Peru is a destination that evokes dramatic images – the Incas, the Amazon, the Andes, the mighty condor, and Lima, the former colonial capital of the Spanish New World. The country offers much more than we can cover in a few weeks:  charming Andean highland towns with colonial architecture, remote jungle lodges in the Amazon basin, soaring snowcapped mountains and volcanoes, a 2,000-mile Pacific coastline, and, of course, Machu Picchu and the incredible legacies of the Incas and other sophisticated pre-Columbian civilizations. Peru is a place of brilliant colors, exuberant celebrations, exotic animals and fascinating people. Few countries on Earth can provide such a scintillating blend of history, culture, landscape and wildlife under one flag.

Traveling once again with Overseas Adventure Travel, we joined our friends Dennis and Vicky Shepard on our most active and exhausting trip ever. In the Amazon rainforest, it was hot and humid; in the Andes, the air was thin and the sun was intense; and all across the country there are more Inca (and other) ruins, villages, and cultures than any mortal person can remember. It was sensory overload and we loved it - the following pages attempt to capture the highlights of this trip - we hope it gives you a sense of this fascinating country.

NOTE:  This website doesn't always show all of the pages, so know in advance that there are 9 posts in this adventure:  Lima, Amazon Rainforest, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, Cuzco Vicinity, Crossing the Andes, Lake Titicaca, and Culinary Delights.  At the bottom of each post there are links to all other posts.  AND ... don't forget that you can enlarge any picture by double-clicking on it.

Lima - The City of Kings

Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru – population about 9 million.  Located on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it is the second largest city in the world located in a desert.  The annual rainfall in Lima is 0 inches – it pretty much never rains here.  Lima was founded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1535, as the City of Kings.  

The National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History covers Peruvian civilization from prehistoric times to the colonial and republican periods – or, 8000 years of history in one hour.  The museum is housed in a 19^th-century mansion where South American heroes Jose de San Martin and Simon Bolivar once lived.   Exhibits dating back to 2800 B.C. include ceramics, carved stone figures and obelisks, metalwork and jewelry, even textiles. 

 

The Plaza de Armas, located in the historic center of Lima, is the birthplace of the city.  The square is surrounded by the Government Palace, the Cathedral of Lima, the Archbishop’s Palace, and the Palace of the Union.

The Government Palace is the official residence and office of Peru’s president.  The original palace was built by Pizarro in 1535 on the site of the home of an earlier Inca ruler.  Later, in 1821, this was the location where Jose de San Martine declared the independence of Peru from Spain. 

The Cathedral of Lima has undergone many reconstructions and transformations since it was built in 1535, but it still retains it colonial structure and façade.  It is dedicated to St. John, Apostle and Evangelist.  Within the cathedral are the ashes of Francisco Pizarro, the founder of Lima.

The Archibishop’s Palace, next door to the Cathedral, is the residence and headquarters of the Archdiocese of Lima.  The building’s elaborate façade includes ornate cedar balconies over the main doors.

The Convent of San Francisco is probably the best-preserved of the colonial-era churches in Lima.  This striking yellow and white complex – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built in 1674 and has survived numerous earthquakes, which destroyed other parts of the city. 

The façade is a favorite of thousands of pigeons, while the interiors are lined with beautiful glazed ceramics from Seville.  Our guided tour took us through the cloisters to a veritable museum of religious art, with beautifully carved saints and apostles on every wall. 

The most fascinating part of the visit was the descent into the catacombs, which were dug in 1546 as a burial ground for priests and important citizens.  As many as 75,000 bodies were interred here (in three levels of galleries) before the main cemetery was built.  We filed past loads of bones – nobody knows how many levels they go down – and looked into a large well lined with perfectly laid skulls and femurs.

Our last stop was the incredible 17^th-century library with over 20,000 books, many of which date to the first years after Lima’s founding. 

To wrap up our visit to Lima, an evening visit to the Magical Water Circuit was a bonus from the bus company for being late to pick us up one day.  Located in Lima’s Parque de la Reserva, the Magical Water Circuit is an amazing display of fountains, lights, and music.  There are 13 big and beautiful fountains showcasing how water can be artistically manipulated.  At 240+ feet, the Magic Fountain has the Guinness Book Record for being the tallest in a water park – and perhaps in the world.  The Fountain of Fantasy hosts a laser light show with music and project images.  The Racing Fountain and the Tunnel Fountain provide opportunities to get wet – in spite of the cool night air, plenty of folks did just that.

