Iquitos you and I both know
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
23
88
Trip End
Feb 01, 2005
Iquitos,
Peru
Friday, April 23, 2004
Finally Kylie, Trudi and I got off what will probably be the dodgiest little international flight we will take. It was certainly no Qantas, but we did get to drink Inca Kola and eat smarties on the 55 minute flight.
We befriended a taxi driver, Limber, who answered all of our questions to the nth degree and proved quite helpful for just S/.5 (AUD$2.50). As we drove into the city we saw the famous Iquitos motocarros, little three wheelered motorbikes that people sit in the back of. They are very similar to tuk tuks in Thailand, just as crazy, noisy and smoky, although I think less likely to rip you off as they will take you anywhere for S/.2.
It was Sunday afternoon and the town was so quiet, even the streets were virtually empty. We were starving and found a Chinese chifa restaurant and gulped down the first Chinese I´ve had in ages. There are stacks of chifas all over the town and they are great! We then didn´t have much else to occupy our time with, so we decided to go to the cinema that night.
On our way to the cinema, Alexander came up to us and said that he had been told that Kylie and Trudi wanted a Spanish teacher, so they arranged to have a 3 hour class the next day. We went and saw Mi Novia Polly (Along Came Polly) which I had seen in New York, so I tried to read the subtitles instead of listening to it in English.
Breakfast always plays a big part of my day.
01 Dora
If it is included in my hotel it is awesome and I always make sure I get up for brekkie, but if it´s not, then the choices are endless. We ended up going across the road for a sandwich and juice and then wandered around the banks trying to find the best exchange rates and get some Peruvian nuevo soles.Kylie and Trudi had their first Spanish class, and since I already know the basics, I hung around on the supercheap internet, the equivalent of AUD$1 for 2 1/2 hours! I returned to the girls, who were by this stage fluent in Spanish, and we went to another movie, Timeline (Mum you would love this movie).
While Kylie and Trudi were at their next class, I wandered around the city and walked along the riverfront boulevard. The river was more like a big swamp or billabong from this vantage point (as it´s currently high river). I followed the boulevard towards the floating shantytown of Belen. I walked past wooden shacks on stilts with the red and white Peruvian flag flying out front, that were way down on another level to the boulevard. From my vantage point I could see a soccer ball being kicked around a hard mud pitch and a family sitting around the table for lunch on little stools and other men half heartedly digging a hole, alternating one shovelful with a rest.
I then had to go and check out when the boats left for Yurimaguas, my next destination. I took a motocarro to the port. We turned off the bitumen and onto a rough, corrugated, puddley track between two rows of dirty shacks and I felt very conspicuous.
02 Cute kids
I got out at the port entry and walked through the terminal where people were selling things and others watching tv while they waited with their belongings. I followed a stream of people to the riverfront where a huge big line of boats was tied up. There were signs indicating where the boats to Pucallpa, Yurimaguas and other ports were moored. Each boat had a blackboard saying when they were leaving. I was very absorbed in the blackboards, and I knew that I was being watched by all the men in the port as I was doing so. One guy approached me and I found out that it is S/.40 and 3 days to Yurimaguas, but as I wanted to leave later in the week I would have to come back another day. I was about to leave and suddenly I had a circle of men around me all wanting to shake my hand and know what my name was. It was quite intimidating and I just said ´gracias´ and hightailed it out of there and back to a motocarro.
It was Kylie and Trudi´s last Spanish lesson and after it we had been invited to their teacher´s place to have lunch with his family. While waiting to go out, I had a vegie morning and spent the whole morning watching cable TV in my room and getting a little bit of the Western world again (solely trashy TV, Gilmore Girls, Newlyweds, MTV and the end of some movie).
We took a bus to Alexander´s neighbourhood. The buses are like old train carriages on wheels. The bus was full and I got offered the front seat, but I declined it. I then had to hang on for grim life as the bus lurched all over the shop.
03 Funny Hat
I was offered the seat a couple of minutes later by the bus driver, and I thought it would be rude to refuse again so I took it and watched with interest our progress along the road. The woman beside me was tapped on the shoulder by the conductor to pay, and I turned to give him my money but a nicely dressed guy in a black shirt indicated that he had paid for me and didn´t even try to make conversation in return!Alexander´s house had large double doors, like on a shed, at the front of his house. We crossed the muddy front yard and Alexander made us wait while he went inside and then opened the double doors for us. We had a bit of an audience of local children watching us. Alexander came back with his dad and his dad proceeded to tell us a story about the heart and it breaking into pieces. They were very religious and I think his dad wanted to be a minister.
We didn´t see Alexander´s mum, Dora, until she brought lunch in, although neither she nor Alexander´s dad ate with us around the tiny table. It was an excellent meal of rice, chicken and salad and a lemonade. I think they put a great deal of effort into it, and Dora later apologised for it being so poor (which it wasn´t). Their house was half finished and they were building a bakery shop to sell bread at the front of their house. Trudi heard a rooster and made a cock-a-doodle-do sound and Dora cracked up laughing so hard that it was instantaneously contagious. When she said goodbye to us, she kissed our cheek a thousand times.
We then wandered around the village, making instant friends with the little kids when we pulled out a camera to take a photo.
04 Yukky Street
They especially loved to see their picture on my camera after I had taken it. That night we met up with Grant, who had left Mike behind in Leticia with his new Brazilian girlfriend, and went to the Yellow Rose of Texas. The Yellow Rose of Texas is owned by Gerald, a typical larger than life Texan who had introduced himself and almost fell over himself trying to give us information and help. He bragged about being recommended in all the guidebooks but he was very helpful with all sorts of stuff.
We then did a bit of a pub crawl visiting some of the many bars in Iquitos before heading to Noa, apparently the best nightclub in Iquitos. It was a Wednesday, so it wasn´t very busy, but I had a bit of a dance anyway, especially when the set of English music came on. It was so clean inside the club and it was free for girls to get in, but men had to pay S/.10.
After a big night out we hung in our room for almost the whole day watching cable TV (which gets very addictive and induces feelings of home). We did make it out to buy Kylie and Trudi´s plane tickets and go to the port for another ship inspection.
We had agreed to meet Alexander and take him to a club, but we weren´t in the mood so we went for dinner and then to the cinema instead. He told us that he had never kissed a girl before (he is 24) and that he would be very sad when he said goodbye to us and that he would cry. (We received an email from him later telling us that he was crying while he wrote the email).
I finally found a good boat and so I´m off to Yurimaguas!
Things I learned
* There are some truly innocent people in the world ie Alexander
* Men in Peru are the same as Brazil, only instead of saying "Voce linda" they make kissing sounds to you
