From Pucallpa I took a little motor taking to the bus station. All the natives are tiny and I looked like a big Amazonian woman in the back of my little tuk-tuk

We passed by many little shacks and the road was awash with other Tuk-tuks as they shall now be known.

Dear god, the bus station was chaos (to me) and it wasn’t a bus, it was a ramshackle old bloody car full of shitty half dead chickens and millions of eggs.

There is only room for me in the front seat, my rucksack is tied into the roof with a bit of rope and the rest of my luggage is on my knee. I am squashed so full forward I can hardly breath and the smell is making my quite sick!! – it’s going to be a long 2 hrs!

Well it wasn’t long before the tarmac road ended and we on the dusty road, full of potholes, trenches and water filled dips. It didn’t fill me with confidence when the driver crossed himself everytime he saw one looming up in the distance.

For some strange reason and unfathomable to me, there was a roadblock 1hr into our journey, in the middle of the day in seething hot sun with no shade and not even a slight breeze, flies everywhere and the smell of these bloody poor chickens and eggs is revolting no wonder the flies are making a b-line for this car – I’m gonna die!!!

I seem to be attracting a lot of attention from the locals in the other cars and tuk-tuks who continually try to talk to me and of course I can’t understand a word no matter how slow or loud they repeat their words. I want to put a sign outside the car “LEAVE ME ALONE, I don’t speak any spanish no matter how hard you try”

I didn’t have the time to eat this morning I only have water – or the shortbread I brought for the team at Esperanza!!! No idea when we will move.

Another hour we sat, not only was the smell of chicken poop making me sick, the intense heat and lack of food was making me Wabbit – dear God please don’t have me fainting in front of the locals.

Finally we moved on but not for long, the ‘road’ was restricted to single lane and for some reason the controllers let both lanes go head to head and boy was there trouble. There was cars, tuk-tuks, construction lorries, low loaders, motorbikes and minibuses trying to squeeze buy each other on a muddy track with a lot of reversing, shouting and the inevitable horn blasting!

After we were finally free from the mayhem the driver raced along the dusty road – I had another car to catch in Curimana and it would go until I arrived or at least I hoped it wouldn’t!

A quick transfer and I was off – 1 hour chicken free but still stinking of the smell to Curimana in a much improved 4×4. I was dropped off at El Puerto in Bello Horizonte to take a canoe across the river to walk to the camp of Esperanza Verde – my final destination 👏👏👏👏