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Just south of Lima, Pachacamac is a massive pre-Incan archeological site inhabited over hundreds of years by several cultures that preceded the Inca empire.  Covering over 40 acres along the Pacific Ocean, this sacred city and holy place of pilgrimage includes plazas, adobe-brick palaces, and 18 pyramidal temples.

The earliest construction here dates to the 1^st century A.D., when pilgrims came to pay homage to the feared creator-god, Pachacamac.  The Incas conquered this area in the 15^th century, but found the site so powerful and popular that they didn’t tamper with it.  They allowed Pachacamac to co-exist along with their own sun god, and the site remained one of the most important shrines in the Americas during the Inca rule. 

Pizarro and his gold-hungry troops arrived in 1533 to find pyramids covered with gold and silver and painted with bright red, blue and yellow colors.  The Spaniards considered the temples barbaric. They burned and destroyed the mummies, statues, and buildings after stripping them of their gold and silver.  They took everything of value back to Spain.  It’s a wonder there’s anything left, but archeologists are finding more every day.

This is one of the older structures, a pyramid with a central ramp.  These structures served as elite residences, stages for ceremonies, public gatherings, and economic centers, and funerary structures.  The public space was used for receptions and ceremonies while the remaining part was used as a residence the local ruler.  It appears that each pyramid with a central ramp is a palace built by a ruler who lived there during his reign and then was buried inside when he died. The building was then ritually abandoned, while the successor of the dead ruler constructed his own pyramid.

At the center of the Pachacamac complex is the intersection of the two major roads that divide the city into four sectors.  This route to the temple complex is defined by tall walls of stone and adobe.

The Incas built new pyramids and temples, among them the Temple of the Sun and the House of the Chosen Women.  This building was a kind of convent for the Virgins of the Sun - young maidens or female priests who were dedicated to the service of the sun god. 

The Temple of the Sun was constructed on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and dedicated to the Inca sun god Inti. The temple, built with stones and adobe blocks, is in the form of a staggered pyramid - hard to discern from the bottom looking up.  Near the top is a beautiful terrace and rooms dedicated to the Cult of the Sun. Along the main access to the temple, some of the original paint can still be seen on the walls.

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The shantytown known as Villa El Salvador is the home of nearly half-million people on the southern edge of Lima.   It was started in 1971 when a group of poor families living in inner-city Lima slums decided to "invade" a tract of desert land on the outskirts of the city. The government reacted violently to the land grab, sending in troops to evict the invaders. After several people were killed in the standoff, the government offered the families a massive plot of land 12 miles further south of metropolitan Lima. The land was on a large sand dune and had no water, electricity, sewers or access roads, but nearly 7,000 families relocated there.  Villa el Salvador was officially incorporated as a district of Lima in 1983.

Years of protests have resulted in running water, electricity and even some paved roads in the more established sectors of Villa el Salvador. However, in some of the newest sectors, many homes have no running water, sewer systems or electricity. In these areas, water can be purchased from a "water truck," which comes twice a week to fill whatever type of container the homeowner provides.

Houses in Villa el Salvador range from simple to downright crude. Many have dirt floors. If there is no running water, there is usually some sort of makeshift outhouse behind the house. Yards are tiny and are usually filled with trash, rocks, building materials, a clothesline and perhaps some animals, such as chickens, rabbits or guinea pigs.

Many of the roofs are pieces of thin corrugated metal or plastic that lay on top the walls. Some of the houses had only partial roofs, which is okay, because it doesn't rain in Lima. On the other hand, because of the lack of rain, there is very little green in Villa el Salvador—just a lot of dirt and dust. Landscaping does not exist here. People who can afford water use it for the necessities, and landscaping is not one of them.

Villa El Salvador served as the home base for the activist María Elena Moyano, who helped organize a women’s federation that has grown to encompass activities such as public kitchens, health committees, milk for children, and committees for basic education.  We visited one of these projects – a soup kitchen – and purchased some food items to help with the next day’s meals.

Villa el Salvador has received many accolades and is considered a model of urban social development in Latin America. Our guides made much of the ‘evolution’ of this community – certainly some people have jobs, decent homes and hope for the future, but this “model” is still a place of grinding, heartbreaking poverty.

