On the morning of departure, we took our luggage down to the Yacupato and settled in on the deck. The boat was already partially loaded with green bananas and it was immediately obvious that the steel deck was turning the hold area into a bake house which was going to make most of the passengers expire in their hammocks as soon as the sun came out and beat on the rusty iron deck above.
Panoramas of the Yacupato loading up the day before departure.
We had to wait several hours while they moved a lot of oil drums on the the boat and finally we took off with a small group of Peruvian passengers. We had bought hammocks in the local market, except they had run out by the time I got mine which was a small one for a kid, so I had to spend five more weeks huddled in a half size hammock all the way from Atalaya to Puerto Velho in Southern Brazil. However you will see in the next posting how Jane and I had a beautiful cool nest on this craft!
The Peruvian family had a money and green parrots as pets.
The Ucayali has now become literally a red river with suspended iron clays washed in by the rains.
Panorama of the hills behind Atalaya.
The cheerful and friendly crew of the Yacupato.
The boat made regular stops at villages to pick up bunches of green bananas and dried catfish in bales looking like underwater tiger skins.
A second panorama from further down the Ucayali.
Adam and Jane relaxing on the top deck.
Yet more loggers' encampments.
Towards the end of the first day, the boat made a stop at a village to pick up bananas and huge bales of dried catfish and and berthed for the night.
We all walked up through the fields to the village centre where there was a bar and a nightclub with a bunch of girls as well as alcohol on tap. Jane and I eventually went back and slept on the boat but the other guys had a wild night out.
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