October 9, 2011
Well on Saturday Megan, Eugene and I got a colectivo from Chachapoyas at 11am and got to Pedro Ruiz at just after 12 noon since our hotel guy told us there was a 1pm bus that goes through Pedro Ruiz on its way to Tarapoto. Pedro Ruiz is just a one road town in the middle of nowhere. We had our choice on the double decker bus of upper and lower seats and Megan just said "mas borato" or more cheap so we were given the upper floor (economy class- 35 soles) since the lower deck seats recline more. We got on the bus and it pulled ahead 30 feet before parking for 20 minutes and many people got off to get food and drinks. After 10 minutes I thought that was a good idea too to stock up on food and drinks for the 9 hour bus ride but when I made my way down I realized they had locked the door so people couldn't get on or off. I thought "Great!" but while I was seated on my top deck seat I saw people doing business with the women venders down below so I was able to open my window 8 inches and call to some of these women to come over with their foods. One woman had tomalies and she reminded me of the "Baboo" pakistani character on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" because as she ran around trying to sell her tomalies no one was buying them so I called her over and she said 4 tomalies were 1 sol (33 cents) so I bought some. Megan and Eugene were on the opposite side of the bus from me and they saw that I was doing business through my 8 inch bus window with the venders down below so she asked the prices for the tomalies and I said 1 sol and they through up the tomalies and I threw them over to Megan who threw me the 1 sol which I threw down to the vendor. Folks, I was "wheeling and dealing" with 33 cents items through my 8" wide bus window! It felt like a take-out window "Yeah, I'll have two big macs and a side order of fries to go please". I asked for another woman to come over that had spicey chicken on a stick along with a baked potatoe for 1 sol (33 cents) each and the tomalie woman got excited thinking I wanted to buy more of her tomalies that no one else was buying and I had to tell her a couple times that I wanted chicken (Quiero pollo!). I bought 5 chicken sticks with 5 baked potatoes for $1.50! I wasn't even hungry but they looked so good!
The bus left Pedro Ruiz around 1:10pm and there were regular road construction stops along the way lasting on average 15 minutes and one time we waited for over 30+ minutes before they allowed traffic to start moving again. The day before I had told Eugene that the Lonely Planet guidebook says that most of the hotels have only cold water showers and there were only a few hot water showers and Eugene had said by the time we get there it will be hotter than here and we will WANT cold showers only. Well he was right, I noticed when we were half way there that the temperature was going up a few degrees and it was much muggier and humid. By the time we were a few hours away from our destination there were fewer passengers and no one now in the back seat besides me so I was able to stretch out on the back seat and sleep in it like a bed. When we got to Tarapoto it was 10pm and as I made my way out the double decker bus door there were about 20 motorbike taxi guys begging for our business. "Want a taxi sir?", "Need a taxi?". For every 2 I said no to there were 4 more asking the same question and we had to make our way through the hoard that were blocking us since our luggage was at the back of the bus. Megan was laughing as I was being pestered by motorbike taxi drivers and just wanted to get my luggage first and I told her they were like "flies" that you can swat them and then more keep popping up around in their place.
It was late and we were tired so we just looked in the LP book and took the first place called the "Misti hotel" and a motorbike guy drove us there. We weren't too picky considering we were tired after the 9 hour journey. My place reminds me of a jail cell with concrete walls that are 5 feet by 10 feet cell and a washroom along with chicken wire up above that serves as a vent/window that has a view to the rusty tin roof. The bed had only a sheet on it but I would find out with the heat you don't even need that since the temperature is about the same as your body. I dropped my stuff off and went looking for an internet cafe and wandered around the city at 10:30pm on a Saturday night that was somewhat lively with people milling about everywhere and I was surprised to see so many businesses open at that hour since Chachapoyas closes down early and open late in the morning. All the roads I saw were paved so that makes it a better city than Chachapoyas already. The street signs are hard to see in these cities since they are mostly just on a wall and many times just aren't there at all and I didn't want to get lost by wandering around too much and I walked into a store to buy some cold ice teas and there was a woman that spoke english and I ask her where I could find an internet cafe and just my luck she operated a internet cafe in her store so I emailed Jennifer to let her know where we are in Tarapoto so she knows where to find us on Sunday night. I don't think I will be sleeping too good tonight since they are blaring spanish music around town and it is coming through my chicken wire window pretty good. I guess it is Saturday night and they like to party here.
