October 14, 2011
Well on Wednesday morning I grabbed a motorcycle taxi and went down to Gilmor bus station and caught the 10am for 13 soles ($4US) and it took 3 hours to get to Yurimaguas. Once I got off I had a bunch of taxi touts wanting me to deal with them but I had to wait for my luggage to get off the roof of the bus and another taxi tout tries to help me with my luggage and I say "Quiero ir a la Boca" which is where the boats are and he says he can take me there and I immediately ask him how much and he says 6 soles and I don't know how far away it is since I don't have a map in my LP book of Yurimaguas but with his competition within ear shot I asked "Cuanto cuesta para la Boca" and they all say "Dos soles!" raising 2 fingers at which point I dump the guy who was ripping me off and go with another.
The other guy takes me within a few blocks of the boat yard and then says "Un momento" as he stops and I don't like this since I have a feeling another commission for him is coming and an older peruvian guy who speaks english jumps into the motorcycle taxi to greet me and introduces himself and I am wondering the whole time what he wants from me since it seems like a prearranged operation with commissions in it for them (obviously). I immediately don't trust them since there has to be a reason$$ for this. The prices he quotes me for the Iquitos boat ride sounds similar to my LP guidebook but am cautious of a scam where they will have some other guy pretending to be the captain of the boat and sell me a fake ticket for 140 soles so I go off my LP guidebook and tell them I want to go to "Bodega Davila Store" which LP says sells the tickets for all the boats in the harbour and they take me to some old guys house that doesn't have any store signs or anything (and then I am really thinking this is a scam) and he tells me that this is Bodega Davila store and that my LP guidebook is wrong (which is another warning sign to me since LP keeps their books up to date) and there are shiesters everywhere and they tell me the boat leaves at 2pm which is in an hour and the next boat leaves tomorrow and they offer me a place to stay in Yurimaguas if I don't want the 2pm boat. The english speaking Peruvian looked like he was in his early 50's and his prices were similar to my guidebook but it is the "unknowns" of this transaction that I was worrying about. I would always ask other people about this boat that was in the harbour just for "verfication" of this guys information and the cargo boat is loaded with people and cattle and I was hearing different things about when it leaves like 2pm, 4pm and another guy said he is on my boat and it leaves at 5pm. Well once I got on board I saw the sign that said 4pm departure and met the captain and the 50 year old english speaking guy was there and everything seemed like it was checking out so I paid for a cabin room for 140 soles since deck class (bring your own hammock) was 80 soles (My LP book suggests getting a cabin just to secure your valuables because there are people coming on and off during the night stops). They all told me the cabin rooms are "mucho caliente" and that they are basically a hot box since it is a small metal cell you are in but I needed a safe place for my stuff since the whole boat was loaded in one area for the cattle and 80% of the boat was full of Peruvians with their hammocks strung out.
My cabin was on the top deck and not as full as down below. Some people were trying to sell me a hammock and I thought they were just trying to "rent" them to me for the 2 day trip for $9US for 48 hours and that seemed a little pricey for renting them for 48hours and I decline even though I really want one in this heat on the deck. I thought they were trying to rip me off and they are constantly saying "Oh mucho calor!!" every 30 seconds as they try to sell me the hammocks (the way an ice cream man has a lot of ice cream in front of him and tells you how hot it is so you get the hint to buy his ice cream) so I go into my cabin and I am instantly sweating my butt off in this metal hot box and thinking worse case scenario I will lose 30lbs during the 2 day trip but then a nice young Argentinian man knocks on my cabin door and tells me they are trying to "sell" them to me and not renting them which changes everything since I thought they were being very hard nosed when they didn't accept my cheap offers for renting a hammock so I bought one for $9US and happy I did. The price just seemed to cheap for buying so I assumed it was to rent only.
