Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [6]
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BACK DOOR INTO THE AMAZON Two Weeks / Chiclayo to Iquitos
This route crosses the little-traveled northern highlands by road and ends at the Amazonian port of Iquitos – the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road. Hurrying locals get from Chiclayo to Iquitos in less than a week; curious travelers might take a month.
Leaving Chiclayo (Click here), with its nearby ancient ruins and witches’ market, take a bus over the Andean continental divide to Chachapoyas (Click here), a base for visiting the isolated, untouristed fortress of Kuélap (Click here), dating from AD 800, and many other remote, barely known archaeological sites. Chachapoyas can easily be reached in 10 hours from Chiclayo, traveling along the quicker paved road via the highland jungle town of Jaén (Click here), a remote border crossing to Ecuador.
Hardier travelers can take the wild, unpaved, longer route to Cajamarca (Click here), a lovely highland provincial town where the Inca Atahualpa was imprisoned by Spanish conquistadors. Outside of the wet season, continue on the slow, spectacular route to friendly Celendín (Click here) and on to Leimebamba (Click here) to see the Marvelous Spatuletail hummingbird (Click here). Then, continue on the scenic but kidney-busting drive to Chachapoyas (Click here).
From Chachapoyas, take the unpaved road to Pedro Ruíz (Click here), where transportation is readily available to Tarapoto (Click here). Break your journey here to hike to high jungle waterfalls. The last road section travels to Yurimaguas (Click here), where on most days you can find cargo boats that make the two-day trip to Iquitos (Click here) via the village of Lagunas (Click here), the best entry point to the Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria (Click here). Hammock or cabin space is readily available. Don’t expect much comfort, but the trip will provide an unforgettable glimpse of the world’s greatest river basin. At Iquitos, you can arrange boat trips that go even deeper – and on into Brazil.
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JUNGLE BOOGIE Four Weeks / Cuzco to Iquitos
Expect to fly if your time is limited, or spend weeks on epic river and road journeys through the unforgettable Amazon Basin, populated by spectacular wildlife and tribal peoples. Bring bucket loads of patience and self-reliance – and a lot of luck never hurts.
More than half of Peru is made up of jungle, which dramatically drops away from the eastern slopes of the Andes and deep into the Amazon Basin – stretching all the way to the Atlantic.
The most popular excursion starts from Cuzco (Click here and Click here) and heads to the Manu area (Click here), itself the size of a small country and full of jungle lodges and wildlife-watching opportunities. Or you can fly from Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado (Click here) and rent a thatch-roofed bungalow with a view either along the Río Madre de Dios (Click here), the gateway to lovely Lago Sandoval (Click here), or along the Río Tambopata (Click here), where a national reserve protects one of the country’s largest clay licks. During the dry season (July and August), it’s possible for hard-core types to travel overland back to Cuzco.
With the south out of the way, you can turn your attention to the north. The easiest way to get there is to fly to Lima, then onward to Pucallpa (Click here), near Yarinacocha (Click here). The lake in this area is ringed by tribal villages, including those of the matriarchal Shipibo people, renowned for their pottery. A more challenging bus journey reaches Pucallpa from Lima via the coffee-growing settlement of San Ramón (Click here) and the miniscule village of Puerto Bermúdez (Click here), the stronghold of Peru’s largest Amazon tribe, the Asháninka.
From Pucallpa, begin the classic slow riverboat journey north along the Río Ucayali (Click here) to Iquitos (Click here). This northern jungle capital has a floating market and a bustling