The bus from Lima dropped us here in the morning (btw we had Presidential Service which although it was only semi-cama, had been great with snacks, coffee and breakfast). We caught a mototaxi (made me feel back in Iquitos with all the mototaxis we'd seen there) to another bus company and before long were on another bus to Mancora.

We stayed in a hostal close to the Bus terminal since we had to catch a bus at 7am. Got up at 6am, onto the bus and arrived in Piura at around 3pm. Not much time to do anything other than look for the next bus to take.

Coming from Lima we were on a TEPSA bus with Presidential Service which was pretty good actually but it was only semi-cama and I wanted something busscama this time. We found Flores Buses which at the same price as TEPSA (70 soles) gave us a 1st level cama seat. Each row is only 3 seats wide instead of the usual 4 so the seats are wider and look kinda like airplane business class seats. They also lean way further back to go almost flat so I felt I was going to sleep well on this trip. However there was a problem with the aircon which made it quite hot and stuff which didn't give Nicole much peace. There was also someone snoring quite loudly which annoyed me and I feared might keep me awake but I fell asleep pretty soon and didn't wake up until breakfast time. Best bus sleep I've had so far and no stiff neck when I woke up in the morning. I think busscama is the way to go.

Quick stop in Piura before having to continue onward . . .

Fortunately we managed to catch a ride as far as here. We took a quick break for lunch, and then were back on our way. Well, so we thought!!

When we got to an area where we thought would be a good place to continue hitchhiking, we stopped and started trying to get a ride. To our surprise, a trucker pulled up shortly after, but . . . ready for this?! These Peruvians who were standing near us nabbed our ride!! The nerve of them! I was so furious, but there was nothing we could do!

After that it was hopeless. We couldn't stop a vehicle for the life of us! So we ended up having to catch a bus to take us to Lima . . . to be continued . . .

On leaving Cuenca, we had some serious travelling to do, starting with a 5 hour journey from Cuenca to Loja shortly followed by my first overnight bus ride (for another 8 hours) from Loja, going over the border into Peru to Piura.  Journey pretty uneventful although with a local tradition to pay 10 cents to get out of the bus stations, my coin jammed prompting me to whack the machine and make a 20 cent profit as a load of change fell out - much to the consternation of the ticket officer (you can take the man out of Liverpool but.....).  The border crossing between Ecuador and Peru is supposed to be much easier at night with the officials not as fussed to check luggage.  It certainly was the case for us and was plain sailing.  The first two hours of our journey into Peru was very surreal as they played a 2 hour anthology of The Beatles (1962-1966) on the tv !

We woke up in a different country but could have been a different world.  For the 1st time on the trip, there wasn´t a mountain or even a hill in sight.  Instead all was replaced by desert.  Piura is primarily a transport hub for people to pass through.  It is the same size as Cuenca but the pace of life is much faster.  Tuk Tuks and Daewoo Tico taxis rule the roads and can take minutes to find an opportunity to get across the road.   Food is more expensive than Ecuador and my 1st meal (local speciality raw fish and onions marinaded in lemon starter, steak on pesto noodles, lemon meringue pie desert came to a staggering $2.20 !). Piura doesn´t have much to offer other than a couple of monuments and the usual pretty plaza.  However it has a nice vibe to it and with much travelling behind us, it is a nice place to chill for a day.  Dave and I got to really like the place and the cat and mouse game with the tuks tuks was quite funny.  Although every time you make a hand movement one stops for you which makes you feel guilty for not giving them business.

The next day was back on the road.  However not before we went on a shopping trip for more replacements.  There appears more money in Peru and we even stumbled upon an American style mall full of trendy western shops.  However all Dave was after was a new waterproof jacket and sunglasses.  In hindsight, trying to get a waterproof jacket in a town built in the middle of the desert was never going to be particularly fruitful !  The sunglasses weren´t a problem. 