There were only about 20-25 hammocks strung up with people lying in them on the top deck and I thought I was the only gringo on board and I told them I wanted them to string it up for me as well and when they asked me where I wanted it strung up I took a quick look around and said "Right beside that white guy over there!". The white guy would be "Leo" from Germany who is a young guy who started his trip in Buenos Aires and is working his way up to Mexico for his flight home in December. As we chatted for an hour 2 Americans (from Wisconsin) strung their hammocks up beside us (Patrick and Markell) who are down here to teach english in Chiclayo Peru in order to complete their university degrees.
I was surprised to see dolphins swimming in the river coming up for air every so often. At Kuelap in Chachapoyas, Jennifer had told me about pink dolphins but I wasn't expecting to see them in this dirty river. The boat was suppose to leave at 4pm but ended up leaving at 5:10pm after all the cargo was aboard. After 2 hours of sailing the sun went down and we were sleeping under the stars on the boat. With our hammocks so close to each other it kind of felt like a giant "pajama party" with 100 strangers who you don't know. It was pretty cool! The Peruvian coast guard approached us and they seemed to just anchor to our cargo boat for a free ride to Iquitos during the night. At night if I didn't feel like sleeping in my hammock so I just went to my cabin and watched movies with my external hard drive.
Just a little observation about english and spanish writing. In english we laugh online by writing "hahaha" but in spanish the H is silent and that would be pronounced "Ah,ah,ah" so they laugh by writing "Ja,Ja,Ja" since the J is pronounced as an H. Now you all know how to laugh in spanish! I hope you all have found this very educational.
On the first night I was in my cabin watching movies with my headphones on when I hear Markell whispering through my cabin vent "Hey Kevin, are you asleep?" and I tell her I am just watching movies and listening to music and she whispers "Do you want to smoke?" and I say it depends on what you are smoking and she whispers "Leo has some marijuana and a pipe" and I quickly respond "OK I will be out in 2 seconds!!" JAJAJA! So we start to find a place to smoke it as Leo has the pipe and Patrick suggests we don't smoke where we are presently standing because we are exactly 10 feet above the Peruvian coastguards ship that is now anchored to our cargo boat, so we go to the farthest corner of the ship and play the "pass the pipe" game. As we are smoking and chatting, Markell says "I like how this is bringing our cultures together" (Canadian, American, & German) and I say "Weed has a way of bringing all cultures together". Patrick and Markell tell me they have already had some alcohol earlier so have a bit of a buzz going and a little stoned now and Markell is unaware that her voice is sometimes getting a little too loud since people are sleeping nearby but she explains to us that because the wind is blowing in the opposite direction that our voices would also blow with the wind in the opposite direction away from the people sleeping in their hammocks and I thought to myself "OK... I obviously haven't smoked that much marijuana yet" and as I look back at the people 50 feet away presummably sleeping in their hammocks at 9pm when I see the shadows of a bunch of their heads rise simultaneously out of their hammocks at us which alarms me that we are talking way too loud and disturbing them and the 4 gringos that have congregated into the far corner of the ship late at night are now beginning to look a little suspicious to our sleeping Peruvian friends. I told them that we shouldn't talk so loud in front of the "spanish" when Markell and Patrick correct me and say "they are Peruvians!" but the marijuana I just smoked says "Yes they are that too but they are also spanish" at which Patrick says "You are from Canada. Are you english?" and I say "Yes" (In the english speaking sense of it of course). At least it made sense to me after smoking the weed. I was definitely a bit paranoid at disturbing those who were sleeping in their hammocks on our deck and was worried that the "spanish" might quickly form a mutiny crew (100 of them) against the "english" (4 of us) and push us overboard after our loud english talking in the corner and suspicious behaviour as we passed around a strange little stick that smoke comes out of. Anyhow, I was worried that we were being too noisy with everyone sleeping just 50 feet away so I decide to head back to my cabin.
