Living up the Amazon

Here I am in full ceremonial dress, the photo above showing me with two villagers outside my hut or cocamera.

I am what you might call a Gringo Amazon Chief and live, when I can, right up the Amazon in Peru.

I have a cocamera – a native roundhouse constructed of leaves and branches – where I wear the traditional dress, the champa, which is made of palm fibre and is incredibly comfortable in the heat. Usually it consists of a knee length skirt, which is convenient for working in, but the full dress consists of a top half also, plus headdress, necklaces and bracelets. And my chest, arms and shoulders are bodypainted with red liquid from a berry. With the full clothing the skirt is ankle length.

This manner of dress gave rise to the Spanish conquistadores thinking they had found a tribe of fierce female warriors, who used blowpipes with darts that were tipped with poison. In fact, both the men and women wear virtually the same.

I have been adopted into the Yagua tribe that lives around the jungle city of Iquitos, and am awaiting the opportunity to spend some time in a traditional village in order to learn their language and customs properly. At the moment, however, I just have to make do with my cocamera when I’m in the jungle.

This is the perfect way to get away from it all, right back to nature. In the so-called civilised world we never seem to have time to do anything. The whole purpose of our existence seems to be to earn money to pay our bills, and there it seems to stop. Our roads are clogged up, our trains uncomfortably overcrowded but, up the Amazon, on the other hand, all is peaceful. One gets up at dawn, at about 5.30am, and goes to bed when it is dark, at about 6.30pm; although sometimes in the evening families will sit in their huts telling stories by the light of naturally made lanterns, or even in the dark.

Because it is the tropics, there are no seasons as such. December to April is the rainy season while from June to October it is very hot, with temperatures over 40 degrees C, and the river level subsides. Of course, it still rains during the hot season, but not so much. The best time for fishing is during the rainy season, while during the dry season it is easier to harvest the fruit.

Houses by the river are built on stilts to avoid being flooded, while those like mine are just built in a clearing between the trees, and people exist by fishing, harvesting the fruit and making handicrafts. Traditionally, the men hunt using blowpipes.

Unfortunately, this idyllic lifestyle is under dire threat from the ever encroaching westernisation of the world, the tribes being pushed further and further back into the jungle. Most people now wear t-shirts and shorts and drink Coke, instead of natural fruit juice, which means that they have to trade. So markets have sprung up and tourism is encouraged. I even saw a native Indian fishing on the river wearing a Manchester United shirt!

And this is where we come in. A couple of years ago, we were on holiday up the Amazon when we were asked by the guide to invest in the lodge he wanted to build, as my wife is Peruvian and he could see just how taken I was with the way of life and the flora and fauna.

This has led to the construction of the Amazon Curaca Camp near the community of San Joaquin de Omaquas, 170km up river from the jungle city of Iquitos. Bungalows are dotted among the trees in a completely natural setting, all being constructed from local materials. They have shared showers and are protected by mosquito nets. There is also a central dining hall and lounge. Just beyond the windows the forest is alive with monkeys, parrots, sloths, cicadas, glow-worms, tapirs, boars and iguanas, while in the river close by are alligators and many varieties of fish. And then there are the birds, of many colours and songs, colours flashing as they fly overhead, squawking as they go.

Growing all around is fruit: many varieties of bananas plus mangoes, papayas, guavas, pineapples and many more. And these are served in the dining room. Most of the food is produced locally, including fresh fish, and the cook will prepare for visitors the fish they catch on fishing trips.

We also have another lodge at Tambo Jaldar, situated on the tranquil Yarapa River, which is ideal for canoeing as it is also close to several hidden lakes with an abundance of wildlife, particularly herons. In the lakes is found the Victoria Regis lily, the largest floating plant in the world.

Visitors to the lodges can choose a variety of programmes, which include piranha fishing, swimming with fresh water dolphins from a beautiful sandy beach, trekking, canoeing and camping in the jungle. All this is done with an English speaking local guide. Visitors also learn about the local culture, seeing how the handicrafts are made and learn about the medicinal properties of plants. They can also experience the mystical ayahuasca, a medicinal tea that is used by the Amazon Indians to access a visionary or mythological world that facilitates healing. It is administered quite safely by a shaman. The danger comes only when taken in large quantities.

Parts of the Brazilian Amazon have been destroyed, so we want to make absolutely certain that the Peruvian Amazon is protected and the culture of its people preserved – or even re-introduced where necessary. The clothing I wear while there is still worn, but generally only for ceremonial purposes, in the more accessible parts of the Amazon. However, deeper in the jungle, the old traditions are still kept and we want to make sure that they are not destroyed. We feel sure that people visiting our lodges will understand how important it is to preserve this culture. For this reason, we hope to build more cocameras near mine for others to experience this lifestyle.

Details of group or individual visits to the Amazon are available from info@theperuexperience.com or visit the website: www.peru-experience.com/