Amazon Rainforest

Nearly two-thirds of Peru is Amazon rainforest, containing some of the richest biodiversity on the planet.  Here live some 400 species of mammals (including the rare pink dolphin), 2000 species of fish (more than the Atlantic Ocean), 300 reptiles (including the anaconda - the world’s largest non-poisonous snake), 4000 birds (including 120 different species of hummingbirds), and more than 50,000 species of plants (including these water hyacinths).

Covering over 2.5 million square miles, the Amazon basin represents over 50% of all remaining rainforest on the plant.  It is a vast, largely impenetrable area, with the small human population in all of Peru.  We flew into Iquitos, which has a population of 400,000 – it is the world's largest city that cannot be reached by road, only by water or air. The city is in the heart of the jungle, 2300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.  Here we boarded our river taxi for the transfer to our lodge.

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The Ceiba Tops Lodge was our home on the banks of the Amazon – about 25 miles downriver from Iquitos – the most luxurious (i.e., air-conditioned rooms) of several lodges run by the Explorama group.  It was a LONG climb from the floating dock to the top of the bank.  The steps were marked to show the high water levels for the past seven years - if we'd been smart, we'd have come in May 1999 when the water was a lot closer to the lodge.  From here we explored the myths, mysteries and magic of the world’s most exotic jungle – and gratefully slipped back into our cool rooms at night.  For the record, it was hot and humid here – temperatures near 100 degrees – we should have lost weight with all the sweating we did!

The lodge is named for an immense Ceiba tree on the property.  Ceiba trees can grow up to 200 feet in height and live for hundreds of years. Its base is thick and spreads out in buttress roots.  Its trunk is straight, with few branches except at the top, where it spreads into a huge canopy.   The Ceiba tree figures in the mythologies of pre-Columbian cultures in Latin America, where the world tree is depicted as a Ceiba trunk connecting the planes of the underworld, the terrestrial realm and the skies.   It’s impressive, no doubt about that.

 We didn't have to go far to see wildlife.  There was plenty around the lodge.  Without a doubt, the cutest critter on the property was an orphaned young tapir.  Tapirs are large browsing mammals, similar in shape to a pig, with a short prehensile snout.  This little one came visiting nearly every morning.

A pair of scarlet macaws came around every morning and sat outside the dining hall - hoping for a handout.  We didn't see any of these beauties in the wild, so it was a treat to have them say hello as we went for breakfast.

Our room was some distance from the dining hall, facing the jungle.  It was pretty quiet back there, and we could do some wildlife viewing right in our doorway.  We saw a red brocket deer, some saddle-back tamarins, and a beautiful blue morpho butterfly.

The red brocket deer is fairly common in the forests of South America.  Fawns, such as this one, have white spots. S/he was only about two feet tall.

Saddle-back tamarins live in the trees around the lodge - we heard them often and saw them occasionally. They grow up to 12 inches long, not including the tail which adds on another 17 inches, and weigh up to 2 pounds.  They have white cheeks and beautiful black and mahoghany coloring.,

The Blue Morpho butterfly is an irridescent, metallic blue flash of color - they are forest dwellers (we saw several in the jungle), but they occasionally venture out into the sunshine to warm themselves.  This one was big - nearly 6 inches across.

Birds were abundant everywhere.  We saw plenty of birds around the lodge, but we really saw loads of them on an early morning boat ride:  yellow-headed caracara, russet-backed weaver, smooth-billed ani, tropical kingbird, shiny cowbird, oriole blackbird, canary-wing parakeet, chestnut-bellied seedeater, social flycatcher, great kiskadee, silver beak tanager, striated heron, roadside hawk, black vulture, white-eyed parakeet, ringed kingfisher, greater tern, crimson-headed woodpecker, gray soltater, yellow-headed vulture, red-breasted blackbird (an Alaska migrant), yellow-hooded blackbird, gray-winged trumpeter, and large bill tern.  Pictured here are the oriole blackbird and the red-breasted blackbird.

One evening we ventured out into the jungle to see what we could find in the dark.  Left to our own devices, we probably wouldn't have seen a thing, but our guide was determined to find a tarantula.  He spotted a red-bottom tarantula, about 6 inches across.  Along the way we saw a no-tail scorpion, a leaf-mimicking toad, and assorted other frogs, toads and insects. 

