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I’m writing this from a wooden shack of a hostel in a port called Puerto Ocopa at the junction between the River Ene and the River Tambo. There is a thunderstorm outside and the muggy, sticky air is being washed away and replaced by a cool freshness.

I have finished walking the Ene (at long last) and I think over the past five days we (Cho, my new Afro-Peruvian guide and I) have averaged 35km a day on paths and spanking new logging routes.

If a gringo gets odd looks round here, a gringo with a black guide gets double! Cho has been fantastic, singing most of the way, completely content to explain my crazy expedition to whoever asks. He has worked for many years in the logging industry and has lived with the Ashaninkas for some of this and understands (although does not speak) their language.

I held back from writing about the horror stories that I had been told about the last part of the Ene for a fear of coming across as alarmist. Deep down I knew they were exaggerated and as it happens we walked through the supposedly “uncivilised” communities with ease. Cho was a part of the reason we had no problems – a white person alone would be another story.

Sadly the logging was horrendous. Cho estimates that 10% of what we saw was legal logging and that the rest was completely illegal. In my naivety I asked why the authorities didn’t do something to stop the illegal removal of huge trees from the forest here. The obvious answer was that the authorities are involved and benefit nicely from the situation.

If a man has a plot of land with trees of value he talks to the logging company and agrees a price. Then the logging company comes in, builds a road, and extracts ALL of the timber of any value. The landowner is then richer than he ever thought possible and he now has road access and so his land is more valuable. He can farm the land (now free of troublesome jungle) and he can buy a truck. Who wouldn’t?

The Tambo I expect to take a week or so to walk. Cho will continue with me alongside Eric, an Ashaninka with a trendy bleached blonde quiff. We should be in Atalaya well before the end of the month. Touch wood.

Ed