Our 3 hour journey from Piura to Chiclayo was very comfortable.  The whole journey being a straight road cut through the desert.  It did give us our first views of a shanty town on the outskirts of Piura (maybe Piura isn´t so affluent after all but the centre hides it well).   Chiclayo (also built in the middle of the desert) was equally fruitless on the waterproof jacket front. The Jackie Chan Chinese restaurant was doing good business though.  We still seem to be the main source of entertainment to the locals, but as we are the only gringos in town (with Dave wearing a bright red Berghaus top and me the only person in town in shorts), there may be a legitimate reason why everyone looks.

10 hours on the bus this time (from Chiclayo to Chachapoyas) to be used as our next base.  Its a frustrating element of buses in Peru that they all travel through the night.  I´m going to have to learn to sleep. Uneventful trip as couldnt see anything out the window.  Got into Chachapoyas at 5am.  Need bed.....

OK so Ecuador is done and dusted and it was a hell of a three weeks with more ups and downs than Debbie does Doncaster (The Deluxe Double D Edition). I´ll do a separate entry for some of the things I´ve missed out previously, but for now, safely over the border in Peru, I thought I´d write about the splendid buses we´ve been leaping on and off for the last three weeks. And so I give you:  

The 10 Commandments of Bus Travel in Ecuador:

1. Thou shalt have lots of leg room. At least until the person in front reclines their seat to the max and squashes you like the gringo bug you are.

2. Thou shalt watch terrible, terrible (and always violent) films with terrible, terrible Spanish dubbing. "Walking Tall", "Armageddon" and "Tears of the Sun" please stand up.

3. Thou shalt listen to music with a beat that sounds like a 3-legged mule clippety-clopping along. This will be intersperced with soppy ballads in Spanish that mention "love", "hearts" and "forever" and not much else. Very occasionally thou shalt have Rick Astley, Bonnie Tyler or something equally incongruous instead.  

4. Thou shalt chat broken Spanglish with randoms including a 50 year-old bloke with a peg leg and a penchant for communism - Castro style. 

5. Thou shalt not have a toilet break, even if the trip is eight hours long - tough luck gringo; we must vamos!

6. At the commencement of your journey, thou shalt be forced to listen to a bloke at the front of the bus flogging weed killer, vitamin supplements, Christmas cards or something equally random in a live 15 minute infomercial format.  

7. Thou shalt buy cheese empanadas (thin pastries) for 25 cents  that don´t taste like cheese from the flocks of vendors who charge on and off the bus selling all kinds of weird and wonderful food items.       

8. If thou art not getting onto the bus at the station then thou shalt be rushed onto the bus by the conductor - quick! quick! quick! Vamos Gringo! As soon as thou art on the bus however, it will sit there for another slow, slow, slow, five minutes, waiting for any random stray to show up and cram on as well.

9. Thou shalt go "awww!" or "ewww!" at the pigs, chickens, cats, sheep and other livestock that make it onto various parts of the bus for the journey.  

10. The driver shalt read, text, chat to a mate and do many things other than watching the road as he drives perilously close to 300 ft sheer drops off mountains. Whilst it´s foggy. Or night. Or both.

Having said all that - the Ecuadorian buses have been great fun, and we survived - so give them a try if you get the chance!  

Hello all,
After my overnight cross-border bus, I slept until about 2pm.  Not knowing anything about Piura, I asked at the desk what there was to see.  I walked the eight blocks into the central city to check out the Parque Central.  Like most Latin American towns there was a great, mellow vibe to the park, and a scenic church on the square as well.

I walked over to the Plaza del Sol mall, and went to the Chinese restaurant in the food court and enjoyed a nice cheap meal.  I walked back to the hotel to make some phone calls & update the blog.  I bought my air ticket in advance form Lan Peru.  There is only one airline that flies bwteen the two cities, so I figured it would be better to get it reserved ahead of time.  I felt very proud of my ability to book entirely in spanish on the site.  I looked over my reservation, and noticed that I had reserved for February instead of January.  Oh well, with the change fee my $42 ticket is now going to be $67.  Oops.

