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(Please read the update below this
article) Getting tired of the hustle
and bustle of the big city? Can’t take the noise and the crazy
traffic anymore? Padre Cocha may be just what the shaman ordered.
Padre Cocha is a small village at a 20-minute boat ride from Nanay
Bellavista. ‘Collectivos’, public transportation boats with a
small, so-called ‘peke-peke
engine, travel to Padre Cocha
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approximately every twenty minutes. The fare is just one sol fifty.
So; hop on, wait for the boat to fill up and off you go!
NOTE: You will find
that some boat owners will try to charge you three soles, because you are a
foreigner. If you agree to pay this, they are required to take off
immediately, regardless of how many people are on the boat at that point.
If you’d rather pay 1,50 and wait like the
rest, then you should tell them so.
Apart from being the destination if you want to visit Pilpintuwasi or the Bora community, Padre Cocha is
a tourist destination in itself. You will enjoy the quiet, peaceful
atmosphere of this typical Amazon community, with its wooden houses and its
large ‘main square’, where the young play football and the old
come together to talk and watch the game. Barbeques all around, little
shops and some restaurants. It’s very relaxed here, and it will give
you an excellent opportunity to get to know some of the genuine inhabitants
of a small Amazon community.
The people are friendly, hospitable and curious to
find out more about you. And: NO traffic! Padre Cocha doen’t have any
streets; just pedestrian walkways.
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UPDATE: We are sorry to report that the description above
is no longer entirely true. Padre Cocha now has
traffic, in the form of several motokarros. The
town has even broadened its pathways, in order to give way to the noisy
polluters. While it is true that this offers a level of comfort, especially
when the Nanay is low, we don’t find this
an improvement. On the contrary...
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