Arrived in Yurimaguas and boarded a cargo/passenger barge named Eduardo V. Loaded up with famished cattle, squealing pigs, sheep, goats, bananas and many other things as well as Peruvian locals and 7 tourists. We were supposed to leave at 6pm but didn’t depart until noon the next day. Got drunk with the crew at a bar on the docks near the boat. The pilots name was Capurro and all of his teeth were gold capped. Didn’t sleep much during the night because of the paper thin mattress that left me lying on wooden boards, the giant insects flying into my room, the smell of manure and the Silence of the Lambs-esque squealing of the pigs at all hours of the night. This did mean some pretty good naps in the middle of the day on the hammock I had rented on the main deck. Actually, most people only paid for a hammock on the main deck, I was the only person who rented a cabin. General was 20 dollars and a cabin cost 60 so I thought I should spoil myself a little..

For 2 days we travelled up the river towards Iquitos. A city with 400,000 people in the middle of the jungle only reachable by river or air. We stopped at small riverside communities along the way and picked up or dropped of passengers and cargo i.e., more cows and bananas. Since I was in a cabin the food was brought to me on a plate instead of going to get it with your own tupperware. The cook was a small gay who said his name was Thalia. He would bring me my dinner and invite himself to sit down while I ate. I had to indulge him as he was in charge of my food and I didn’t want to upset him and receive his wrath in secretive manners. So I sat there uncomfortably while he talked and asked questions about my sexual orientation, my girlfriend at home and other completely ridiculous things that I almost couldn’t believe my ears.

On the last day, the captain walked by and said a cow was giving birth and that I should get my camera. I went to the bow where the cattle were with my camera and snapped a couple of pictures. The cow was lying down, there was a sack sticking out of it’s vagina about 8 inches but nothing else was happening. A crowd had gathered to watch from above. Somebody said the cow had to be on it’s feet to give birth but nobody seemed to care or want to do anything about it. Some people murmured that the calf was already lost. So, I hopped into the pen. I had seen the crew twist and bend the tail of other cows who had fallen down and didn’t care to get back up due to their miserable condition and I guess it caused the cow enough discomfort to bring them to their feet so I did that. The cow came to life and stood itself up. But the calf wasn’t coming out that way either. Apparently, some idiot know-it-all who had “delivered calves before and even done c-sections on them” didn’t care to help, BUT he did say that when they’re that skinny and malnourished it’s usually not possible for the calf to come out of the vagina. Somebody suggested I pull on the legs so I started doing that. Somebody said I should cut the sack so I pulled out my knife and cut the sack and went back to pulling on the legs. Eventually a crew member came and helped me pull. At this point I started reaching into the vagina and feeling the head pressed it outwards. The nose of the calf eventually came out. It’s tongue was sticking out so again people murmured about the calf being stillborn. I kept pulling and reaching in. I could tell the cow was helping with the pushing since she kept shitting and pissing herself. These and all the other fluids were making quite a mess and I wondered as I reached into the vagina almost up to my elbow if the feces on my hands and arms would infect her insides. A Colombian tourist eventually jumped in and started to help pull the legs and then he and the crew member went to the cow’s stomach and from each side pressed on it while I pulled. Time passed and passed, I’m not even sure how long we were at it but eventually the head cleared after that the body slid out after it quite easily. The Colombian helped me carry it to the ground where we cleared it’s mouth and nose. It began to breathe and the crowd burst out with applause. Someone yelled to put it in front of the mother so she recognizes it so I carried it and laid it in front of the cow. She bent down sniffed at it and after a moment started cleaning it. After a few licks she looked at me and would’ve stabbed me with her horns if I hadn’t backed up quickly. Now that she had her baby she was on protective mother duty and wouldn’t let anyone near. As I watched the mother clean the baby a lot of emotions went through me. I couldn’t help but smile and feel joy for what I had just done as well as helping save the life of a calf, maybe as well the mothers. I felt some contempt for the people who would have just sat there, watched and done nothing with indifference about another life even if it was another species. As well I felt futile for the mother was soon going to be going to the butcher with the little meat she had on her bones and her udder didn’t appear to have much milk on it for the calf. But life fights to live even under the harshest conditions and if it gets lucky it has some pleasure before it dies. The deck of the boat being slippery with feces and fluids didn’t allow the calf the traction to stand up as it was trying to. As other cows crowded it and it was in danger of being trampled and as again nobody seemed to give a shit I climbed in again and carried it out of the pen. The crew took it into the back and later when I was checking on my bike I saw it tied up with covered with a sweater. I wondered about it’s future and if anyone would actually be making sure it got reunited with it’s forsaken mother and if not if someone would take it and feed it and raise it. I was going to ask the captain about it but just then we arrived and the crazy bustle of workers and unloaders began and as I stayed by my possessions and 3 dock workers helped me carry the bike from one barge to the next and to the next since we had parked 3 boats away from the actual dock. Again, life is not always organized but it makes due especially in places like these. I can only hope somebody there cared enough, if only for the monetary gain that raising a calf to adulthood would bring, to take care of it.

So, now i’m in Iquitos. Treated myself to the nice hotel with A/C and wifi for a night. Tomorrow I start a 5 day tour of the jungle with a local guide.