I'm going to try to get some sleep before tonight's 17 hour overnight bus over the Andes mountains.  I will be into the Amazon basin tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Later, Phil

My backpacking buddy and I loved this lodge!!! Note - we are not your typical American girls. We love to backpack (both traveling and to go camping), we go easily go without make-up, and we are both very active girls who enjoy the outdoors. So that being said, Mayuna Lodge was perfect for us! We got a guide who speaks English, Moses (aptly named), who was very knowledgeable and had grown up in the jungle so he knew how to handle himself and take care of guests. We had so much fun canoeing around during the high water season, going to spot monkeys, bird watching, pirahna fishing, walking tours at nearby villages, etc! Oh, and we loved the food! We were going back for seconds every meal! Now granted Peru does have the best food in all of South America, and this was no different. And staying at the lodge, this was actually kinda of relaxing towards the end of our trip. No planning needed, our meals were taken care of for us, and a guide to take us around. For $100 and being all-inclusive, this was such a good deal. Now I had researched and called around to the different lodges before we settled on this one. This was a wondeful choice to explore the Amazon, which was something I had always dreamed of doing. All the guides speak English (not sure why another review said otherwise). I speak more than enough Spanish to get by and had fun conversing with some of the staff that didn't speak English. I like the fact that the lodge employs local folks from the nearby villages. But they don't exploit the animals in the jungle. Now there was a couple staying there at the same time that didn't enjoy themselves as much and actually left early. They were also American but you could tell they had never been backpacking before. They had humongous 50 lbs backpacks each plus smaller 20 lb backpacks on their fronts. The girl in particular sat there at the table for all of the meals and never ate anything. She just had bread and water. Meanwhile, my friend and I were going back for seconds! Plus they didn't like the fact that their showers were cold. Okay, the showers are not heated because they use filtered Amazon river water, so it's not warm, but it ain't cold either. I've been on week long backpacking trips through the desert before so showering at all with temperate water, everyday, is just fine with me. My own must-have was mosquito nets. I can sleep on the ground in my sleeping back while camping but mosquitos drive me nuts. And thankfully, the mosquito nets were there in all the rooms and common areas, and intact. So, if your idea vacation is to spend time at a Hilton or fine resort with a pool, this is not your ideal lodge. But if you are like us and love to get close to nature, get out and explore and like getting dirty, love to eat, and enjoy getting to meet the people who live where you travel to, then this is a great lodge for you at a nice price! Enjoy!

We got back from the jungle late last night and after running for the showers which we'd been dreaming off for a while we headed out and treated ourselves to a Pizza and a bottle of wine.

We wanted to leave for Lima today but the flights were about 10 to 20 dollars more than tomorrow so we now have a flight to Lima for the early afternoon tomorrow.

By Saturday I had finally recovered enough so that we could book our jungle tour and on Sunday we headed into the jungle. First two hours by taxi to Nauta and from there another hour and a half or so by boat until we got the village of our guide Elvis.

In the village we loaded all our food and equipment into a dug-out canoe and headed up river. Our party consisted of Elvis, his brother Juan Carlos the cook, a brit named Dave and Nicole and I. After going up the river for about an hour or so we headed straight into what appeared to be dense jungle but in fact at this time of year the water is so high that all the trees are completely submerged in water and we carried on floating between the trees for about another 30 min or so until we finally found some high ground where we could put up our camp.

The first thing we noticed is why they tell you to wear long pants and sleeves and to bring insect repellent. The mosquitos are completely unbelievable. You haven't seen mosquitos until you've been to the jungle. They're constantly flying into your mouth and nose and there is almost a fog of mosquitos in front of your eyes. Unbelievable! I ended up wearing jeans for the whole time we were in the jungle despite the oppressive heat because those were the only long pants I had.

That evening we went out on the canoe again, floating around in the dark in search of some Caimans (alligators). Our efforts were eventually rewarded and although we only saw a very small one, it was still worth it.

The next day we went on a walk in the jungle and Elvis showed us all the plants, how to cut vines so that the water runs out which you can drink, how to make a roof by weaving leaves together, how to make a skirt from other leaves, etc... It was pretty amazing!