Sunday morning Eugene and Megan are sleeping in so I head out at 8am in search of some coffee. The woman at reception suggests I go down to the main square since there are a few coffee shops down there. As I am walking along the sidewalk a shoeshine boy asks if I need a shoeshine and I immediately say "no gracias" but then look down at my rockport shoes that are looking a little scuffy and I decide I should not stereotype the shoeboys in each country since I didn't have luck finding an honest shoeshine boy in Quito. So he is walking away down the sidewalk when I call to him and he keeps walking so I shout to him which everyone heard but he keeps walking like he is now ignoring me as if to say "Nope, you had your chance and you blew it pal!" at which I think to myself "OK fine, be that way!" and I begin to walk the other way and 2 seconds later he calls out for me and runs back. I didn't really understand his strange business tactics until later and I immediately ask him "Cuanto cuesta?" and he says "dos soles" (66 cents) and I know that is around the going rate. He motions me into a nearby telephone service store and takes out my shoelaces to do a thorough job and the whole time people say things to him and he grunts incoherent noises back at them and a minute later as he is polishing up my shoes another guy pokes his head in and uses sign language and grunts to talk to my shoeshine guy. At this point I realize they are both deaf and work as a team and the other guy takes over to clean up my shoes and puts the shoelaces back in so I give them 5 soles since I thought it was very touching to see 2 disabled people working together as a team to make a few soles. I know I am not helping the gringo cause by over paying but I do with disabled people and give some spare change to the blind. I usually flash my fingers quickly in front of their eyes to see if they flinch but the real blind people don't so I throw some spare change into their buckets.
Motorcycles and motorcycle taxis are everywhere in this town. Paved roads everywhere with lots of businesses open. I bought 1 liter of "Crema de cafe con pisco" liquer for $6.50US and a black belt for the same price. It is really hot and humid here in Tarapoto and am sweating a lot in my jeans and I can tell I am getting closer to the Amazon jungle by this weather. It pours down rain a couple times a day which is relief and I am sure the plants need it here in this heat. I saw my first english bank (Scotia bank) down at the plaza square today. There are a few airline companies down there I may check out since I think I will be flying from Iquitos to either Cuzco or some other city around there since Iquitos is the largest city in the world that isn't accessible by road. I had checked out LAN airlines website on Friday and Jennifer had showed me that foreigners have to pay an extra $175 for your flight than a Peruvian citizen. I think that is kind of a bias system but it is not "white man" tax because even the Chileans and Bolivians have to pay it.
I bought a couple pairs of shorts here for $7US each. Not the best quality of course but this is not jeans type of weather here in Tarapoto. Walked through a big food market and bought some spicey sausage for $1.60US. After walking around Tarapoto for a bit I came back to the hotel at noon and Eugene and Megan had decided to check out and get to Yurimaguas to catch the cargo boat for Iquitos ASAP since they had heard from a couple that they had to wait a 2-3 days in Yurimaguas to get a boat and they don't have a lot of time so are playing it safe. I told them I would wait for Jennifer and meet up with them in Iquitos.
Jennifer emailed to say she is on the same bus today that we took yesterday so she should be in Tarapoto tonight around 10pm. I am going to head down to the bus station in a couple hours and hide in the crowd of eager motorcycle taxi drivers that will swarm her when she gets off and I will say "Hey amiiiiiga! I give you special price for motorcycle taxi ride". Being 6'3 in height and white skin I should easily be able to blend in with all the other motorcycle taxi drivers. I will bring her back to my hotel and get a couple glasses and try out my "Crema de cafe con pisco" liquer to see if it was worth the $6.50US I paid and then help her find a suitable hotel since she is a bit of a princess and normally pays 3 times what I do for a hotel.
We will probably check out some day trips that the tour operators offer.
