From Pucallpa I took a little motor taxi 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 the vehicle allocated to take me on my next stretch of journey 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 that 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 a 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.

We pulled up at beside of the road for what seemed an eternity. The baking heat made me sweat from every pore. There, further up ahead, there was a roadblock. Only 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 decided to get out of town he car to stretch my legs and clear my lungs and nostrils from the stench but it quickly turned into a decision I regretted. For some reason, my presence attracted 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 so i, reluctantly, I went back into my vehicle but they followed and cameup to the window to continue their conversation. 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 time to eat this morning and my stomach knew it. I sat with only bottled water, a few boiled sweets and the shortbread & a couple of pakedts of Haribos I brought for the team at Esperanza. I must admit I was tempted to open them as I there was no indication of when we will continue with our journey.

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, the driver started his engine and we were moving but this only lasted a nano second. The ‘road’ was restricted to single lane and for some reason the traffic controllers let both lanes go head to head and boy was there trouble. There were cars, tuk-tuks, construction lorries, low loaders, motorbikes and minibuses trying to squeeze buy each other on a muddy single 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 wouldn’t leave 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 👏👏👏👏