In the afternoon we moved camp and put our hammocks up in someone else's house which I was quite thankful for because the heat had exhausted me and I was quite happy to have the comfort of a roof over our head in case it rained.  Our hammocks were actually quite amazing. Basically they have a box shaped mosquito net around them and the previous night Elvis had made an A-frame type watershed with plastic sheets above each of our hammocks so we would have been quite dry but going to the toilet at night was a problem.

Then in the evening we went to a lake nearby with the canoe to look at the famous Amazon Lily Pads. They're quite amazing because they are so big. The whole jungle landscape is of course completely amazing and unique and it's a true once in a lifetime experience. Especially since given the heat and the mosquitos you are not likely to want to come back in a hurry, at least I'm not.

On our last day we went fishing. First we hunted small fish with a spear. Basically you see a whole lot of bubbles at the surface which lets you know that there are some fish there and then you try to get as close as possible with the canoe before you launch your spear as parallel as possible to the surface because that's where most of the fish are. After spending the first hour or so unsuccessful I eventually managed to spear two little fish. We then used these fish as the bait to put on our fishing lines to fish for Piranha and Catfish. After trying a couple of locations without any luck we eventually found a shady little spot where they were biting and I caught a white and a red Piranha and Dave caught a Catfish. Good fun in all!

I went to Iquitos in order to attend to a business course. Anyway, I could spend a free Sunday just before going back home. My flight was scheduled at 9am, but a friend who lives there offered to show me around Iquitos. He asked me, what are you gonna do in Lima?

Mmm, he was right. I had no plans. So I decided to stay and enjoy a nice day. We didn´t have much time, but tried to do our best. Iquitos is a very warm city, well it´s in the rainforest. We visited Quistococha a park with a beautiful lake and a zoo. I also carried a boa, hehehe. I even tried a local food called: SURI. Well it´s made of warms!! I wasn´t sure about trying it, but my exboss was saying there is no way I would ever eat it. So, I tried, hahaha.

Because it was a really short visit, I want to go back there but having a lot of time to explore the rainforest and the Amazon.

Hi friends, I am back in Iquitos Peru. Sorry I haven't posted here lately. I do better when I can obsess on one or two problems. I have been working on too many problems. I had to decide which were most important and work on those. This blog suffered.  Now I want to report what my crew and I have been working on.

We are rebuilding our Amazon riverboat, Dawn on the Amazon I. It is longer and wider and can sleep more guests than before. We improved the balance by installing a 100 gallon gas tank in the front. The extra width will improve stability. The improvements will solidify Dawn on the Amazon I as the safest expedition riverboat in Iquitos Peru.

My son Matt visited me for several weeks. It was his second visit to Iquitos Peru.  We went on an Amazon cruise to Tamshiyacu Tahuayo Reserve and then left three days later for Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. I will write posts about those Amazon cruises here in a few days.

I have been writing more and working on another web site for the Amazon Golf Course, located here in Iquitos Peru. I will tell you about that when I get the web site on line. It is the only golf course in the Amazon.

My girlfriend and I have been working a lot. Yesterday we went swimming at La Casa Fitzcarraldo. If you come to Iquitos Peru, stop in at La Casa Fitzcarraldo, and enjoy the small botanical garden, hang in a hammock, and swim. The owner was the Executive Producer of the movie Fizcarraldo, directed by Hertzog. Fitzcarraldo is the most famous movie made in Iquitos Peru.

It is great to be back in Iquitos Peru.

Thanks for reading.

Bill Grimes, Iquitos Peru Dawn on the Amazon

We took the speed boat from Tabatinga/Leticia/Santa Rosa to Iquitos because we really didn't feel like another three or four days on a boat.