At 6am the next morning I get a knock on my cabin door and look through my vent to see 2 males standing there and I immediately think that it is boat security or the coast guard here to investigate the strange late night behaviour of the 4 gringos at the corner of the ship. I open the door and they say "Buenos dias!" and they have a plate of food for me (2 buns and an egg) along with a cup of something hot and creamy and my wishful thinking asks "Oh... cafe???" and they shake their heads "no". As I am sipping it I can't identify it since it seems like mushroom soup so I ask Markell who is in the cabin next to me because she speaks spanish and she tells me it is like an oatmeal drink. The Peruvian coastguard unhitches itself from out boat at 8am and leave so I guess they just wanted to sleep overnight as our boat was going in their direction. Makes sense.
At 11:30am I hear a "Buenas!" outside my door and they serve me lunch with is chicken, rice, noodles, beans, cucumber and a side order of 1/2 a cooked plantain (similar to Banana). At 12:15 the boat stops and we are just making a stop as some people leave with some crates of eggs etc... and 5 minutes later we are moving again. At 5:30pm they bring dinner to my door which was chicken and rice with some spicies on top. I didn't see any showers onboard and on the second deck at the very back where you have to pass 50 hammocks is a co-ed washroom with 4 toilet stalls and 4 sinks shared with 100 people. Patrick and Markell got off the boat at an earlier stop at 6am and will drive to Iquitos from there so will beat Leo and I by many hours.
On the second day on the boat I read a little more of my "Last days of the Incas" book and later that night I see the Argentinian eating in the dark so I go over and start chatting with him and see what his itinerary route is. He is going to Iquitos for 2 days then heading south down to Pucallpa. I think to myself it is an odd route to take to get to Pucallpa and he could have taken the bus from Yurimaguas and saved himself some money and time but he says he has never been to the jungle and wants to experience it for a couple days in Iquitos before taking another boat down to Pucallpa. He says he is on a tight budget and only spends 5 soles ($1.75US) for accommodations each night which I am surprised he can do that but he says he has a tent and will be sleeping at a campsite that is 20km outside of Quito. He says he has done ayahuasca and tells me about it and gives me some info on it. I tell him about my invitation by Orlando to a shaman he knows that has his ayahuasca rituals every Friday and he tells me I should have waited the exta 3 days in Tarapoto for it since it would have been a special experience for me and I totally agree with him but tell him I have the attention span of a gold fish and need to be constantly entertained with new sites and 1 extra day would seem like a "lifetime" and 3 extra days would seem like an "eternity" for me. He says he also suffers from "impatience" as well but says those are the best experiences and he also agrees with the idea of an ayahuasca experience being different when you book it with a tour company for 200 soles and I am more into giving a 200 soles donation to the right shaman and he says the "vibration" is completely different. This guy has the same spiritual ideals as myself when it comes to "intent". One "intent" is to make some quick dollars off a tourist and the other "intent" is to really help the ayahuasca seeker (knowledge, healing, etc..). This is why I have a problem with the "accepted" medical system where big pharma companies run the show in our accepted medical system and profits the most instead of seeking out alternative medical practices that are more beneficial for people (Where big pharma companies will make less money) but that is just my personal view and belief. This is why I liked Orlando because he had a good vibe and I trusted the people within his sphere of contacts since they are probably more like-minded and less on the tourist money wagon. When I hear someone takes "donations" I know that their "intent" is not for money but they are doing it as a "service" for the right reasons.
