Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [411]
Return to beginning of chapter
SATIPO
064 / pop 15,700 / elev 630m
This jungle town is the center of a coffee- and fruit-producing region lying about 130km by road southeast of La Merced. This road was paved in 2000 to provide an outlet for produce, and accordingly Satipo is growing quickly. It is also linked by a poor road to the highlands of Huancayo.
The attractive main plaza has an extremely helpful tourist office (76-1244; 8am-1pm & 3pm-5pm Mon-Sat), which can arrange tours to nearby sites including waterfalls and petroglyphs (ancient rock carvings), as well as a BCP (ATM).
The pick of Satipo’s mushrooming accommodation scene is Hostal San Luis (54-5319; cnr Grau 173 & Leguía; s/d S40/60), which has huge rooms with cable TV, phones, fans and reading lights as well as nicely tiled bathrooms, although water isn’t always hot. There’s a cafeteria downstairs.
On the Central Plaza, there is also Hotel Majestic (/fax 54-5762; Colonos Fundadores Principal 408; s/d S40/55), a clean choice with private cold showers and cable TV in surrounds of decrepit colonial splendor.
Satipo has surprisingly good eateries, including El Bosque (54-5236; Manuel Prado 554; mains around S10), a lovely courtyard restaurant (food served from 8am to 5pm) also good for a drink of an evening.
The nearby airport has light aircraft for charter. Flights to Atalaya and other jungle towns leave irregularly, when there are enough passengers.
Minibuses and colectivos leave regularly for Pichanaqui, where you can change for La Merced. Larger buses leave every morning and evening for La Merced, some continuing on to Lima, including Turismo Central (54-6016; Los Incas 359), which has Lima and Huancayo buses. Selva Tours (in Huancayo 21-8427) was running buses to Huancayo (S18, eight to nine hours) via the spectacular but difficult direct road through Comas, but at the time of research, security issues meant that only colectivo taxis were using this route. Phone ahead to check: the road is often impassable in bad weather anyway.
Return to beginning of chapter
EAST OF SATIPO
Continuing east into the jungle, a decent unpaved road goes through Mazamari, 20km away. Here you’ll find Hospedaje Divina Montaña (064-33-8767; r from S25) offering hot showers, a sauna and a popular restaurant. Rooms with fans are extra. Another 40km further is Puerto Ocopa, reached by colectivo from Satipo in two hours. Beyond Puerto Ocopa, a rough road continues to Atalaya, at the intersection of the Ríos Urubamba, Tambo and Ucayali. If the road is impassable, take a boat along the Río Tambo to Atalaya, which takes one day.
In Atalaya, a real jungle frontier village, there are basic hotels and an airstrip with connections to Satipo. Irregular boats can be found to Pucallpa, about 450km downstream (one to three days). Use your bargaining powers to negotiate a rate (it shouldn’t be above S50 per person per day). Eight indigenous tribes inhabit the remote jungle beyond Atalaya. Travel here is not without dangers, one of which is armed plantation saboteurs. It’s a trip for the travel hardened.
Return to beginning of chapter
OXAPAMPA
063 / pop 7800 / elev 1800m
There is a distinctly alpine feel to this pretty ranching and coffee center, 75km north of La Merced. Perhaps this was why during the mid-19th century it attracted some 200 German settlers, the descendants of which (many still blonde haired and blue eyed) inhabit Oxapampa and smaller, lower Pozuzo (four hours north of Oxapampa by daily minibus; longer in the wet season), and have preserved many Germanic customs. Buildings have a Tyrolean look, Austrian-German food is prepared and an old-fashioned form of German is still spoken by some families.
North of Oxapampa rear the cloud-capped hills of little-visited Parque Nacional Yanachaga-Chemillén. The park preserves some spectacular cloud forest and diverse flora and fauna, including the rare spectacled bear. Visiting the park is complicated. First, get permission from the INRENA