We leave very early for a 3 hour drive to Santa Maria de Nieva on a road that is supposed to be paved most of the way.  After two hours on nothing but pitted, washed out gravel and dirt, we ask, “How much farther to Nieva?”

“Only about three hours now” is the cryptic reply.

Two more hours later we ask, “When at least does the pavement begin?”

“Soon,” our driver tells us.  Two more bone jarring hours later we reach Nieva.  The pavement began a hundred feet from town.

Nieva is a rather big town in the middle of nowhere, with provisions, restaurants and a couple of hotels.  The one we stayed in was incomplete which meant every time we changed clothes, the entire village center plaza got a show.  Just another way to make friends… some you don’t really want.

Our days here are filled with meetings with the mayor, his drunk (but polite) assistant, and his secretary (who asks us to leave Alex behind when we leave, “the one with the nice eyes.”  We also have a great gathering with the new National Park chief, his rangers, community liaisons and so on.

We buy 4 machetes, 6 new sparkplugs, 3 bottles of motor oil and $1000 worth of fuel for our journey down river.  However, we are advised to buy food from the communities, to give them economic benefit from our expedition.  The park lets us use their boats, but sends two rangers and an Aguarunas village representative to accompany us for a daily fee.  They are great additions to our team that is now a really big team.  The air force base, army base, and all the villages along the way have been alerted to our presence and so far, all offer full support and assistance.  We are a really big deal down here.

Ash is quick to make friends of the Aguarunas children who are very generous, but all tend to mercilessly laugh at anyone’s misfortune, including their own.  Ash’s fuzzy head is the talk of all the local women who endlessly tug on it to see if it is real.  Ash is not thrilled by this.