At 2am on the last day of the "cruise" I had to go to the washroom. I had been doing my best to avoid those washrooms down below on the 2nd deck but nature urgently called. So I go down to the second deck to find out the door is locked which alarms me because I really have to go and so I go over to the other door on the far side and a guy with a flashlight lets me in where I proceed to carefully make my way in the pitch dark through 100 hammocks but have to feel the floor with my feet in the dark because the odd person is sleeping along the walk ways on the floor. I get to the stalls and do my thing and then go to flush when I realize they have the water shut off and I can't flush the toilet. I am thinking it is 2am and everyone is asleep so I can just "flee" the scene of the crime and no one will know who didn't flush but as I open the door to leave I see two elderly Peruvian women patiently waiting for my stall (I guess I was in the good one or the only one that was open) and I am a little embarrassed since I left some big gifts in there for the next person that they will not like. I check all 4 sinks and only one of them has a trickle of water coming out to wash my hands and through the mirror I see one of the elderly women hesitantly peering into my stall and doesn't look too happy with what she sees as she looks in and then looks back at me and then looks in again. At this point I felt like quickly shifting the blame away from myself and saying "Yeah I know, some people just have no repect for others do they?" but she knows it was me and after about 20 seconds as I am washing my hands she says "ahhhh.... senor??" so I look around and she points at a bucket full of water and I say "OH! so that is how you do it! Muchas Gracias". I lift up the full bucket of water and about to pour it into the toilet when I think in Canada the toilet will fill up and I certainly don't want to overflow this toilet because I would really feel silly then and I look back at her as I am about to dump the water in to get confirmation again that this is the right way and she nods in agreement so I dump it in and it flushes. These are the types of "learn as you go" situations you will experience while traveling. Having not showered in 48 hours and not shaved in awhile I was beginning to feel like a pig and that toilet situation just added to that. I am unable to shave now because I am out of razors.
It is weird, but after my bathroom ordeal I went back to my cabin and I had originally told Patrick and Markell the previous night that I would probably say bye to them (even though I will probably see them in Iquitos) at 5am when they depart off the boat since I usually get up at that time but when I went back to bed at 2:30am I must have fallen into a deep sleep because I had a dream that seemed so REAL. I dreamed I was staying at a Peruvian woman's guest house and she had everything I needed and I remember that there was a table and all of a sudden all these razors started to appear and were quickly multiplying as if they were breeding or something and that I could choose from all the different razors though I only needed one. She served the best coffee too! Anyhow when I woke up I was shocked that my facial hair was still there and it took me a full 10 seconds to realize I had dreamt the whole thing. I really miss that woman! haha. I interpretted this dream as my subconscious trying to tell me "YOU NEED TO SHAVE, BUDDY!!".
I leave my cabin around 8am and am surprised to see half of the people gone with their hammocks. Patrick and Markell are traveling with two Peruvians which are like their "sponsors/guardians" here and they know the best route to Iquitos which was getting off at that 6am stop and taking a bus from there to Iquitos and they will save many hours that way so obviously the others probably did the same thing. At 9am I head down to the bathrooms again to brush my teeth and go into one of the stalls to take a quick wiz when I accidentally bump my head on a pipe up above and look up and there is a tap up above for SHOWERS!! Thank god I am 6'3 (191cm) or I would have never noticed it since I try to use those stalls very briefly (in and out). I go up to the top deck and tap Leo who is listening to music with his headphones on in his hammock and tell him about my big exciting discovery that there are showers on board and he calmly says "yes, we have been using them for the past couple days" and I am like "Oh..". I guess I was wondering why Markell always looked so clean. Anyhow I was looking forward to this and had thought I would have to wait until this evening at the hotel to have a shower. This is what happens when you don't speak the local language since you are always the last one to know about these things.
I go down to the 2nd deck and buy two cokes and give the guy a 10 soles bill and he examines it closely by tipping the bill up and down. Jennifer had showed me this in Tarapoto and said you have to watch for counterfeit sole notes and what you do is put it on its flat side and carefully look at the colour of the number that is facing a different direction than all the other numbers on a 10,20,50, or 100 sole note and a real bill will change colours from purple to gray as you move it.
We arrive at the Iquitos port at 2:30pm so the boat ride was around 45 hours long including the stops. Leo and I get off the boat and people are crowding around me which I don't like and most of them are touts and taxi drivers or both and the motorcycle taxi guy tries to recommend some places (of his buddies most likely) but Leo wants to go to Micks bunkhouse because it is only 10 soles ($3US) per bunk. The taxi guy takes us around to a few places and I decide on the Iguana which has good internet service, Air conditioning, kitchen, TV room with leather couch and I basically take it for 20 soles ($7US). I am definitely more comfortable here. Eugene and Megan are near the main plaza so I will probably meet up with them tonight after I take a shower and upload the boat photos.
