tamales!”. A dawn in Huaraz astonishes up to make you scream that you have conquered the roof of the world, or just the destination along the travel. A dawn in Huaraz takes your breath away, leading you where the lonely Andean condor can get. A dawn in Huaraz is worth 10 months of nomadic travel and many adventures, it’s the joy of time and the enthusiasm to discover every day new horizons. Now the day with its colors, the rural market and the women laughing, the shy smiles of the children, a horseback-ride or a long trek towards the lagoons of emerald (Llanganuco and Churup)… and many small stories to remember.

It’s dawn when the desert of the Peruvian coast, starkly desolated, is awakened by the first sun beams, that wearily play with the fog. In our mind Trujillo and the Moche ruins of Chan Chan, one interminable night at the bus terminal of “America Express”. The dream vanishes accompanied by the smell of iron and fish of the port of Chimbote, a place of frontier and maybe pretty picturesque. We choose the most spectacular way to return towards the Andes, travelling along the Cañon del Pato. The bus limps hardly along the dirty road, numerous staggering bridges slows down the way. The abyss under us grows constantly, the river in flood roars on the bottom of the valley. A system of narrow galleries forces us to long waits when we intercross other means of transporting but, after hours of traveling, finally the horizon opens on the Cordillera Blanca, one of the most spectacular places of the world, with its numerous snowcapped mountains (Huascarán, Alpamayo, Huandoy, all beyond the 6000 meters). Along the Callejon de Huaylas from Caraz, Yungay and Huaraz, we enjoy a landscape that takes our breath away…

We wake up early in the morning, our first unforgettable week in Peru ends with an incredible travel: towards the past, the sky, a hard but authentic present. The road that connects Chachapoyas to Cajamarca is a pebbly and dusty way, that vanishes inexorably swallowed by abandonment and nature. We join the procession of hundreds of campesinos who, in the day of the market, head towards the pueblo of Yerbabuena (Rio Utcubamba); trading on every available means of transporting (camiones, horses, bulls) or by foot. It rains and the damp confuses colors and flavors of the market, shouts and mud sketches. In this atmosphere the millenarian exchange between the products of the Altiplano and those of the forest happens. We continue towards the archaeological site of Revash, an interesting example of Chachapoya architecture. The road follows a splendid green valley until Leymebamba, where we visit the museum “Centro Mallqui”, approximately 200 Chachapoya mummies are guarded together with numerous finds discovered near the Laguna de los Condores. Now we go up firmly, the vegetation disappears and we reach an altitude of 4000 meters. We catch up the clouds and we enjoy an impressive horizon, during the sunset.

Quickly we return down, until we touch the waters of Rio Marañon, near the village called La Balsa (500 m.s.l). While we have dinner, the waitress tells us that various armed robberies recently took place along the road for Cendelin: a wearing discussion with our driver rises, but the decision is to continue. In the fog we reach the objective of the day (Cendelin), it’s late in the night. We all (Michael and Lukas, our travel companions, too) are exhausted. The following day we complete the distance from Cendelin to Cajamarca, hours and hours of up and down by bus again. A one-shot adventure, a travel in the most authentic Peru.

This is the third highest waterfall in the world, second only to the Salto Angel in Venezuela (972 metres) and the Tugela Falls (South Africa, 948 meters). Considering the two falls it’s 779 meters high, really spectacular… We got there along a hard trekking through what remains (unfortunately not so much) of the Peruvian mountainous rain forest.

One of the most adventurous ways to travel from Ecuador towards the Peruvian Amazonian rain forest is to cruise along the Rio Napo, embarking on the cargo boats that follow the route Coca (Equador) – Iquitos (Peru). We have been attracted by this adventure for a long time, but the extreme uncertainty on delays and distances, has forced us to renounce. This is the information we have collected, hoping it can be useful for other travellers. Coca is situated in the North-Eastern region of Ecuador and there are three ways to go there:

• Quito-Coca, 12 hours of direct bus.
• Quito-Tena-Coca, with a stop in Tena (rafting, canyoning, kayaking, ecotourism in the Amazonian forest).
• Quito-Baños-Tena-Coca, with a stop in Baños for trekking and thermal baths.

Coca, a rainy city born as base for the explorations of the oil companies, it’s the place where all the roads end, the travel continuous on the cargo boats along the Rio Napo: near the port of Coca you will look for a boat going to Nuevo Rocafuerte, officially supposed to leave on Mondays and Thursdays, but there could be others. Meantime, it’s necessary to get your passport stamped at the immigration office (the last one before Ecuadorian border). The travel until Nuevo Rocafuerte lasts approximately 12 hours, but could be interesting to program a stop along the way (Limoncocha for example): it’s one of the wildest zones of the Amazon, for a long time the Rio Napo borders the Yasunì National Park, where Huaorani, Tagaeri, Achuar and Siona isolated indigenous groups still live. We advise to contact a local guide before your arrival. From Nuevo Rocafuerte, you should find a canoe to Pantoja, the first village in Peruvian territory, where it’s possible to get your passport stamped. From Pantoja the hardest part of the travel begins: four or five consecutive days by boat, until the city of Masan, from where other travelers suggest to take a moto-taxi to a port of fast lanchas (canoes) directed to Iquitos, in order to save 13 hours of boat trip.

