Pucallpa is a large town on the Ucayali River connected by road with western Peru.  Roughly in the center of the Ucayali (that is, halfway between the confluence of the Urubamba and Tambo rivers above it to the south at Atalaya to its confluence with the Marañon below which forms the Amazon to the north), this pioneer town is also roughly in the geographical center of the Shipibo people, who have been living on the banks of the Ucayali for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, the water of the Ucayali has become a collector of poisons, from the oils and other chemicals released at the petroleum/gas project sites near Camisea on the Urubamba, to the doubtless large amount of human and other waste products.  Due to several large accidents around Camisea, much of the natural fauna in the river have died away.  But local people still use the river not only for bathing and washing food and clothing, but for drinking water.  In their chapo (breakfast drink of churned banana) or masato (manioc beer), the untreated river water is regularly taken in those villages and hamlets, the great majority, who are without their own pipe wells.