A year ago began the adventure of this blog… a mosaic of emotions in the deepest heart of the American continent. We have interiorized a magical world, sometimes so complex to be hardly understood. From United States, thinking head of the world as it is nowadays, we have learned to leave aside preconceptions and replace them with curiosity. Mexico has donated to us the immense joy of the travel, endless horizons and the beauty of nature, but also the inexhaustible resistance of a people seduced and then abandoned. Guatemala, wonderful and moving, fertile land of the Mayan world, the search for a better future, that we joined through our cooperation as volunteers. Colombia, an oceanic and magnificent country, so wild to escape everyone’s look; the surprise of an electrifying ferment of lives. Ecuador, synthesis of the whole latinoamerican style, a luxuriant nature and pleasant people: the encounter with the Amazonian rain forest and its peoples, the eternal fight against the exploitation with no rules of the natural resources. Peru with its archaeological beauties, in the undiscovered northern Andean region; the emotion of the “suiza peruana” (Peruvian Switzerland), Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca. Now we fall asleep on the last day, an ethnic mosaic of faces and looks smiles to us, the importance that they have had and they will have in our life, the promise to meet us another time, one day…

We added a terrific interactive tool from flickr, enabling to show all our photos in a slideshow. Just follow this link (Nomadic travel’s Slideshow page) and remember to leave some feedback, whether you think this is a good idea! Shortly we will return with new and adventurous travel stories about Latin America and especially South America…

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.

The Andean region of the Northern Peru is a dusty but really interesting place: being a route virtually ignored by the tourism, we find some difficulties with transportation. Everything is widely repaid by the wild beauty of the places we visit. From San Ignacio we cover a tremendous dirty road by colectivo, until Jaén. A lively commercial center, city of passage between the coast and the Amazonian river basin of Peru, even though nearly lacking in reliable ways of communication. The successive day, not without difficulties, we continue the travel towards the desert village of Bagua and therefore San Pedro Ruiz, following a tenuous dusty trace, on the bottom of canyons digged by Rio Marañon and its affluents. In the night we reach Chachapoyas.

When our German friends wake us up, soon in the morning, we begin the travel from Vilcabamba towards the frontier between Ecuador and Peru. Our route, passing through the village of Zumba, follows an off the beaten track. After a pass that dominates the valley of Vilcabamba, we begin a long descent through the mountain jungle of the Podocarpus National Park. The bus makes frequent stops, often in ghost villages, but there are always people who wait for our arrival; shortly we are swept up by a mass of people, goods and animals. After approximately 6 hours of travel we reach Zumba, the first half of our itinerary. Nearly 2 hours of camioneta separate us from the Peruvian border, but a bridge swept in a blaze by the river forces us to wade: the adventure gets more and more interesting! It’s already evening when we get our passports stamped, by the international bridge of La Balsa. 2 more hours of colectivo (dispelling any doubts of other travelers: 12 soles, negotiable till 10) and we arrive in San Ignacio, tired but happy… We leave Ecuador, a very small Latin American country that has given us many unforgettable experiences and the hope that there can be a future, when people have the courage to fight for their own rights. Now Peru, a giant for beauty and history, the crib of the Inca civilization.

After a short staying in Cuenca, third city of Ecuador and famous for its university, we go on with our travel that is everytime more nomadic and itinerant. Now our goal is Vilcabamba, a very small pueblo next to the Southern border with Peru. The mystery which wraps this village from the eternally vernal climate, it’s the longevity of its inhabitants. Effectively we are astonished to meet so many old and brilliant men, but as the record of Vilcabamba is on everyone’s lips, probably many people declare more years of their actual age… Meanwhile we spend a nice Sunday with music and “malabarismo” (juggling) performances, by the group of artists Pacha Feria.

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.

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.

The Andean landscape becomes extremely variable in the northern part of Ecuador: from semi-desertic valleys to impressive green hills. After hours of roller coaster we reach Otavalo, a village where one of the most important Ecuadorian indigenous markets takes place. We continue towards Quito, the capital, a gem suspended between the snowed peaks of the Andean volcanoes. We are literally conquered by the socio-cultural ferment which enlivens the city, in a few days we know many people, artesanos and people of the street, we talk with NGOs about cooperation, voluntary work and with cultural foundations. We enter in contact with new friends who hopefully will help us to trace a good itinerary towards the eastern Amazon region. We accidentally discover the ethnographic museum managed by the organization Mindalae, an interesting mosaic of the Ecuadorian cultures. From the African influence of the north-western region to the indigenous groups of the forest (Shuar, Siona and Secoya, Achuar, Huaorani), skillful craftsmen of the nature, without forgetting the Andean culture (Quechua).

The deep canyons dig incurable wounds along the Andean ridge and mark the border between Colombia and Equador: we reach Ipiales following the Pan-American highway from Popayan through Pasto. We greet therefore Colombia, a large and wonderfully wild country, sad and crazy, happy and “thief”… Colombia, a country that more than every other Andean state, has been underestimating its most precious treasure, the wisdom of its indigenous peoples, asphyxiating their culture in a logic of useless conflict. Colombia, the country that condenses all its seducing fascination in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad), written by the Colombian genius, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

“Bienvenidos al Ecuador” (Welcome to Equador), says the enormous cartel: the next challenge and many projects to realize, our dream to discover the Amazon. After traveling for so many months we reach the half of the world: a foot to north and the other one to south, or vice versa, we cut the line of the Equator.

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.

Armenia is one of the most desolated cities we’ve visited during our travel: in the gray buildings and in the looks of the people, in wide measure of Slavic origin, hides a piece of Balkans. In the evening, the center gets full of street nomads, everyone with his “mistaken history” to tell. We get lost in Rosalba’s silences, a girl from Cali with three sons, two recently born and the last one still in her womb, the husband in jail and an ocean of loneliness to carry, heavy as a cross. She gives us all she can, a smile and two splendid bracelets, how to return this kindness?