 We had most of our meals at the lodge, though we sometimes stopped for breakfast or lunch at one of the other lodges owned by the same company.  The food wasn’t memorable, but each evening we were treated to some kind of entertainment.  Most nights it was a band made of up various staff members (different group each time), and one night we had a dance exhibition by students at a school a few miles down the river.

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The map below shows the location of the Ceiba Tops Lodge relative to the area we explored during our days in the rainforest – a long stretch of the Amazon and a big loop of the tributary Napo River.

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The Fundo Animal Sanctuary is located on an island near the Ceiba Tops Lodge.  It is a rescue center that provides a home to numerous species of monkeys, as well as snakes, turtles, birds, and other mammals - all were orphaned or injured and brought here for rehabilitation.  It is a family-run operation whose staff and volunteers take care of the animals and work toward reforestation of medicinal plants, timber and fruit trees that provide food for them. 

Here are some of the animals we met on the island:

Wooly monkeys live throughout South America. They eat fruit, leaves, seeds and flowers.  They are considered highly endangered due to human hunting for food and for the illegal pet trade.

The white-throated toucan is large, loud, and brightly colored.  They eat mostly fruit and live throughout the Amazon.

Anacondas are large, non-venomous snakes found in tropical South America.  They kill their prey by crushing.  This young yellow-belly anaconda is only about 8 feet long; at maturity, it may reach 30-33 feet in length.

The yellow-bellied spider monkey is highly endangered species, mostly due to deforestation of its habitat.  Their name (spider) comes from their disproportionately long limbs and tail.

Squirrel monkeys live in the canopy layer of tropical forests in Central and South America.  Because of their black-and-white face, they are sometimes called 'death's head monkey.'

Three-toed sloths are tree-living mammals found in Central and South America.  They come to ground only to defecate - they cannot walk on all four limbs, but use their front arms and claws to drag themselves across the rainforest floor.  Famously slow-moving, the sloth travels at top speeds of 0.15 mph.

The red-tailed boa constrictor is a fairly large snake, growing up to 12-13 feet in length.  They are said to make good pets, but this one seemed distinctly unfriendly.

The mata mata turtle is a freshwater turtle found in the Amazon - it can reach up to 18 inches across, weighing as much as 35 pounds.  It is well-camouflaged in backwater streams - its shell looks like bark and its head resembles fallen leaves.

The blue and yellow macaw is a spectacular resident of the tropics - with a very strong beak for crushing nuts.

Capuchin monkeys were named for their resemblance to the Capuchin Friars, who wear brown robes with large hoods covering their heads.  They live in trees and spend most of their days searching for food.

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There are about 20 species of piranha in the Amazon River, and most are said to be quite harmless, even docile.  The ones with the nasty reputation for aggressive behavior are the red-bellied piranha, which will eat just about anything - other fish, sick and weakened animals, even parts of people.  Piranhas are famous for their razor-sharp teeth; native people catch the piranha and use their teeth to make tools and weapons. 

To get a first-hand look at these vicious little predators, we headed out in a small boat on a piranha fishing expedition.   Armed with fishing poles and chunks of raw beef, we mostly fed the piranhas – they are devilish hard to catch. 

Fortunately, there were a few experts on board and we brought home enough fish for supper that night – lots of bones, but oh so delicious.

The family fishing near us was having a lot more luck with their traditional methods - they had big catch with many different types of fish, but they didn't invite us home for dinner...

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The Yanamono Medical Clinic was founded in 1990 by Dr. Linnea Smith, who spent a week’s vacation on the banks of the Amazon and fell in love with the rainforest. In June 1990, she took a three-month leave of absence from her practice and returned to Peru armed with stethoscope, a bottle of pre-natal vitamins, and a few doses of antibiotics.  At that time, the closest available medical care was fifty miles away and reachable only by the slow-moving "river taxi” or by dugout canoe.

Smith set up shop in a thatched-roof room offered to her by the Explorama Lodge and, by the light of a kerosene lantern, began providing primary care to the local people. Not only was there no nursing help, ambulance service, pharmacy, or basic equipment such as an X-ray machine, there wasn't even electricity or running water.   Dr. Smith began travelling back and forth between her home in Wisconsin and the Amazon - returning to the jungle to provide medical care to a growing number of patients, almost all of them poor and acutely ill.

