Jungle Village Stay 2 days Slow Boat ride from Iquitos

I first traveled to the Amazon in 2006 and explored the Jungle and River around Iquitos. I met a young Guide named May Jony Arriaga Chavez. I promised May (pronounced MY) that I would come back with my grandson when he got older. I did that last summer spending 3 weeks with May first at the Jungle Lodge where he works as a Guide and then for another week traveling far afield along the Napo River to his remote Village to live with his family. It was an astounding experience, but only for the brave at heart, so if you can appreciate extremely basic conditions, no bathrooms, electricity or communications, then you will have the experience of a lifetime being invited to live with May and his very welcoming family! May can be reached at edmike21@hotmail.com. Please contact me for more information and pictures.

This sounds amazing. How far from Iquitos is Mays village ?

May's Village is called San Felipe and it is on the Napo River about 3 to 4 hours (I guess about 30 miles) by fast boat from Mazan which can be reached from Iquitos by boat and motorbike taxi. Here is a Google Maps coordinate of the area. San Felipe is about half way between Mazan and Puerto Arica: https://www.google.com/maps/@-3.2257842,-73.2998001,211105m/data=!3m1!1e3

May will be happy to provide you with any information you might need to arrange with him a visit to his village. He also has a Facebook page www.facebook.com/mayjony.arriagachavez. Let me know if you have any other questions.

356 -
what kind of activities did you do at San Felipe ? so San Felipe has no electricity, no cell signal, no roads to it ? it is starting to sound interesting.

First you start by getting to know the village and the people by walking along the river visiting the school and community room, seeing the individual huts, dodging the cows and horses (and manure piles) and going to the cemetery. Then you meet May's family and visit their bamboo huts and settle into the new Tourist Hut May recently built. You will eat two meals a day prepared by May's mother, play futbol with the village kids, swim (bathe) in the river, perhaps go on a hunt for armadillo and camp in the jungle overnight eating off the fruits of the jungle. You will accompany the father and brothers to the family still and sugarcane location where you will cut and haul firewood for the still, cut sugarcane and process it through the press to make the juice for converting to "rum". You will help prepare meals for the grade school children's lunch and perhaps watch a birdcage being made from palm leaves. You'll take a log canoe trip to the next"big" village where there is a medical dispensary and a couple of places serving meals and a secondary school. If you are lucky you may be able to attend a community meeting to see village democracy in action and the distribution of foodstuffs from the government to supplement the meager food reserves of the community. All of this will be accompanied by May and his visionary hopes for what he can do to improve the lives of his fellow villagers through education, better communications​ and improved health services. This experience is decidedly "untouristy" and puts you in the position of living a 3rd world lifestyle and that is the main point of being with May in his natural environment. The mosquitoes are rampant despite the netting May strings up, the nights are black but with incredible stars, and the people are so self-sufficient, hard-working and welcoming that you will get a completely new perspective on the phrase, "It takes a Village....."

I friended May and sent him a message. I am uncertain of his access to wifi or a cell signal so let's see when he responds. My bigger interest is deep jungle and I am concerned about Mazan as with a road it may essentially be a 'suburb' of Iquitos if you will and the loggers, miners & poachers may have already started to devastate the area. Plus with horses and cows San Felipe may not like the idea of wild cats so I am certain that the jaguars and pumas are long gone.

Your suppositions are correct. Mazan is a very busy local port with boatloads of banana and livestock arriving all day long from up the river. May's village is a residential area with the villagers dedicated to projects that earn them money to survive on. This is not deep jungle teeming with wild animal life but a riverside village. It is a village that May's father was instrumental in establishing about 30 years ago for the purpose of making it safe and habitable for the growing families. You will be disappointed if you are looking for a area that is compatible with wild animal activity. My goal has always been cultural interactions which May's village is excellent for.....but it is not oriented toward fostering jungle its natural state as you surmise. Good luck with your search. (May just informed he recently returned from his village to Iquitos so he should be available to respond.)

May says that he has a friend who can do deep jungle guided expeditions. Let's hope we can come to an understanding.

http://www.allpayacu-amazon-tours.com
This is Mays website.

This topic has been automatically locked due to inactivity. Email community@lonelyplanet.com if you would like to add to this topic and we'll unlock it for you.