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The 101 kilometres south of Iquitos are smooth sun-baked tarmac. So Cho and I decided that we would go for a marathon day and try and do the whole thing in 24 hours. At just over 5km and hour we could make it if we walked all day and all night…
Fools. After 35km it was 4pm and we were exhausted. We both had very sore feet from the sudden change to tarmac from the jungle floor and we looked at each other and admitted we’d been daft. We found a room to stay and walked around the bare concrete floor like robots with rusty legs.
It took us 4 days to do the 102 km - we’d underestimated how tired our bodies were. Still with our packs we couldn’t get up over 4 kilometres an hour – almost embarrassingly slow for a road.
On the second day we were melting down the road when an off-road motorbike pulled in in front of me with a large man grinning from ear to ear at me.
“Ed Stafford – is it you?” he beamed.
“What on Earth?” I thought. “This is a step up from being accused of human body parts trafficker!”
The man was Rudolfo Suarez (pictured above) and he’d read about the expedition in “El Commercio”, Peru’s biggest newspaper. He took control of the two bedraggled morons in front of him in an instant: “I’m going to ride ahead and find a place to check you into so you can have a wash and a swim in a pool – then I’m going to come back at 6pm and pick you up to come to my house for supper. In the morning I’ll drop you back and you can continue walking.”
“Ummm… wow… thanks.” Cho and I replied – slightly dazed and confused. But very grateful.
Rudy did as he promised and we went for supper with his family and friends. We’ve been given the run of his house for our time in Iquitos – especially kind as he is now in Lima with his family for the New Year. Rudy also set up several meetings with military doctors, TV, radio and other influential or knowledgeable people from the city. What a kind man.
So Keith, Cho and I are sitting out a wait for our Brazilian visas to be processed before moving on. This is the last big city in Peru and so we need to ensure we get the visas. Keith returns to Blighty on the 8th January but Cho, all going well, has said he’ll walk to the mouth of the Amazon. It nice to know I won’t be entering Brazil completely alone and Cho is a good man to have around when things get hairy…
We are investigating whether entering southern Columbia is possible as the flooded forest in Peru looks like it will force us north. I had expected to be in Brazil by Christmas originally so the waters would have been lower and the Peruvian side walkable. As far as we can work out the terrorist activity is low in the region we want to walk through although needless to say there is a certain amount of drugs trafficking.
“Voice from the Amazon”
Name: Padre Joaquin Garcia Sanchez
Home: Iquitos, Peru
Occupation: Diretor of The Centre of Amazonian Technical Studies
1. Can you describe climate change?
[Asking this question would have been patronising to say the least as the Padre is very involved in climate change projects. As a result I will drop it from now on. It should be obvious from the subsequent questions whether the interviewee knows what climate change is.]
2. What changes in weather have you seen in the last 20 years?
In the last 20 years the city has grown a lot. When I look back I have been living here for 41 years, back then the city had only 80,000 inhabitants and now it has 550,000. With all the things that growth brings, it increased also the level of marginality, poverty, and increase in the number of vehicles running around. Increase in the public insecurity, civilian insecurity. So there have been many changes. But also, one of the biggest changes, most important one maybe, it is that the city consumes, but the city doesn’t produce or reproduce in the natural resources area.
3. How has this changed the way you live and work?
Well, I haven’t changed my main purpose in life. My purpose is that I have to discover my roots and rescue them. The culture of the people hasn`t been lost, but the ways we get closer have changed, like for example. I have to use the telephone, use internet; we now have a website. So many things have changed and obviously that gave agility to the final purpose I have in relation to the population around me, that thanks to them I am in the position I am now. That is what I know.
4. Is life now easier or harder? Why?
I believe that in certain level it is much easier. Easier because time passes by and you acquire a level of prestige and you are recognised in places where it had been a lot of effort to convince people. In my early life it was difficult and I was not welcome nor understood with my ideas. Now because of my rise in status I think that the years that I have spent in my work, my duties, it has become easier to work than at the beginning.
5. Whose fault do you think climate change is?
Well, I think that we are all guilty of this. We are guilty of certain types of geological transformations. These transformations were happening without being noticed until now by the media, so the changes are there and there is no other way it can be. Now with the neo liberal system where we consume large amounts of energy, affects the ozone layer, create smog, and change the climate. I think that there are many elements, and at the end, we are all involved in this system. So, the villager that goes with his boat down the river, wants to sell things to get in the system’s chain and also the producer of a certain type of product wants to sell, so when the money interest is in the game it is more difficult to go back. And even more when you get into the drugs, weapons and sex traffic.
6. What will life be like for your children in 30 years? Does this worry you?
Well we are starting a kid’s cultural centre that is called Irapai. It will have a library, choir and orchestra, plastic and scenic arts. What we are trying to do is to fortify and make our culture more dynamic so when they are older will have the proper sense of self esteem and love to the place they live; in a way that it is tied to the educational system where the combination between homework and the subjects to study and art complement each other.
7. What can we do to stop climate change?
I haven’t a clue. I can’t answer you that because I just don’t know. I am not able to tell you something about the conclusions in Kioto to a reduction of the emission of smog in the air. But the truth is I have no clue where it is going to end. I have no clue at all.
8. What would you like to say to the readers of this bog all over the world?
Oh – from all around the world? Let me see. It is the conscious, well informed citizen that seeks alternative ways that we can choose for our development. So I scream from the newspaper you are writing this for, for people to be more conscious every day. The people shouldn’t be depraved with any type of instinct, by any type of perverse condition. The personal changes will start the beginning of the creation of a new society, more fraternal and fair.
Glad to hear you were welcomed with open arms!
Happy trails!
Good to hear you have somewhere comfortable to recharge your batteries while you wait for your visas - seems like this hospitality couldn’t have come at a better time.
I love Keith’s portraits
Yay!!! you see… a smile and being fool will always help you Edd!!!
Keith has done lots with those pictures and what a best time to feel the welcoming heart of the jungle people, right after having all those troubles thinking you would take their organs off..suddenly they think (just because the paper said so) that you are a celebrity!!! woohooo
Greetings from my family!
Enjoy!!!
Sounds like Rudolfo was an oasis, in every sense of the word!
I once walked 100km in 24hrs for charity. It was by far and away the hardest thing I’ve ever done. So in that heat, with that pack, and tired already - I can’t even imagine it.
Keep up the good work!
Neil
i am your cousins student S. STAFFORDand i want to say that you are a brave man i want you to success and finish your adventure love kostas
from Greece
Keep up the good work mate, looks like hard work