Saturday was quite interesting we had arrived and slept in Tabatinga which is part of Brazil. Then we went to Leticia, Colombia for lunch and changed some money there and since the boat was leaving from Santa Rosa, Peru at 4am on Sunday morning we decided to sleep in Santa Rosa. It is amazing how different the three towns are. Driving from Tabatinga to Leticia you cross a line on the ground and suddenly you are in Colombia, no border formalities and nothing and it really appears to be one continuous town.  However I would say that if you blindfolded me and dropped me on either side I would be able to tell you which town I'm in. Of course there is the language difference with everthing switching from Portuguese to Spanish but I'm not talking about that. Leticia seemed to me to be a lot more organised and cleaner in a way. There are more pastry shops and panaderias there like I had seen in Bogota and I felt some nostalgia at seeing the yellow / blue bottles of Aguila beer again. In the afternoon we crossed to Santa Rosa and it is the most different of the three. It is hardly a town, more like a little village. There are no cars and they only have electricity from 18h00 to 21h00 every day! We stayed in the Hostal Las brisas del Amazonas which isn't much more than a wooden hut and the mattrass was stuffed with straw! It was good value though, only 10 Reals compared to the 30 Reals we paid in Tabatinga the night before and 50 Reals for our double room in Manaus. The owner was very friendly though and even cooked our pasta for us when we asked for some hot water to prepare our 2 minute noodles.

I had sore throat that evening and woke up in the middle of the night with shivers and a feever so I tried to find some warm clothes in my backpack - no easy task when there is no light/electricity and your pants happen to be near the bottom of your backpack and you try to get at them without making a mess or disheveling your backpack because you have to get on the boat at 4am when there won't be any light yet either. Luckily I did have a small torch and got the job done.

I had been dreading the speed boat because I had been on one before crossing from mainland Mexico to Baja California and had felt nauseaus for that whole trip. However the nice thing about traveling on the Amazon is that the water is completely smooth, nothing like taking boats at sea, so you don't have to worry about seasickness. The staff were also very friendly and the only downside was that it was a bit stuffy and my fever seemed to be getting worse. They had also told us that it would take 10 hours so I expected to get there by 14h00. The Lonely Planet said it takes 12 hours and was actually closer to the mark because although we got on at 4am, we only left at 5am and arrived in Iquitos at 5pm.

After the boat ride, which seemed to carry on forever, I just wanted to get off the boat and get some fresh air but as soon as we stepped off the boat we were hounded by people trying to sell us taxi rides and hostels. I hadn't seen anything like this since Cuba. Most annoying indeed I tell you when you got up at 3:30am and spent 13 hours on a boat. We eventually managed to fight our way through the crowds and took a taxi although I really would have wanted to boycott them to prove a point but with m fever I didn't feel up to walking.  The moto taxi was actually very cheap and we checked into our hostel and I hit the bed for some rest.

The chattering high school kids outside my room woke me up super early but it was a blessing because I got to see a beautiful dawn and sunrise above the river.  At 6:30 in the morning it wasn’t my usual waking hour, but the air was fresh and I felt good, even hungry enough to partake of the breakfast of chicken noodle soup (among the best I’ve had in Peru) prepared by the skillful cooks.  Everyone on board was making jokes about them and their open homosexuality.  I hadn’t encountered any of that yet in Peru but in the guidebooks it even comments on the frequency among some crew on the river being gay.  The guys were really nice though, and they sure could cook.  I was mystified at how many reports I read not to eat the food on board the boats.  What boats were they taking?  Did they even try it?  I was experiencing some of the better food I had eaten in Peru on this trip.  One of the cooks even served with white gloves and it was even more touching because the gloves were slightly oversized.  He was so earnest though that I couldn’t laugh.  And anyway, never laugh at the person that is cooking your food, right?

The rest of the day was spent lazily resting in our upper deck hammocks, catching up on sleep from a short night, wandering the deck to talk to the passengers and looking at the river and sites along it as we passed.  We made a few stops for disembarkation and embarkation, for taking on produce and cargo, and at each stop the local women came on board to sell their fruit and prepared foods.  Such a variety of products I had never seen before, among them the many many exotic fruits that grow in the jungle.  I wasn’t brave or hungry enough to try them but later that day the kids introduced me to one of the fruits which I spit overboard at the first bite.  It was sour and strange-tasting and I wasn’t sure if it was because it wasn’t ripe or if that was just how it tasted.  The fruit they had me taste was the one that is about the shape of a small avocado with a skin that resembles the pattern on a hand-grenade.  In fact, because of its shape it really resembles a small hand-grenade!  I was anxious to try it so I was even more disappointed when I didn’t like it at all.