Well on Wednesday morning I grabbed a motorcycle taxi and went down to Gilmor bus station and caught the 10am for 13 soles ($4US) and it took 3 hours to get to Yurimaguas. Once I got off I had a bunch of taxi touts wanting me to deal with them but I had to wait for my luggage to get off the roof of the bus and another taxi tout tries to help me with my luggage and I say "Quiero ir a la Boca" which is where the boats are and he says he can take me there and I immediately ask him how much and he says 6 soles and I don't know how far away it is since I don't have a map in my LP book of Yurimaguas but with his competition within ear shot I asked "Cuanto cuesta para la Boca" and they all say "Dos soles!" raising 2 fingers at which point I dump the guy who was ripping me off and go with another.
The other guy takes me within a few blocks of the boat yard and then says "Un momento" as he stops and I don't like this since I have a feeling another commission for him is coming and an older peruvian guy who speaks english jumps into the motorcycle taxi to greet me and introduces himself and I am wondering the whole time what he wants from me since it seems like a prearranged operation with commissions in it for them (obviously). I immediately don't trust them since there has to be a reason$$ for this. The prices he quotes me for the Iquitos boat ride sounds similar to my LP guidebook but am cautious of a scam where they will have some other guy pretending to be the captain of the boat and sell me a fake ticket for 140 soles so I go off my LP guidebook and tell them I want to go to "Bodega Davila Store" which LP says sells the tickets for all the boats in the harbour and they take me to some old guys house that doesn't have any store signs or anything (and then I am really thinking this is a scam) and he tells me that this is Bodega Davila store and that my LP guidebook is wrong (which is another warning sign to me since LP keeps their books up to date) and there are shiesters everywhere and they tell me the boat leaves at 2pm which is in an hour and the next boat leaves tomorrow and they offer me a place to stay in Yurimaguas if I don't want the 2pm boat. The english speaking Peruvian looked like he was in his early 50's and his prices were similar to my guidebook but it is the "unknowns" of this transaction that I was worrying about. I would always ask other people about this boat that was in the harbour just for "verfication" of this guys information and the cargo boat is loaded with people and cattle and I was hearing different things about when it leaves like 2pm, 4pm and another guy said he is on my boat and it leaves at 5pm. Well once I got on board I saw the sign that said 4pm departure and met the captain and the 50 year old english speaking guy was there and everything seemed like it was checking out so I paid for a cabin room for 140 soles since deck class (bring your own hammock) was 80 soles (My LP book suggests getting a cabin just to secure your valuables because there are people coming on and off during the night stops). They all told me the cabin rooms are "mucho caliente" and that they are basically a hot box since it is a small metal cell you are in but I needed a safe place for my stuff since the whole boat was loaded in one area for the cattle and 80% of the boat was full of Peruvians with their hammocks strung out.
My cabin was on the top deck and not as full as down below. Some people were trying to sell me a hammock and I thought they were just trying to "rent" them to me for the 2 day trip for $9US for 48 hours and that seemed a little pricey for renting them for 48hours and I decline even though I really want one in this heat on the deck. I thought they were trying to rip me off and they are constantly saying "Oh mucho calor!!" every 30 seconds as they try to sell me the hammocks (the way an ice cream man has a lot of ice cream in front of him and tells you how hot it is so you get the hint to buy his ice cream) so I go into my cabin and I am instantly sweating my butt off in this metal hot box and thinking worse case scenario I will lose 30lbs during the 2 day trip but then a nice young Argentinian man knocks on my cabin door and tells me they are trying to "sell" them to me and not renting them which changes everything since I thought they were being very hard nosed when they didn't accept my cheap offers for renting a hammock so I bought one for $9US and happy I did. The price just seemed to cheap for buying so I assumed it was to rent only.