Probably a long and debilitating travel, to be undertaken with a lot of calm in order to know a wonderful part of Amazonian forest, surely an adventure.

Ecotourism, communitarian tourism, ecolodges, ecoresorts are just many names which refer to the same experience: coming in contact with the rain forest and the people (aboriginal peoples) that inhabit it. In the case of the Amazon, because a good part of its future goes necessarily through this type of tourism, we want to give some suggestions, fruit of our experience. Firstly, you should consider that it’s difficult, if not impossible, the integration in the indigenous communities of the forest, there are too many differences. The only way to try a deeper approach to this world it’s to go there as volunteer (voluntourism): in this case better to get information in Quito on the options available, remembering that usually the period of cooperation is at least 3-6 months and that often the volunteers are asked to pay in order to cover expenses and registration fee. If instead you are travelers or tourists, our suggestion is to directly go to one of the cities/entrance gate towards the Amazon (in the case of Ecuador: Tena, Puyo, Macas, Coca or Lago Agrio) and spend there some days, trying to get information or better to know a person able to indicate you the communities that receive visits in the forest. A smart trick is to go to the travel agencies which offer organized tours and ask for their destinations; sure they will deny, but you will always be able to find a passage by bus, canoe or taxi towards the same place. Currently, Kichwa communities in the region of Tena (Napo) offer lodging in wooden cabañas and food for approximately 10 dollars a day. In this case, what you will be able to see is limited to the nearest attractions, unfortunately it’s impossible to explore the forest as independent traveller. Therefore, you’ll have the problem to find a guide who could accompany you in the remote places. After all, especially in the event your group isn’t numerous, it would be better to buy an organized tour by any travel agency, maybe after verifying that your money will be used for the development of the community itself. Last consideration: locals always deny, but tropical diseases exist (dengue, malaria, etc)… avoiding paranoias, take necessary precautions.

For many travelers the ecotourism in the Amazon it’s just a waste of time and money, but with an intelligent approach, it could transform in an opportunity to know and help to preserve one of the most incredible ecosystems of our planet.

Sarita and Carlito accompany us through this experience, teaching the language of a world we didn’t know before, the keys in order to understand and respect the forest. They design in our minds the symbols of nature: the anaconda (amaru), the boa, the sangre de drago (dragon blood, a medicinal resin), the butterflies, the curative plants used by the community and the shamans. Ayahuasca (the word which means “vine of the spirits” in Quechua language) or yagé, is a traditional psychotropic infusion considered sacred by the indigenous peoples in all the river basin of the Amazonian forest. It comes prepared by the shamans or curanderos in infusion and it’s consumed by night, as an instrument to expand their own mind and perception of nature. In the Napo region, Equador, it’s known with three different names:

• Ayahuasca de las Mujeres, visions of flowers.
• Ayahuasca de los Hombres, visions of boas.
• Ayahuasca de los Fantasmas, visions of spirits.

Sinchi Sacha means “strong forest” in the Kichwa indigenous language. Carlito, our young guide, knows every centimeter of his world, the forest; with his machete opens a way that knows by heart, he follows the “songlines” traced by his ancestors. While we listen to the fascinating lesson on the animals, trees and medicinal plants, we exceed crystalline water torrents, vine forests, mariposarios (humid cliffs where the tropical butterflies flock together) and we reach fabulous cascades dipped in the luxuriant jungle. After walking for hours we lose the orientation: the snazzy colors of the flowers, the infinite shades of green, the cries of the animals, the sound of the rain falling on the leaves, the humidity smell that every minute becomes deeper and wilder… an outbreak of emotions that take shape and dissolve in the palette of a painter, in the symphony of a single artist: the nature in all its strong creativity.

