Taking off at 10.860′ in Cuzco, Peru. Landing at 306′ in Iquitos, Peru

December 5, 2011

before DEP in Cuzco

bye bye Cuzco

…hello Iquitos

PC12 and Fokker F27

Our perfectly prepared, calculated and thoroughly discussed take-off at Cuzco, went alright. In spite of the very slow slope we used to get away at this altitude, we always stayed on the edge of not having a shaker warning. As a result of the high temperature we had to carefully watch the ITT, we stayed just below 40 torque, just under 820 degrees Celcius ITT.

Everything went alright, but not much would be needed to let it not go alright.

The Peruvian air controllers wanted us to make a considerable deviation by sending us via Lima -probably to avoid Brasilian territory- but skilfull negotiating by (again) Andy- made them finally agree to give us a direct route to Iquitos, via Brasilian airspace.

Once in Iquitos we were quickly reminded to the circumstances in Calcutta, India, we have seen last year. The people, the heat, the poverty and the filth everywhere.

we are in another world

Harry has inspected a new ship…

loading milk from Lima

…the banana market

My link to Iquitos was only an imaginary one, though comparable to my link with Kiribati: some 30 years ago I tried to fix one of our Japanese newbuildings from Miho Yard from Yokohama to Iquitos and it took me ages to find how this 6.000 tonner (I believe it was mv Lauriergracht) could go up all the way the Amazone river to Iquitos. I planned to go to Iquitos if this deal would have come through. My findings showed a one way passage time on the Amazone River of 14 days with pilotage cost of $ 20K. Mind you this was 30 years ago with a USD rate of exchange of probably NLG 3,60 [Gerard Treur jij kan vast die koers wel boven water toveren van ABN of Amro Bank, just for the fun of it].

Now I have seen the port(s) of Iquitos and I do hope that these photo’s give you the picture as we have seen it. Just the Middle Ages.

We found the people extremely friendly. The poverty seems not to make them unhappy. Another comparable aspect of their life with the people in Calcutta.

We survived a one hour trip in a three person Honda Riksha.

Then we found big festivities in front of our hotel. Well we never had to complain about lack of sleep so one night without, did not throw us off too much.

Tomorrow the next leg to Manaus, Brasil.