Our motley crew of 3rd deck passengers included the traveling high school basketball teams.  The girls slept in hammocks on deck and the boys were in cabins with a few teachers as chaperones.  Other than a family of a better-off Peruvian petroleum worker, the rest of my travel mates were foreigners like me.   There was a young German couple who were quiet on board but meeting up here again in Iquitos turned out to be quite genial and open.  A guy from Paris and his very young-looking girlfriend from the jungle kept us guessing the whole two days.  They kept mostly to their cabin sprawled out on the bed and I only was able to exchange a few words with them at breakfast one morning, but not enough to get their story.  So with plenty of time on our hands and active imaginations we cooked up many scenarios for them, not all of them savory.  The girlfriend dressed exclusively in pink and white and always looked fresh and immaculate while the guy, like us, looked like an unwashed vagabond most of the time.  There were two Israelis traveling together, the ones that introduced the hookah pipe the night before and scared half the deck until we explained that they weren’t openly doing drugs.  They really made us laugh with their confidence in thinking they knew everything that was going on, despite not speaking a lick of Spanish.  One of them (as far as I could tell, their names were something like “Adoo” and “Adaa”, I kid you not) asked us as we were leaving the boat, “how do you say ‘don’t bother me’ or ‘go away?’  They were annoyed at the insistent mototaxi drivers that had boarded the boat to try to hook passengers for a ride into town.  Later on they amused us again when they told us that several tour operators had approached them to entice them to buy a jungle excursion and when finding out they were Israeli showed them their book of comments from previous customers and proudly pointed to the page in Arabic.  Another operator opened the book and had them read the comments in Hebrew which basically warned any potential Israeli tourist away from the shady disreputable company.  Besides Stella and her friend Austin and I there was another American.  I was impressed with Donovan.  He is the national web manager for the U.S. Forestry service and he was using his 10 day vacation to fly into Lima and Tarapoto and spend his time in the jungle.  We all imagined what it must be like to go from an office in Washington D.C. to the Peruvian Amazon jungle in the space of a couple days.  And even more, the shock in going back so abruptly to American corporate culture.  Evidently he always does something like this on his vacations, whether to Madagascar or Peru or some other exotic locale.  These are the types of Americans you meet traveling and they are a refreshing bunch to meet and spend time with.  It’s like a small coterie of the initiated.  I hope to meet them when I go back home.  

I spent much of my time with Stella and Austin and we talked about everything in the slowly passing hours and languor of time on the river.  The trip invites long lazy conversations and we shared the feeling that two days was too short.  In the evening after dinner I joined the lively basketball teams on the other side of the deck and I played the violin for them, even though when I asked for requests they yelled out the titles to reggaeton songs.  They made me laugh so hard with their jokes and typical teenager antics.  They ribbed each other about having crushes on the girls and wanted to know if anything was going on between me and Belinda, the purser of the boat.  I loved their nicknames, “Payaso” (clown), Daddy Yanqui (the reggaeton star), “Hombre Elastico” (Elastic Man..for his tall skinny body) and so on.  Payaso amused the whole group with his rendition of Michael Jackson’s dance in Thriller, the first thing they went to when I shared my iPod.  By the time I left them, when they were called to bed, I had made thirty friends for life and I really felt affection for the kids.  They were a good bunch, seemingly unspoiled by ennui, materialism and the other common ills of the typical western teenager.  They were just really fun sweet kids and I enjoyed being with them very much.  

Stella, Austin and I wanted to wait up until 1 in the morning to see the point where the Maranon river met the Ucayali to form the Amazon river.  For all of us there was something mystical about seeing that even though we knew the boat crew must have thought we were crazy.  We tried to wait but fell asleep.  I woke up when we reached the town of Nauta and stopped again for the usual exchanges.  The town signaled the point about a half hour from the start of the Amazon and I woke up Stella and Austin.  We waited and asked questions from the navigator.  They were an hour or more off in their estimate and it wasn’t until almost 3 am that we reached the area.  But disappointingly there was no grand spectacle.  In fact, we were some way into the Amazon before we realized that.  It wasn’t entirely our fault since at night it’s hard to see anything on the dark river.  The navigator periodically shown a high beam spotlight to illuminate the area in front of the boat, but it didn’t seem to do much for the captain whose method of steering seemed to be to weave a serpentine route from one bank to another.  We seemed to be traveling as much sideways as straight ahead.  