There were only about 20-25 hammocks strung up with people lying in them on the top deck and I thought I was the only gringo on board and I told them I wanted them to string it up for me as well and when they asked me where I wanted it strung up I took a quick look around and said "Right beside that white guy over there!". The white guy would be "Leo" from Germany who is a young guy who started his trip in Buenos Aires and is working his way up to Mexico for his flight home in December. As we chatted for an hour 2 Americans (from Wisconsin) strung their hammocks up beside us (Patrick and Markell) who are down here to teach english in Chiclayo Peru in order to complete their university degrees.
I was surprised to see dolphins swimming in the river coming up for air every so often. At Kuelap in Chachapoyas, Jennifer had told me about pink dolphins but I wasn't expecting to see them in this dirty river. The boat was suppose to leave at 4pm but ended up leaving at 5:10pm after all the cargo was aboard. After 2 hours of sailing the sun went down and we were sleeping under the stars on the boat. With our hammocks so close to each other it kind of felt like a giant "pajama party" with 100 strangers who you don't know. It was pretty cool! The Peruvian coast guard approached us and they seemed to just anchor to our cargo boat for a free ride to Iquitos during the night. At night if I didn't feel like sleeping in my hammock so I just went to my cabin and watched movies with my external hard drive.
Just a little observation about english and spanish writing. In english we laugh online by writing "hahaha" but in spanish the H is silent and that would be pronounced "Ah,ah,ah" so they laugh by writing "Ja,Ja,Ja" since the J is pronounced as an H. Now you all know how to laugh in spanish! I hope you all have found this very educational.
On the first night I was in my cabin watching movies with my headphones on when I hear Markell whispering through my cabin vent "Hey Kevin, are you asleep?" and I tell her I am just watching movies and listening to music and she whispers "Do you want to smoke?" and I say it depends on what you are smoking and she whispers "Leo has some marijuana and a pipe" and I quickly respond "OK I will be out in 2 seconds!!" JAJAJA! So we start to find a place to smoke it as Leo has the pipe and Patrick suggests we don't smoke where we are presently standing because we are exactly 10 feet above the Peruvian coastguards ship that is now anchored to our cargo boat, so we go to the farthest corner of the ship and play the "pass the pipe" game. As we are smoking and chatting, Markell says "I like how this is bringing our cultures together" (Canadian, American, & German) and I say "Weed has a way of bringing all cultures together". Patrick and Markell tell me they have already had some alcohol earlier so have a bit of a buzz going and a little stoned now and Markell is unaware that her voice is sometimes getting a little too loud since people are sleeping nearby but she explains to us that because the wind is blowing in the opposite direction that our voices would also blow with the wind in the opposite direction away from the people sleeping in their hammocks and I thought to myself "OK... I obviously haven't smoked that much marijuana yet" and as I look back at the people 50 feet away presummably sleeping in their hammocks at 9pm when I see the shadows of a bunch of their heads rise simultaneously out of their hammocks at us which alarms me that we are talking way too loud and disturbing them and the 4 gringos that have congregated into the far corner of the ship late at night are now beginning to look a little suspicious to our sleeping Peruvian friends. I told them that we shouldn't talk so loud in front of the "spanish" when Markell and Patrick correct me and say "they are Peruvians!" but the marijuana I just smoked says "Yes they are that too but they are also spanish" at which Patrick says "You are from Canada. Are you english?" and I say "Yes" (In the english speaking sense of it of course). At least it made sense to me after smoking the weed. I was definitely a bit paranoid at disturbing those who were sleeping in their hammocks on our deck and was worried that the "spanish" might quickly form a mutiny crew (100 of them) against the "english" (4 of us) and push us overboard after our loud english talking in the corner and suspicious behaviour as we passed around a strange little stick that smoke comes out of. Anyhow, I was worried that we were being too noisy with everyone sleeping just 50 feet away so I decide to head back to my cabin.
