DAY 32. A TRUE MIRACLE

My stay in Iquitos has taken longer than I had planned, but everything will be resolved today. I will go to the police, and we will contact the consulate again. They should have formulated an answer to my request by now. I have no illusions, but what if they will figure some way out? Miracles do happen.

Well, they told me that if I flew to Lima, the capital of Peru, they would help me get back to Russia. They said there were no other options.

I walked back, lost and bewildered. I had not expected any other outcome, but knowing for sure what you expected to know is hard enough as well, especially when it concerns the cherished dream that I have travelled all this way for – the Amazon.

My emotional state has come around. All the stages of acceptance are over. I do not have a passport anymore and there is nothing I can do about it. Am I ready to give up and go home? No, I am not. Then I must keep going no matter what it takes. I will not give up.

I decided to continue my trip and cross the Brazilian border illegally, then surrender to the police in Manaus and face any consequences that my decision may involve. I have read the legislation so that I understand what may happen to me. I am normally very opposed to breaking any law. However, if it is just a formality at stake, and I am not hurting anyone, I will do it.

I contacted my friend from Manaus Military Police to tell her about my predicament and ask for advice on how best to proceed. I met her seven months ago in a hostel in Rio de Janeiro and told her that I would see her again when I sailed down the Amazon in a boat. She laughed then. She thought that I was joking.

Maura took the matter as seriously as possible and contacted lawyers, her friends. After which she assured me: if I somehow made it to the city, they would try to help me. The main thing is that I warned her.

It has been a long time since Rio! Back then I did not speak Spanish, I knew almost nothing about Latin America, and I was dying of heat trying to acclimatise. Now I am in the heart of the Amazon. Oh, the things that perseverance and curiosity can sometimes lead to if they are accompanied by a pair of strong legs. I felt relieved. Tomorrow I will continue my journey no matter what it takes.

When I got home and got my gear in order, getting the boat ready to go, I got a strange call on my phone. People on the phone said that they had found my passport. They can return it to me if I come to Belen market. How did they get my number? Did they find it on social media? It is too complicated. I told Yoli about it. She insisted that I should not meet them, especially not in Belen: it is the most criminal market on the other side of the city. That is the place where most gangsters live, she said.

She was worried to no end and assured me that they probably wanted to take away the last thing I had – my smartphone. But it is just weird. It does not make sense. What guarantee do they have that I will not bring the police with me? None. I decided to take a walk there.

It took me at least an hour to cross the city. Once at the market (I had been here before to buy the tarafa net), I literally clutched my phone with both hands so that no one would snatch it too. I took it out of my pocket, determined the GPS-location, and walked again in the direction the woman who had called me pointed out. I called her back. I called again. And again.

It is not an easy task to find an inconspicuous corner of a huge market, which occupies an entire city district. I kept looking around so that I would not end up in a place where not only my phone, but also my life would be in danger.

I came to the very edge of the market. There was a construction site, a small shop next to it and two young women in the doorway. They waved at me. I cautiously approached, smiled, looked around, and went inside. These were them. I figured that I was not going to be kidnapped. The women turned out to be ordinary banana sellers. They had spotted the passport in a pile of rubbish in the street. As I expected, the robber who apparently lived nearby just dumped the junk paper he did not need. It is a shame he did not do that at the harbour.

I got my passport back. I asked if I could take a photo with my saviors, which was also an indirect check to see if they had been involved in the robbery – and to my joy, they agreed. I could not thank them with money, so I gave them my hammock with a mosquito net, the likes of which are not found in all of Peru. I bought it back in Chile, at Decathlon.

The mystery of them finding my phone number was quickly solved, too. It turned out to be simpler than I had thought. The thing is, every time I bought a new SIM card, I put its cover in the cover of my passport, so that people who find my passport could contact me in case I lost it. Who would have thought that this useful habit could one day save my peaceful conscience, if not the journey altogether. Now I can continue my trip legally.

I walked home along the city embankment, trying to keep my smartphone and my passport out of sight. I had everything I needed now, and money was a trifle compared to that. I still have some money left. My grocery shopping had been done before the theft, so everything is going according to plan.

Then I felt incredibly excited, but the reason was not so much the return of my passport, but rather the realisation that even in such a critical situation I had not given up on my goal. The theft was a real test of my intentions. The river had been testing me every day, asking me to give up – like an untrained horse, it was trying to get rid of the rider. This story was the climax of this dynamic.

When I returned home, I told the good news to Yoli and the others. She noted that she had prayed to God for me for a good reason, and I thought to myself that I believed in the goodness of people for a good reason. The important thing was that everyone was happy.

When I started fishing for another cat (I will eat farinha myself), Yoli brought me a plate of scrambled eggs with something that looked like potatoes and juice. This joy cuts right to my very heart (or stomach). It is like kindness follows some natural cycle. I need to remember to pass it forward.

On the same pier, there was also a dog which guarded the boats of the neighbouring workshop. Since the first day, I did not get on well with her. No, she did not chase me away, she did not even bark, though one could hardly find a more alien person in this area if they wanted to. She just guarded the boats in her own territory well.

Well, over the last few days, I scared her off twice when she tried to pee on my boat. Why am I writing about this now? I think the reason is obvious. When I was distracted by another of Yoli’s guests, I did not notice that this… FEMALE DOG crawled right into my canoe, on the bed – and peed on one of the sides of the boat. Luckily, her aim was off, and the utility organiser was not hit much. Well, now my boat has been included in the local alarm system. Congratulations are in order.

There were no other events of significance, thankfully. What a lovely day! I fed all the cats around me so much that they left me to go about their business. It looks like it is my bedtime now.