Exhausted from staying up and waiting and for being 3:45 in the morning I said that I was heading for bed.  We were now in the mighty fabled Amazon!  Next morning, Iquitos…

Iquitos hid from view until we rounded the northern end of the island that separates the Amazon river from the tributary that Iquitos sits on.  When the Eduardo pulled into the port, there was the band that I was expecting  would be waiting for the victorious high school basketball champions on our boat.  But it was like the band was waiting for us and I felt happy to step off the launch to musical accompaniment and banners and shouting locals.  It even made all the mototaxi drivers and shills who boarded the boat a little more bearable.  By now I´ve gotten used to just ignoring all the offers and walking ahead past the hulabaloo to select a calmer mototaxi driver.  I went with Stella and Austin to find a hotel and get something to eat.  In what was to become a constant element of Iquitos we were propositioned multiple times by the taxi driver who tried to steer us to several hotels where he was obviously going to get a kickback for bringing us.  Then at the restaurant when we finished we realized he had come in with a friend who was a jungle guide and who pitched us on his service.  That wasn´t enough though, because when we politely said we were tired and would consider it later, the taxi driver followed the other driver we chose to take us to a place and when Austin didn´t want to stay there, we came out to find the driver there again waiting.  At this point we were all irritated at being followed and Stella went to tell him off if he kept following us.

The hostel they chose was in the Lonely Planet guide and was described as being clean and spacious but when I walked into the room I wondered what planet that writer was on when he wrote up the hostel.  It was dirty, with cracked plaster and cracked dirty tiles.  The fan was broken, there were was a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling and the bathroom left a lot to be desired.  And the crowning indignity in my book was a saggy, shabby matress.  No way I would stay there.  I went back to Hobo Hideout that was the first place we stopped.  I had looked at the rooms and the others had not and I thought they were really nice, especially for the cut-rate, off-season price we were quoted.  It was a bit more expensive than I was used to paying but the quality more than compensated and I feel it´s better to spend a few soles more on a nice room and place and have a good comfortable feeling than to skimp there.  I´d rather save the money on other extras during the day and sleep in peace at night.  So I fell into bed and took a much needed nap to recoup on sleep missed the night before trying to see the headwaters of the Amazon with Stella and Austin.

I met Stella for dinner but Austin couldn´t come because he was sick enough to be confined to bed.  Later he´d be diagnosed with a viral infection and put on medicine.  He was out of commission for a few days at least.  So I went with Stella to a pizzeria featured in Lonely Planet and this time they were on the money.  The pizza was done in a brick wood-burning oven and it was the best I´ve had yet in Peru.  We talked a lot about Cleveland, about travel and experiences, about going back home, future plans and all that.  I joked that we were having the date I wanted to ask her out on back in Cleveland when she came to my wine bar a year ago now thousands of miles away in the Peruvian Amazon.  I think that takes the award for farthest date, at least in my book!  A delightful guitar and cajon due came in and played some nice music from the sierra and coast and they took my request of Ojos Azules to round out a great night.  We both went back to our respective habitations just in time to beat a torrential downpour that cleared the hot humid air and made for a great night of sleep.

Quistococha is just beyond the airport outside of Iquitos and was recommended by the guidebooks and Peru tourist information office where I had received a map and several tips on things to visit in and around Iquitos.  Olivia and I got a mototaxi to take us out of town to the destination which includes a zoo and a laguna and beach.  It was beastly hot as usual but the zoo was in plenty of shade and it was welcome from the punishing heat radiating off the pavement on the way in.  Incidentally, we passed the Amazon Golf Club, the only golf course in the Amazon.  It´s just a 9 hole par 3 course but there is a small clubhouse and it´s quite an accomplishment here to have golfing for both members and non-members.  Unfortunately it is closed right now pending the resolution of a dispute between the members.  I had hoped to golf a round before leaving Iquitos. 