At 6am the next morning I get a knock on my cabin door and look through my vent to see 2 males standing there and I immediately think that it is boat security or the coast guard here to investigate the strange late night behaviour of the 4 gringos at the corner of the ship. I open the door and they say "Buenos dias!" and they have a plate of food for me (2 buns and an egg) along with a cup of something hot and creamy and my wishful thinking asks "Oh... cafe???" and they shake their heads "no". As I am sipping it I can't identify it since it seems like mushroom soup so I ask Markell who is in the cabin next to me because she speaks spanish and she tells me it is like an oatmeal drink. The Peruvian coastguard unhitches itself from out boat at 8am and leave so I guess they just wanted to sleep overnight as our boat was going in their direction. Makes sense.
At 11:30am I hear a "Buenas!" outside my door and they serve me lunch with is chicken, rice, noodles, beans, cucumber and a side order of 1/2 a cooked plantain (similar to Banana). At 12:15 the boat stops and we are just making a stop as some people leave with some crates of eggs etc... and 5 minutes later we are moving again. At 5:30pm they bring dinner to my door which was chicken and rice with some spicies on top. I didn't see any showers onboard and on the second deck at the very back where you have to pass 50 hammocks is a co-ed washroom with 4 toilet stalls and 4 sinks shared with 100 people. Patrick and Markell got off the boat at an earlier stop at 6am and will drive to Iquitos from there so will beat Leo and I by many hours.
On the second day on the boat I read a little more of my "Last days of the Incas" book and later that night I see the Argentinian eating in the dark so I go over and start chatting with him and see what his itinerary route is. He is going to Iquitos for 2 days then heading south down to Pucallpa. I think to myself it is an odd route to take to get to Pucallpa and he could have taken the bus from Yurimaguas and saved himself some money and time but he says he has never been to the jungle and wants to experience it for a couple days in Iquitos before taking another boat down to Pucallpa. He says he is on a tight budget and only spends 5 soles ($1.75US) for accommodations each night which I am surprised he can do that but he says he has a tent and will be sleeping at a campsite that is 20km outside of Quito. He says he has done ayahuasca and tells me about it and gives me some info on it. I tell him about my invitation by Orlando to a shaman he knows that has his ayahuasca rituals every Friday and he tells me I should have waited the exta 3 days in Tarapoto for it since it would have been a special experience for me and I totally agree with him but tell him I have the attention span of a gold fish and need to be constantly entertained with new sites and 1 extra day would seem like a "lifetime" and 3 extra days would seem like an "eternity" for me. He says he also suffers from "impatience" as well but says those are the best experiences and he also agrees with the idea of an ayahuasca experience being different when you book it with a tour company for 200 soles and I am more into giving a 200 soles donation to the right shaman and he says the "vibration" is completely different. This guy has the same spiritual ideals as myself when it comes to "intent". One "intent" is to make some quick dollars off a tourist and the other "intent" is to really help the ayahuasca seeker (knowledge, healing, etc..). This is why I have a problem with the "accepted" medical system where big pharma companies run the show in our accepted medical system and profits the most instead of seeking out alternative medical practices that are more beneficial for people (Where big pharma companies will make less money) but that is just my personal view and belief. This is why I liked Orlando because he had a good vibe and I trusted the people within his sphere of contacts since they are probably more like-minded and less on the tourist money wagon. When I hear someone takes "donations" I know that their "intent" is not for money but they are doing it as a "service" for the right reasons.