During one of her trips home, she captured the attention of a local architect who organized a project to build a clinic for her on the banks of the river.   The new clinic features solar panels to provide a limited amount of electricity and to power a water pump.  It also has rainwater-collecting tanks, a waiting room, office space, a pharmacy, two exam rooms, a room for patients to stay overnight, a small lab, a dental room, and living quarters for the staff who board there.

The clinic now treats over 3000 patients per year, and most of them arrive on foot or by dugout canoe. Services include family planning; prenatal care and birthing; trauma care; dental care; treatment of snakebite, cholera, parasites, malaria, and other infectious diseases.  Dr. Smith is also training local people to become more involved in Yanamono.   By handing over some of her responsibilities to others, she has been able to scale back her own involvement in the clinic. After living full-time in the jungle for a decade, Smith now divides her time between Peru and the U.S., spending half the year in each country.

Our travel company’s philanthropic arm, the Grand Circle Foundation, provides grants to support a well child clinic, which offers a physical exam, worm medicine, dental fluoride treatment, a toothbrush, and vitamins to the children. Roughly one-quarter of Peruvian infants do not survive to adulthood, and, hopefully these simple measures provide an edge for the children in this area.

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Near Yanamono, we stopped to visit our guide’s uncle, who just happens to operate a rum distillery and village bar.  Uncle Cesar uses lots of sugarcane to make four different types of rum - all of which we had to taste.  First was pure rum (aka firewater), then a blend of rum and molasses, next a blend of rum, ginger and honey, and finally a concoction known as "siete raicis" or "seven roots."  This last one goes down way too easy - it's known locally as Jungle Viagra. 

Near the rum factory, we had a good look at some water buffalo.  Water buffalo were introduced into the Amazon River basin in 1895; they are now used extensively for meat and dairy production.

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The Amazon Conservatory of Tropical Studies is a rainforest research station and the home of the longest rainforest canopy walk in the world. Wooden steps provide access from the forest floor to a multilevel system of aerial pathways and platforms that are suspended by ropes and cables. It’s like walking a series of suspended bridges – the width of a board and swinging in the breeze.

We ascended the walkway to a height of more than ten stories and eventually reached the top of the seemingly endless canopy. Some of the trees we pass can hold up to two thousand epiphytic plants in their branches and harbor an estimated twenty million insect species.   Looking down on tree-tops can be a little disconcerting - such looks different from up here.

The canopy walk was built without driving nails into any of the trees – it is an engineering marvel, to be sure.  Amazingly enough, it was designed and built by our guide’s father, a native Indian who worked for many years as the Explorama Lodge’s master carpenter.

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Walking to and from the canopy walkway (about an hour each way), we saw lots of plants and wildlife.  Suffice it to say that the trees were tall, the vines were dense - and there was too much information too fast to remember.  At least a few animals got captured by the camera:

This brown monitor lizard kept an eye on us as we tramped through his backyard.  These carnivorous reptiles can grow up to several feet in length.

The Peru poison frog is hard to spot because it is so well-camouflaged for life on the jungle floor. Its toxicity helps it avoid predators, but it's endangered due to logging and loss of habitat.

A family of black-mantled tamarins danced around the trees overhead.  The adults are only about 10 inches tall, with tails about 12 inches in length. 

The pygmy marmoset is a dwarf monkey native to the rainforest canopy. It is the smallest monkey in the world - only 5-6 inches tall.

This mealy parrot lived near the Napo Lodge (at the foot of the canopy walk).  He pretty much drowned out all conversation until the staff relented and gave her something to eat.

Another noisy resident was the beautiful blue and yellow macaw.  He spent most of his time hiding in the thatched roof, but his curiosity got the best of him ...

Perhaps the most curious bird of the day was this Grey-winged Trumpeter.  He wandered around near the canopy walk and then followed us when we went to visit the shaman.  He stayed for the entire session - wandering around the circle getting his head scratched.

The ­white-tailed trogon was the most exciting bird sighting from the canopy walkway - he actually sat still for a few minutes.  Other spottings (no pictures) included a long-bill wood clipper and a slate-headed flycatcher.

