My Journey: Buying Land in the Peruvian Amazon

A Dream in the Jungle

I’m excited to share my adventures in the Peruvian Amazon through different stories. This one is about my journey to buy land in Pucallpa, right on Yarina Cocha Lake. It all started back in 2003 during my first guided expedition in the Amazon. I was on a big wooden boat, and the experience was nothing short of epic.

Working alongside Gilber Reatigui, a local guide who knew the river like the back of his hand, I felt inspired to buy land on Yarina Cocha Lake. Gilber crafted his own boats from Amazonian cedar, which added a special touch to our adventure. Our expedition was also an ayahuasca retreat, where we held ceremonies on sandy beaches and in the lush rainforest along our journey.

One unforgettable night, under a full moon, we found ourselves on the sandy shores of the Ucayali River. The Amazonian pink dolphins swam so close, leaping onto the beach nearby. It felt like they were communicating with us telepathically. We traveled by boat from Pucallpa to Iquitos.

The boat adventure was amazing but also challenging. The space was cramped, and sitting for long hours was tough, even for just one night. A few people even suffered from heatstroke. Once we arrived in Iquitos, I decided to stay for a while before heading back to Pucallpa to check out the land that was for sale.

Discovering the Land

Gilber showed me a piece of land available in his village. He knew the owner well, as he often bought cedar from this land to make his guiding boats. We walked along the village path that marked the border of the land, which was thick with bananas.

There were so many types of bananas: platano, bellaco, mancana, chico rico, capirona, guineo, and more. Walking through the banana grove felt like stepping into a world of shade. The dense foliage made it hard for weeds to grow in some areas.

The land was also filled with mango trees—huge, old grafted mangoes. These mangoes were planted back in the 50s as part of a project by missionaries with the first founders of Nueva Luz. Along with mangoes, there were plenty of sapote trees, producing a brown fruit with creamy, sweet flesh.

At the front of the land, near the lake, stood many coconut trees and a small chicken house cabin. Underneath the coconuts, I discovered several large chakruna bushes. There were also nice avocado trees and guayaba fruit trees.

Gilber became my guide for the land purchase. I had a friend who helped me at the beginning, but it took several trips to Peru and a lot of Spanish practice before the deal was finally done. The entire process took almost three years!

The Challenges of Buying Land

I remember going to the bank every day to withdraw my maximum limit. Then, I’d walk around town, adding to my stash of cash for the land purchase. After being targeted by fake police in Africa, I learned to make it look like I was busy with other things. Surprisingly, I never ran into any trouble.

At that time, tourism and land prices were still recovering from the recent civil war in Peru. The landowners had sold all their cattle and moved to Lima after the Shining Path came to Nueva Luz.

Years later, after my first daughter was born on that land, I met a woman named Eva. Interestingly, she was also born on that land but had grown up in Lima. Her name was a fun coincidence since mine is Adam.

Cultivating the Land

When I first acquired the land, there was a lot of work to do. I gathered groups of workers to cut through thornbushes, burn wasp nests, and clean out the good fruits while planting even more. This was just the beginning of my seasonal migration.

I worked in outdoor education for youth in the States, then harvested apples to press cider and vinegar. When mango season arrived, I would head to the jungle to sell mangoes. After that came sapote season, which was always a challenge due to the mosquitoes.

The sapote trees had a dense canopy, making them a favorite spot for these pesky bugs. Locals joked that the mosquitoes were like a blanket of medicinal plants, born from the fruits of the ohe tree. It made it a bit easier to endure being covered in bugs.

One time, while climbing a sapote tree to harvest fruits, I got bitten three times by a big bullet ant. It was a painful reminder of nature's challenges. To retrieve the fruits, I had to swim across the canal, which only made the ant bites feel worse. I understood why natives viewed getting bitten by a bullet ant as a test of manhood!

Life on the Land

We had a small paddle canoe made from one of our cedars on the land. We used it to reach the small village of Nueva Luz when the canal flooded or even to get to town. There were also many collective boats passing by that would give you a ride with just a wave.

When I first started living on the land, I stayed in the small chicken house I converted into a cabin. We began our first ceremonies in that little cabin with a shaman from Rio Pisque, a remote native village, and Inis, a now well-known woman shaman who was just starting her journey.

In 2005, right before my daughter was born, we built our first small maloka near the lake. Her mother, Bella Luz, came to work for Gilber, just like her father Joel and mother Lila had. She loved canoeing in my small boat, fishing, and swimming.

When she was pregnant with our daughter, we would collect mangoes and take them at sunrise in our canoe to sell at the port of Yarina Cocha. Buyers would purchase directly off the boat. My daughter was born with the help of a Shipibo family midwife in 2007, right underneath the coconut tree.

I'll leave the rest of that story for another time.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my journey of buying land in the Peruvian Amazon. It's a place filled with beauty, challenges, and unforgettable experiences. If you're looking for authentic spiritual healing and jungle immersion, I can’t recommend this journey enough.