Well on Saturday Megan, Eugene and I got a colectivo from Chachapoyas at 11am and got to Pedro Ruiz at just after 12 noon since our hotel guy told us there was a 1pm bus that goes through Pedro Ruiz on its way to Tarapoto. Pedro Ruiz is just a one road town in the middle of nowhere. We had our choice on the double decker bus of upper and lower seats and Megan just said "mas borato" or more cheap so we were given the upper floor (economy class- 35 soles) since the lower deck seats recline more. We got on the bus and it pulled ahead 30 feet before parking for 20 minutes and many people got off to get food and drinks. After 10 minutes I thought that was a good idea too to stock up on food and drinks for the 9 hour bus ride but when I made my way down I realized they had locked the door so people couldn't get on or off. I thought "Great!" but while I was seated on my top deck seat I saw people doing business with the women venders down below so I was able to open my window 8 inches and call to some of these women to come over with their foods. One woman had tomalies and she reminded me of the "Baboo" pakistani character on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" because as she ran around trying to sell her tomalies no one was buying them so I called her over and she said 4 tomalies were 1 sol (33 cents) so I bought some. Megan and Eugene were on the opposite side of the bus from me and they saw that I was doing business through my 8 inch bus window with the venders down below so she asked the prices for the tomalies and I said 1 sol and they through up the tomalies and I threw them over to Megan who threw me the 1 sol which I threw down to the vendor. Folks, I was "wheeling and dealing" with 33 cents items through my 8" wide bus window! It felt like a take-out window "Yeah, I'll have two big macs and a side order of fries to go please". I asked for another woman to come over that had spicey chicken on a stick along with a baked potatoe for 1 sol (33 cents) each and the tomalie woman got excited thinking I wanted to buy more of her tomalies that no one else was buying and I had to tell her a couple times that I wanted chicken (Quiero pollo!). I bought 5 chicken sticks with 5 baked potatoes for $1.50! I wasn't even hungry but they looked so good!
The bus left Pedro Ruiz around 1:10pm and there were regular road construction stops along the way lasting on average 15 minutes and one time we waited for over 30+ minutes before they allowed traffic to start moving again. The day before I had told Eugene that the Lonely Planet guidebook says that most of the hotels have only cold water showers and there were only a few hot water showers and Eugene had said by the time we get there it will be hotter than here and we will WANT cold showers only. Well he was right, I noticed when we were half way there that the temperature was going up a few degrees and it was much muggier and humid. By the time we were a few hours away from our destination there were fewer passengers and no one now in the back seat besides me so I was able to stretch out on the back seat and sleep in it like a bed. When we got to Tarapoto it was 10pm and as I made my way out the double decker bus door there were about 20 motorbike taxi guys begging for our business. "Want a taxi sir?", "Need a taxi?". For every 2 I said no to there were 4 more asking the same question and we had to make our way through the hoard that were blocking us since our luggage was at the back of the bus. Megan was laughing as I was being pestered by motorbike taxi drivers and just wanted to get my luggage first and I told her they were like "flies" that you can swat them and then more keep popping up around in their place.
It was late and we were tired so we just looked in the LP book and took the first place called the "Misti hotel" and a motorbike guy drove us there. We weren't too picky considering we were tired after the 9 hour journey. My place reminds me of a jail cell with concrete walls that are 5 feet by 10 feet cell and a washroom along with chicken wire up above that serves as a vent/window that has a view to the rusty tin roof. The bed had only a sheet on it but I would find out with the heat you don't even need that since the temperature is about the same as your body. I dropped my stuff off and went looking for an internet cafe and wandered around the city at 10:30pm on a Saturday night that was somewhat lively with people milling about everywhere and I was surprised to see so many businesses open at that hour since Chachapoyas closes down early and open late in the morning. All the roads I saw were paved so that makes it a better city than Chachapoyas already. The street signs are hard to see in these cities since they are mostly just on a wall and many times just aren't there at all and I didn't want to get lost by wandering around too much and I walked into a store to buy some cold ice teas and there was a woman that spoke english and I ask her where I could find an internet cafe and just my luck she operated a internet cafe in her store so I emailed Jennifer to let her know where we are in Tarapoto so she knows where to find us on Sunday night. I don't think I will be sleeping too good tonight since they are blaring spanish music around town and it is coming through my chicken wire window pretty good. I guess it is Saturday night and they like to party here.
