Iquitos & Lima

We finally arrived back in Iquitos around

5pm

. The hostel we had booked, and triple confirmed, only had one room with one double bed. Now I've known Bill since 1994, but after spending 4 days in blistering heat and choking humidity, the last thing I wanted to do was sleep in a double bed with him just to save a few bucks so we walked down the street with Mister X, our amazon guide, (this would make more sense if my other blog entries made if to the internet and didn't die with Bill's laptop) and found another hotel, no a/c, for a few extra bucks. This place was what I like to call ghetto chic. 

We settled in, showered, plugged in equipment, and prepared to go out for dinner. Just then it started pouring. Like, monsoon type rains. We opened the door of our room and it was literally pouring in our HALLWAY. They had towels and newspapers and mats in an attempt to soak it up but it was doing nothing. Every ten minutes a guy would come with a mop and fresh newspaper to try and control the situation. It was hilarious. Finally we decided we were too hungry and had to go out. Our strategy was to attempt to shield ourselves by the overhead balconies, rain gutters, and a/c units. Well that got us about 4 buildings away until we realized again that we were idiots and flagged down a tuk-tuk and paid $0.60 to get to our destination. Best 60 cents spent ever. Five minutes after we arrived, the rain stopped. Of course. 

Had a decent meal at this weird "gringo landia" spot called Arvi's and then went bar hopping. We landed in this interesting place called Musmuki which specialized in odd libido enhancing, Amazonian ingredient cocktails. We had a few and moved on eventually making our way to the malacon (sea wall, or in this case, river wall) and had more drinks. We then stumbled to the center square where we were promptly joined by a "gringo hunter" (con huevos, btw) who tried to get Bill and I to do coca with her and "make sexo" (both at same time) for S/.100 (approx $33). It must have been the Amazonian libido enhancing cocktails. Again, remembering our Christian upbringing (and the huevos, oh, and because tango esposa), we declined and eventually stumbled home. 

The next day we just toured around the city streets taking it in. Iquitos is a cross between Havana and Bangkok, IMO. A fascinating mixture of old colonial buildings and shantys, rich in history. Iquitos used to be a boomtown, fueled by rubber production until one day someone stole a rubber tree and brought it to Malaysia. There's a Herzog movie about the rubber baron of the era. I've yet to see it, but sounds like it's worth a watch.

It was wicked humid and the pollution from all the unregulated vehicles was getting to me and I couldn't wait to get the fuck out of Dodge. At 2pm our taxi took us to the Iquitos airport and we flew back to Lima. 

We arrived in Lima around 7pm and met our taxi driver who would take us to the Red Psycho Llama Hostel in the center of the Mira Flores area of Lima. As we were leaving, the taxi driver instructed us to put ALL our bags in the trunk. Apparently a big problem is people walking up to cars in traffic, smashing the windows, grabbing bags, and running away. 

Mira Flores is _the_ safe area of Lima. The only place they advise it's safe to walk around at night, use ATMs, etc. it's a very European and cosmopolitan area populated by very hip, fashionable, and obviously affluent people. I could easily see myself living there. The climate is very much like San Francisco. Cool, foggy, and misty. A welcome relief from the hell that was the amazon. Also prices, like in Medellin, were less than half of US prices. 

After checking into our hilariously tiny hostel room, complete with bunk bed, we hit the town in search of good food. Lima is known for it's food and I was excited. We found an AMAZING Spanish place and ordered up a paella with chicken, pork, sausage, and veggies. It was so delicious. Second best paella I've ever had. Really. Total bill was $24 each with cocktails. Not bad. 

We finished the night with a little tour around John F Kennedy park and returned to our micro room. We had to leave for Cusco at 09:00 for an 11:15 flight. I totally fucked up and thought we left at 15:30. Lol. Oops. Tomorrow we head to Cusco where we'll be for the next 6 days exploring the local flavor and ancient Incan ruins. I'm really excited. Cusco sits at 11,800 feet. That's high. Elevation sickness is an issue, we're hoping it won't be too bad. Coca tea is used to treat it, so that sounds great to me. We're going to take it easy and chillax and not overdo it. Some downtime will be nice and relaxing chatting with fellow travelers in our hostel sounds like the perfect way to do that. Let's hope the conversations doesn't turn into a "travel-off", like they sometimes annoyingly do. :)