At 2am on the last day of the "cruise" I had to go to the washroom. I had been doing my best to avoid those washrooms down below on the 2nd deck but nature urgently called. So I go down to the second deck to find out the door is locked which alarms me because I really have to go and so I go over to the other door on the far side and a guy with a flashlight lets me in where I proceed to carefully make my way in the pitch dark through 100 hammocks but have to feel the floor with my feet in the dark because the odd person is sleeping along the walk ways on the floor. I get to the stalls and do my thing and then go to flush when I realize they have the water shut off and I can't flush the toilet. I am thinking it is 2am and everyone is asleep so I can just "flee" the scene of the crime and no one will know who didn't flush but as I open the door to leave I see two elderly Peruvian women patiently waiting for my stall (I guess I was in the good one or the only one that was open) and I am a little embarrassed since I left some big gifts in there for the next person that they will not like. I check all 4 sinks and only one of them has a trickle of water coming out to wash my hands and through the mirror I see one of the elderly women hesitantly peering into my stall and doesn't look too happy with what she sees as she looks in and then looks back at me and then looks in again. At this point I felt like quickly shifting the blame away from myself and saying "Yeah I know, some people just have no repect for others do they?" but she knows it was me and after about 20 seconds as I am washing my hands she says "ahhhh.... senor??" so I look around and she points at a bucket full of water and I say "OH! so that is how you do it! Muchas Gracias". I lift up the full bucket of water and about to pour it into the toilet when I think in Canada the toilet will fill up and I certainly don't want to overflow this toilet because I would really feel silly then and I look back at her as I am about to dump the water in to get confirmation again that this is the right way and she nods in agreement so I dump it in and it flushes. These are the types of "learn as you go" situations you will experience while traveling. Having not showered in 48 hours and not shaved in awhile I was beginning to feel like a pig and that toilet situation just added to that. I am unable to shave now because I am out of razors.
It is weird, but after my bathroom ordeal I went back to my cabin and I had originally told Patrick and Markell the previous night that I would probably say bye to them (even though I will probably see them in Iquitos) at 5am when they depart off the boat since I usually get up at that time but when I went back to bed at 2:30am I must have fallen into a deep sleep because I had a dream that seemed so REAL. I dreamed I was staying at a Peruvian woman's guest house and she had everything I needed and I remember that there was a table and all of a sudden all these razors started to appear and were quickly multiplying as if they were breeding or something and that I could choose from all the different razors though I only needed one. She served the best coffee too! Anyhow when I woke up I was shocked that my facial hair was still there and it took me a full 10 seconds to realize I had dreamt the whole thing. I really miss that woman! haha. I interpretted this dream as my subconscious trying to tell me "YOU NEED TO SHAVE, BUDDY!!".
I leave my cabin around 8am and am surprised to see half of the people gone with their hammocks. Patrick and Markell are traveling with two Peruvians which are like their "sponsors/guardians" here and they know the best route to Iquitos which was getting off at that 6am stop and taking a bus from there to Iquitos and they will save many hours that way so obviously the others probably did the same thing. At 9am I head down to the bathrooms again to brush my teeth and go into one of the stalls to take a quick wiz when I accidentally bump my head on a pipe up above and look up and there is a tap up above for SHOWERS!! Thank god I am 6'3 (191cm) or I would have never noticed it since I try to use those stalls very briefly (in and out). I go up to the top deck and tap Leo who is listening to music with his headphones on in his hammock and tell him about my big exciting discovery that there are showers on board and he calmly says "yes, we have been using them for the past couple days" and I am like "Oh..". I guess I was wondering why Markell always looked so clean. Anyhow I was looking forward to this and had thought I would have to wait until this evening at the hotel to have a shower. This is what happens when you don't speak the local language since you are always the last one to know about these things.
I go down to the 2nd deck and buy two cokes and give the guy a 10 soles bill and he examines it closely by tipping the bill up and down. Jennifer had showed me this in Tarapoto and said you have to watch for counterfeit sole notes and what you do is put it on its flat side and carefully look at the colour of the number that is facing a different direction than all the other numbers on a 10,20,50, or 100 sole note and a real bill will change colours from purple to gray as you move it.
We arrive at the Iquitos port at 2:30pm so the boat ride was around 45 hours long including the stops. Leo and I get off the boat and people are crowding around me which I don't like and most of them are touts and taxi drivers or both and the motorcycle taxi guy tries to recommend some places (of his buddies most likely) but Leo wants to go to Micks bunkhouse because it is only 10 soles ($3US) per bunk. The taxi guy takes us around to a few places and I decide on the Iguana which has good internet service, Air conditioning, kitchen, TV room with leather couch and I basically take it for 20 soles ($7US). I am definitely more comfortable here. Eugene and Megan are near the main plaza so I will probably meet up with them tonight after I take a shower and upload the boat photos.
