Buying land in the Peruvian Amazon

I am going to share my adventures in the Peruvian amazon in different stories. This one is about buying land in the Peruvian amazon in Pucallpa, on Yarina Cocha lake. After our epic adventure in a big wooden boat in 2003, my first guided expedition in the amazon, I was inspired to buy land on yarina cocha lake. The first expedition i guided on the amazon, I was working together with GIlber Reatigui, a local guide to the area who knew the river well, and made his own boats off land our of amazonian cedar. That expediton was also an ayahuasca retreat, making ceremony on the beaches and in the rainforest along our journey. One night was a full moon on the sandy beaches of the ucayali, the amazonian pink dolphons came so close and would throw themselves up on the beach nearby us, seeming to communicate telephacially with us. We traveled by boat from pucallpa to iquitos. The boat adventure was amazing, but also difficult, small space for so many people, so long sitting in a boat everyday, even for one night. several times people got heart stroke. once we arrived in iquitos i stayed a while, then we headed back to pucallpa to see this land that was for sale. He showed me this land that was for sale in his village. He knew the owner, as he would buy cedar from his land to make his wooden boats for guiding on the river. we walked along the village path that is the border between the land, and the nieghbor, it was filled thick with bananas. so many types of bananas. platona common, bellaco, mancana, chico rico, capirona, guineo, and more. walking through the bananas was a world of shade, so much weeds could barely grow in some areas. also the land was filled with mangoes, huge old mangoes, not just any mangoes but grafted mangoes. chico rico, mancana, pina, papaya, many types. these mangoes were planted in the 50s with a project of the missionaries with the first founders of nueva luz. The land also had alot of another fruit called sapote, a brown fruit with flesh inside that was like a sweet creamy squash. At the front of the land near the lake were many coconut trees, and a small chicken house cabin. near and under the coconuts were many huge chakruna bushes. there were some nice avacado trees, and some guayaba fruit trees. gilber ended up being my guide for buying this land. I had a freind who stayed for the beginging of the process, then it was several journeys to peru, and learning good spanish, before the land purchase was done. It took almost 3 years for the land purchase to be finished. I would go to the bank everyday, take out my maximum withdrawl, then walk around town before heading back to add to my stash of cash for land purchase after being targeted by fake police in africa and asked to see my money after leaving a bank atm, i got good at the technique of making it look like i was doing other things besides collecting money from the bank amazing i never had any troubles. At that time tourism, and the price of land was still effected by the recent civil war in peru. the owners of the land had sold all their cattle and left to lima after the shining path came to nueva luz. years after i bought the land, and my first daughter had been born on that land, i met a woman who had been born on that land, but grew up in lima, her name was Eva, interesting enough since my name is Adam. When i first got the land, there was alot of cultivation to do. With groups of workers we cut spiny thornbushes, burned wasps nests, and cleaned out good fruits. planting more in the process. When i got this land, then began my seasonal migration. i would work outdoor education for youth in the states, then harvest apples and press cider and vinegar. then head to the jungle when mango season began, sell mangoes, then sapote season began. sapote harvest was always in the worst moquitos, they are a large tree that has a dense canopy, and grows along side the rest of the jungle. favorite place for mosquitos. the locals would say those mosquitos in the jungle and injecting medicinal plants into you, since they are born from the fruits of the ohe tree. it makes you feel a little better when you are covered in bugs like a blanket. one time i was climbing sapote tree to harvest fruits, and i got but 3 times by a big bullet ant in the top of a tree. then it got worse because to get the fruits back, i had to swim accross the canal, well water makes the bullet ant bite worse. geez i see why natives saw that as a test of manhood to get but by a bullet ant. we had a small paddle canoe made from one of our cedars on the land. we would use that canoe to get to the small village of nueva luz when the canal flooded, or even to get to town. although there were many collective boats passing bye 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 to a cabin. we began our first ceremonies in the small chicken house, with a shaman from rio pisque, a remote native village, and Inis, a now well known woman shaman, who at the time was just begining to work as a shaman. we built our first small maloka near the lake in 2005, right before my daughter was born. Her mother Bella Luz, came to work for Gilber, such as her father Joel and mother Lila had. she liked to canoe in my small canoe, fishing and swimming. when she was pregnant with our daughter, we would collect mangoes, then take them at sunrise in our small canoe to sell at the port of yarina cocha. at that time buyers would buy directly off the boat. My daughter was born with a Shipiba family midwife in 2007, underneath the coconut tree. ill leave the rest of that story to another time.