Sunday morning Eugene and Megan are sleeping in so I head out at 8am in search of some coffee. The woman at reception suggests I go down to the main square since there are a few coffee shops down there. As I am walking along the sidewalk a shoeshine boy asks if I need a shoeshine and I immediately say "no gracias" but then look down at my rockport shoes that are looking a little scuffy and I decide I should not stereotype the shoeboys in each country since I didn't have luck finding an honest shoeshine boy in Quito. So he is walking away down the sidewalk when I call to him and he keeps walking so I shout to him which everyone heard but he keeps walking like he is now ignoring me as if to say "Nope, you had your chance and you blew it pal!" at which I think to myself "OK fine, be that way!" and I begin to walk the other way and 2 seconds later he calls out for me and runs back. I didn't really understand his strange business tactics until later and I immediately ask him "Cuanto cuesta?" and he says "dos soles" (66 cents) and I know that is around the going rate. He motions me into a nearby telephone service store and takes out my shoelaces to do a thorough job and the whole time people say things to him and he grunts incoherent noises back at them and a minute later as he is polishing up my shoes another guy pokes his head in and uses sign language and grunts to talk to my shoeshine guy. At this point I realize they are both deaf and work as a team and the other guy takes over to clean up my shoes and puts the shoelaces back in so I give them 5 soles since I thought it was very touching to see 2 disabled people working together as a team to make a few soles. I know I am not helping the gringo cause by over paying but I do with disabled people and give some spare change to the blind. I usually flash my fingers quickly in front of their eyes to see if they flinch but the real blind people don't so I throw some spare change into their buckets.
Motorcycles and motorcycle taxis are everywhere in this town. Paved roads everywhere with lots of businesses open. I bought 1 liter of "Crema de cafe con pisco" liquer for $6.50US and a black belt for the same price. It is really hot and humid here in Tarapoto and am sweating a lot in my jeans and I can tell I am getting closer to the Amazon jungle by this weather. It pours down rain a couple times a day which is relief and I am sure the plants need it here in this heat. I saw my first english bank (Scotia bank) down at the plaza square today. There are a few airline companies down there I may check out since I think I will be flying from Iquitos to either Cuzco or some other city around there since Iquitos is the largest city in the world that isn't accessible by road. I had checked out LAN airlines website on Friday and Jennifer had showed me that foreigners have to pay an extra $175 for your flight than a Peruvian citizen. I think that is kind of a bias system but it is not "white man" tax because even the Chileans and Bolivians have to pay it.
I bought a couple pairs of shorts here for $7US each. Not the best quality of course but this is not jeans type of weather here in Tarapoto. Walked through a big food market and bought some spicey sausage for $1.60US. After walking around Tarapoto for a bit I came back to the hotel at noon and Eugene and Megan had decided to check out and get to Yurimaguas to catch the cargo boat for Iquitos ASAP since they had heard from a couple that they had to wait a 2-3 days in Yurimaguas to get a boat and they don't have a lot of time so are playing it safe. I told them I would wait for Jennifer and meet up with them in Iquitos.
Jennifer emailed to say she is on the same bus today that we took yesterday so she should be in Tarapoto tonight around 10pm. I am going to head down to the bus station in a couple hours and hide in the crowd of eager motorcycle taxi drivers that will swarm her when she gets off and I will say "Hey amiiiiiga! I give you special price for motorcycle taxi ride". Being 6'3 in height and white skin I should easily be able to blend in with all the other motorcycle taxi drivers. I will bring her back to my hotel and get a couple glasses and try out my "Crema de cafe con pisco" liquer to see if it was worth the $6.50US I paid and then help her find a suitable hotel since she is a bit of a princess and normally pays 3 times what I do for a hotel.
We will probably check out some day trips that the tour operators offer.
