Loreto, Peru

Boat on the Amazon

The quiet cacophony of the Amazon is often broken by the put-put-put of a prop motor of a boat on the river. There are no fancy fiberglass speedboats here; the larger long boats are made of planks of wood, while smaller boats are often dugouts propelled with hand-hewn paddles. Both boats often leak, and there’s a local saying that bailing is the national pastime of the Peruvian Amazon.