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Not far from the canopy walk is a small community of Yagua Indians, the tribe considered most characteristic of the region.  It was the Yaguas who gave the Amazon its name. When the Spaniards first came to the Amazon, they saw the Yaguas with their long hair and grass skirts and thought they were women. Subsequently, the Spanish named the Amazon River after the Greek myth of the Amazon women warriors.

The "grass skirts" that are typical Yagua attire are actually made from the fiber of the aguaje palm.  Sometimes, a red dye is used to color the fibers and to paint the skin. The Yagua still rely on the rain forest for much of their clothing, but many of the women make their skirts out of cloth that they purchase.

We were invited in the community house for an exhibition (with group participation, of course) of traditional dances – accompanied by the music of native instruments.  We heard about the Yagua’s own traditional alcoholic beverage called masato, which is made by chewing and fermenting the root of the yucca plant. Masato is consumed by the Yaguas in large amounts during festivals – thankfully, we just attended an exhibition – no tasting required.

Yaguas are famous for their use of blowguns, a highly effective hunting tool still commonly used. Shotguns may be a more efficient means of hunting, but blowguns are still used for economic reasons - shotgun cartridges are just too expensive.  Curare-tipped darts are used with the blowgun.  Curare is a fast-acting poison that does not directly kill its victim.  It causes paralysis; death is caused by suffocation when the victim's lungs are paralyzed.  The ancient knowledge of making the curare mixture has been passed down for generations by Yagua shamans.

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Break time ....

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The ReNuPeRu Ethnobotanical Garden is a teaching garden tended by a local shaman and his apprentices.  It contains over 250 species of local rainforest plants used in modern medicine as well as native plant remedies which science may use in the future.  

We had an interesting visit with Don Guillermo, the shaman, or curandero, who showed us many examples of traditional medicinal plants.  He made us believe that the rainforest is a veritable pharmacy - he had plants for treating arthritis, asthma, diabetes, cancer, snake bites, high cholesterol, parasites, insomnia, colds and coughs, toothache, assorted aches and pains - even something for weight loss.  We came home with some cat's claw salve that will cure almost anything and a magic potion for itchy mosquito bites.

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Not far from the Ceiba Tops Lodge is the town of Indiana, established by Canadian missionaries in the 1960’s.  For this area, it is considered a model town – it has wide roads, several schools, even a small hospital.   We took a very round-about route to visit Indiana.

First, we travelled by small boat to the village of Mazan – in the opposite direction of Indiana.  Mazan sits on the narrow neck of a huge loop in the Napo, with its 2-mile, 2-lane concrete road saving about 75 miles of boating. 

Mazan was a lively scene, with boats crowding in from two sides – the Amazon on one end and the Napo River on the other.    On the Amazon side of town, where we landed, the banana business was brisk.

Besides bananas, folks were loading other goods, produce and livestock to carry to larger markets upstream.  River taxis were also in and out - crowded, but less work than paddling a dugout canoe.

Our guide had arranged for a small army of 'motocars' to meet us.  These charming little vehicles are modified motorcycles imported from China - we travelled by twos, but the locals pile in all sorts of things.  We headed inland to see the town. 

Mazan has a few concrete buildings, but the majority of the houses, shops and restaurants were wooden. They are generally on stilts to cope with flooding and full of breeze gaps to reduce dampness. Some are pretty, but most look either unfinished or tumbledown.

On the Napo River side of town, there were lots more long skinny boats known as ‘piqui-piqui.’  Folks were arriving here from deep in the rainforest - to join the fun at the Mazan market.

We took a walk through the market  - it was lively and coloful - and there were lots of fruits, vegetables and meats that we didn't recognize, but that didn't stop us from looking - and even tasting some strange things that our guide deemed safe for gringoes. 

The locals seemed a bit surprised to see us in their small town, but they smiled and made us feel welcome.  Throughout the trip, people along the river were most welcoming as they went about their daily lives - catching fish from the river, farming along the banks, swimming and washing clothes along the shore.  Here are some of the folks we met in Mazan.

We spent a fair amount of time in boats just to get from one place to another.  This mode of travel allowed us to catch some interesting glimpses of boats and buildings along the river. 

Buildings are pretty basic – mostly thatched-roof huts, though some folks can afford cinder blocks and tin roofs. 

There are boats of every size and shape.