Now we are really in the Amazon basin… to make it clear, there are the curious smiles of the children who run towards the bus. In their black eyes and smooth like silk hairs, it’s hidden all the mystery of these wild places. Here humans continue to be just simple appearances, while nature shows itself exuberant and tenacious. Therefore, it’s a world that comes out from ancestral memories: we caress a boa and we perceive its uncontrollable power, we play with some monkeys and we perceive their likeness. Our friend, Gabriel, is a sturdy but pleasant man, son of the forest, born in a Kichwa (Quichua) indigenous community: he seems to have many stories to tell and a slight nostalgia for a world that inexorably goes away and refuses him. Tena is a city which denies the idea itself of the Amazon rainforest, even though it’s totally embedded in the jungle. Meanwhile it’s raining, raining and raining…

Baños is a small city which rises in a flat piece of land, where the Andean valleys begin their tortuous descent towards the Amazon basin… we get there leaving the Pan-American highway near Ambato, city center of one of the most colored carnivals of Latin America (“fiestas de las flores y las frutas”). In the subtropical climate of Baños meet all the forces of nature: the Tungurahua volcano that dominate the village and it’s currently in eruption, frequent earthquakes, some impressive cascades and the clouds that incessantly thickens on the flanks of the mountains. In reason, the inhabitants of Baños talk with emphasis about the last eruption of the Tungurahua (August 2006), when part of the pueblo was destroyed. However, several Ecuadorian tourists come here, attracted by the hot springs of warm and sulfurous water; we also find a pleasant place, where we have a good time before the breathtaking descent towards the Amazon river basin.

Exactly in front of the bridge which is the entrance gate to the city of Latacunga, a young boy tell us to go up on its rickety bus. It’s early in the morning, we begin the travel towards the covered by snow and perfectly conical top of the Cotopaxi volcano. The road rises inexorably: three, four, five thousand meters, the landscape becomes even more impressive. The silence owns these windy places, lived by the only animals have been able to adapt to the hard Andean climate (alpacas, condors, pumas, wild horses). For a moment we dream to go up till the top of the Cotopaxi crater to dominate an exterminated horizon, but climbing the highest active volcano of the world is not an adventure that could be organized in five minutes… some horses, pride of their freedom, follow us suspiciously while we walk around the Limpiopungo lagoon. Three big condors of the Andes caress the lost in clouds peak of the Rumiñahui volcano, where a warm and blinding sun (the god Inti in the Incaic culture, indeed) tries to open itself the way in the foggy cover.

On the way back we pass near Saquisili, a village which is center of one of the most colored Ecuadorian markets, every Thursday.

During the last year, the high petrol price has stimulated the production of biofuels from alternative sources (biomass). For effect of the crescent corn demand (used to produce bio ethanol) on the part of the North-American market, the price of this cereal increases, breaking up any record. The main producers, United States, China, Argentine, Mexico, Brazil, and in general the whole Latin American region, go on consequently to increase the production and the extension of agricultural territory. In this scenery, the cultivation of transgenic maize becomes more than a temptation, rising a question: is it ethical to transfer the production of a basic element in the diet of millions of people towards the tanks of our cars? Ecuador represents an emblematic example of this contradiction: in the Amazonian river basin the extraction of oil and in the Western region the crescent maize production, while many people continue to face the challenge against starvation. As we don’t like to talk about problems that seem far from the possibilities of any single person, at least without giving a little hope, we flag some Ecuadorian associations that operate in the field of human rights, rural communities and ecology; maybe someone would be interested in activities of cooperation/volunteering in Equador: Sinchi Sacha, Ecuador volunteer, Fundacion Brethen y Unida, Jatun Sacha, and many others we didn’t contact directly (mainly aiming at supporting rights of the indigenous communities of the Amazonian rainforest).

From Tierradentro the unpaved road goes down to the the bottom of impressive valleys, towards the pueblo of La Plata. The heat increases, entering in the department of Huila: after Garzon and Pitalito, two dusty cities, we reach San Agustin, the “archaeological capital” of Colombia. Reputation due to the traces left by a mysterious Pre-Colombian civilization, clearly related with the cultures of Ecuador and Peru. The monolithic statues narrate the history of a people who underwent the cultural influence of the Andean world and the fascination of the gorgeous Amazonian nature, thanks to the strategic position of San Agustin. Here, the most diffused means of transporting is still the horse, while the typical Colombian chivas transport merchandise and campesinos in unbelievable number, during market days.

The return travel towards Popayan is a a hard trip in camioneta, crossing fields, paramo and forests, flanking tired volcanoes and swallowing kilos of powder… we dream a shower, but what a privilege to visit such remote places.

In a day of movements with buses and camionetas we cover the whole Cauca valley, from Armenia (eje cafetero) to Popayan, passing through the lively city of Cali. Our goal is the region of Tierradentro, an archaeological site, almost unknown by tourists for problems of security, but particularly interesting for the presence of underground burial chambers, unique example of Pre-Columbian art (V-VII sec D.c.). The village of San Andres Pisimbalà is a charming place, inhabited by extremely nice people, belonging to the Paèz indigenous community. It remembers to us Chiapas and Guatemala, where we lived unforgettable experiences. To reach this pueblo an entire day of travel on unpaved roads is needed, but just for this reason the region conserves its authentic beauty. Here, the nature is wild and strong, leaving no satisfactions to the campesinos, nevertheless you can breathe an incredible peacefulness. We stay at Doña Marta’s casa familiar: she’s a nice old woman who loves cooking us the best arepas of Colombia.