The travelers

My name is Emilie. I’m 24 years old, from London UK, a traveler and a writer. I’ve hitched rides and hopped trains all over North and South America. I spent a long time in rural Ecuador, learning the farmers’ way of life and exploring trails between remote communities. I strive for those moments of clarity. I try to break out of my own bias, to gain the birds-eye view. After a close escape from a sham marriage with an elderly ‘shaman’ in Ecuadorean Andes I am in Peruvian Amazon.

 

 

 

Lomo was found in the market in Nauta, Peru while I was eating Lomo Saltado (a meat dish with sauteed onions and tomato.) I spotted him, a buoyant spring in his step, tail wagging, as he went to gobble a pile of rotten fish he’d found on the ground. ‘Poor puppy abandoned in the street,’ said the Senora serving food. I brought him home in a sack. The whole way he didn’t make a sound (except for a little burst of whimpers when the sack got caught in my bicycle wheel.) The other day he pooed out a huge parasitic worm. He also had mange and flees. But after visits to the vet, treatments, and a lot of love, he is a healthy happy pup. He dislikes bathing but will learn to love water.

Lomo survived a mere 5 days in the boat from Nauta to Iquitos. He lay there like a dead slab the whole time. When we reached Iquitos he was ecstatic. He played free on the street and foraged for trash and barked at strangers. Then he was stolen. Although upset, I admit it was probably for the best. He’d have died exposed to the sun and he was happiest in the city.

 

Nina stepped straight out of a job at a spa into a rotting wood boat to row on the Amazon river. Her previous camping experience consisted of roasting marshmallows. At first she was obsessed with staying clean but had to forget that. But in fact she complained little and adapted fast, and I became reliant on her to do things I was inept at, such as tying the boat. She is proof that what is really required for adventure is mental toughness. Because there will be suffering. Especially true of this trip. If it’s not the heat it’s the bugs, and sometimes there are both heat and bugs which is inexplicable. Nina is also far better at roasting fish.

 

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