As we entered the zoo, there was a wall with painted illustrations of various legends and myths of the area including the legend of the founding of Quistococha.  Apparently the natives were on the lagoon fishing when they thought they saw an island moving.  It terrified them so much they called the priest to come and when he exorcised the lagoon a tremendous Anaconda rose up out of the lake before dying and the terror was over.  In Quechua language, Quistococha means ¨Christ´s Lagoon¨.  They also had illustrated the very popular local belief in the ¨bufeo colorado¨, the pink dolphin that transforms itself into a handsome man and seduces local beauties, only to later drag them down into the river and drown them.  A variation on the siren that seduces men, huh?  They also believe in a spectre called a ¨Tunchi.¨ It´s supposed to haunt the lonely, deserted areas of the jungle and frighten people away from camping or staying overnight where they live.  After passing by the wall we encountered all sorts of local animals, such as spider monkeys, jaguars, turtles, crocodiles (which they wrongly translate as alligators.  The local name is ¨lagarto¨but they are really a species of Caiman.), and other animals I didn´t recognize or know the English name for.  There was an interesting bird that builds its nest in a tree kind of like a big cocoon and they are smartly colored with a brilliant yellow breast and black wings and body.  I lost count of all the different sounds they made, like a mad mockingbird!  I also saw the strange muskrat river animal that my friend Riccardo says has invaded the Po river in northern Italy and other parts of Europe.  It is not a mutant beast but an actual species of animal that has been introduced to other countries outside of its natural habitat and flourished there.  The Russians even use it for fur coats apparently.

Olivia hadn´t brought her bathing suit but I did and I took advantage of the sweltering day to swim in the lagoon´s warm waters which at least brought some relief.  Then, since Olivia was just sitting on a bench watching me cool off, I suggested a boat ride.  So I rowed for awhile and we enjoyed the stillness of the small lagoon, observing birds and the shores and the kids and teenagers swimming and frolicking in the water.  On the way back we took a bus and it was an adventure because the bus route took us through the busy, crazy Belen market and I got to see block after block of classic Latin American market chaos.  Down below, on the water, there is another market and everything is displayed in boats and canoes.  The locals´houses float when the water level is high but now with the low river they sit in the mud.  The market is a floating bazaar that is an amazing sight to see.

For dinner I had told Olivia I would cook Italian for them and I freshened up (little good it did me when I was pouring sweat later in the kitchen) with a shower before getting supplies at the market.  I found what I needed more or less except for basil for the bruschetta.  I was going to make fresh pasta with a cream sauce and bruschetta.  Well, with temperature in the high 90s and about that same in humidity, my pasta was a sorry affair.  I had to keep adding flour and then more flour to keep the pasta from sticking but by that time it was so dense and thick that it turned out pretty bad in my estimation.  The sauce was really tasty and that was a saving grace, and that bruschetta turned out well too.  Olivia broke out a bottle of Prosecco an Italian friend from Lima had given her and we had a nice meal in the end as I tried not to think about how much a failure the pasta was.  Olivia´s sister arrived later with her boyfriend and we had a nice talk in English since he had spent 6 years in Florida.  I took some pictures of the family and the four beauties of the Lopez family before Olivia and I went out dancing.

The night before there was no club open because of a new law passed by the mayor of Iquitos limiting the sale of alcohol to midnight on all days except Friday and Saturday when the bars and clubs can sell until 3 am.  So the clubs don´t bother opening on the other nights because most people start coming out at 11 or so.  A lot of people are upset about the law and rightly so in a big tourist destination.  It will probably be changed due to so much objection.  So anyway, tonight the discoteca was open and we danced and danced until 3 am.  I think I danced more than I have in years because the music was so well mixed and my partner was such a great dancer.  Before we knew it, they were shutting everything down and it was time to go.  The police even gather outside the doors as they did at the club where we watched a local rock band perform the nght before.