October 17, 2011
On Sunday morning I get up early and head down towards the river to Eugene and Megans place at 5:45am and we get a motorcycle taxi to Belen Market. We wander around the big market and it is very big and if it walks then they sell it here. We see lots of fish, live turtles and dissected turtles, alligator paws, etc... and everything is in its right area so you know where to go. I had told the people who run the hotel I am staying at that I want to go to Belen market and they tell me it is a dangerous place to go and that I shouldn't and even Sammy from Lousiana says the same that he will never go down there. I have my zippers on my bag facing the same way with my wallet zipper facing the inside towards my body just to take preventive measures. As we are walking around the slummier areas of Belen some older guy asks Megan if she wants to hire him for protection even though Eugene could probably take him out with one punch but it lets us know what type of area we are in. I load up on shaving razors and other needed things and then Eugene and Megan have to leave to meet Rene at the boat for their fishing adventure so I wander around Belen Market by myself for a couple more hours. I sit down for awhile on the stairs and a young woman tells me it is not safe here and that I should not go down to the floating homes down below. I always feel safe no matter where I am because I am always with ME! but I take a look and see that there is nothing of value/interest down there except slum homes on a dock. I ask her where the shaman/healing area is and she gives me the directions and I go there and there are a few venders there selling "Ayahuasca" in used water bottles. I buy 1 liter of Ayahuasca for 70 soles ($23US) and I may go back to buy some cocaine leaves that are for sale there (Just leaves and nothing more). It is really hot out and I decide I have had enough of the market for now and head to the main plaza square.
It is Sunday so they have shut down the streets for a couple blocks in all directions of the plaza and they are having their "raising of the flag" event which is done every Sunday. Lots of Peruvian military marching around with their guns strapped to them. All the stores are shut down for Sunday so I decide to go back to the hotel at my air conditioned place and chill out for most of the day. When I had first arrived a guy at one of the hotels had given me an english newspaper that is for the gringo tourists and have had it in my bag for the past 2 days. So at my hotel I begin to read it from cover to cover which talks about all the sites to see and about Ayahuasca as a medicine and its benefits etc... and I also read an article that takes up a 1/4 of the page titled "Gringo conman in Iquitos" and he is a British guy in his 30's that has a story about how he was robbed and beat up and now had huge medical bills and gets other Gringos to give him money out of sympathy or goodwill etc... and there is a full picture of the guy in the newspaper article. And it says that he approaches gringos immediately by saying "Excuse me, do you speak english?".
Well I read this article and wonder within the week I will stay here if I will run into him since he obviously will be cruising the Gringo locations closer to the main plaza. Well 30 minutes after reading that article I head out to meet up with Eugene and Megan who I think must be home by now after completing their fishing expedition with Rene and I take a different route than normal and go along the river walkway and I look across the street to see a skinny gringo in this 30's walking the same way on the opposite side of the road and then he crosses the road right in front of me where later stops and thinks for a bit and then turns around to face me and says "Excuse me... do you speak english?". Well I immediately recognize hims from the newspaper photo and I am shocked that within 30 minutes after reading the paper that I would be meeting this guy and I hesitantly say "yes" (Thinking "All Gringos speak english moron". And then he cuts right to the chase and gives me his sob story of how he was robbed and beat up and lost all his money and I cut him off immediately so I can finish his story and say "Yeah Yeah I know and you had to go to the hospital and you have big medical bills to pay, right?". He is a bit stunned at this point as I am reaching into my bag (which he probably thinks I am pulling out money for him as he carefully watches) and I pull out my camera and ask if I can take a picture of him and he hesitantly says "Umm ok... but this seems kind of weird" and I tell him I just want a photo of him that is all. So he is doing his best not to give me a straight face to conceal himself as best he can and after taking the picture I say "Hey mate, I take it you don't ever read the local newspaper?" at which he now understands what I am talking about and says "Oh that article is 2 years old with an old photo of me" and I tell him "Yeah, it is 2 years old and you are still doing the same con trick for 2 years now!!". I am being nice to him as I say this and he says even after all that stuff that he does have a legitimate story and I tell him that stories are like assholes and that everybody has one. I tell him he could go to the British embassy in Lima if he was destitute but I know he probably prefers ripping off Gringos and feeding his drug habit by the look of him since he is very skinny. He then introduces himself as "Brian" from Britain and tells me that he appreciates my attitude (for not getting mad at him) and walks off. It is funny but after 30 minutes of reading this in the paper and then meeting this guy on the street was too coincidental! On my first day in Iquitos I had met a gringo restaurant owner named "Gerald" who was a retired engineer from Houston Texas and he tell me 80% of the gringos here are drug addicts.
So I continue on my way to Eugene and Megans place even though they already checked out of their floating hotel because it had big spiders and a huge rat in their floating one room hotel suite that is connected by a few planks to the floating restaurant. The previous day I had asked Eugene at their place while we were lying in the hammocks on their deck if I could use their washroom and he said certainly but didn't know whether calling it a washroom was a suitable word for it since there was no door and was almost built right into the room with a wall 6 inches from the toilet so when I sat down my knees were jammed up against the wall. The place definitely had lots of "character". That is just my polite way of saying a "shithole" LOL! Anyhow I had forgotten that they had checked out of this place after they left the market but as I went down the dock to the floating restaurant I saw them sitting down at a table having a few beers and were the only people there (as always). They wanted to order but this guy who worked there who had dreadlocks never came to ask them what they wanted (just rested in his hammock) until an hour later as we keep staring at him so he gets the hint and at which time they order "cheesesticks" and the guy with dreadlocks explains that they do not presently have the ingredients to make the cheesesticks and would have to go out to the store to get this stuff (fair enough we think) and I ask how long would it take and he say "Oh about 5 minutes" so even if he was 15 minutes it would be no big deal so he leaves and half an hour goes by until we see him up the riverbank at a different bar and he has some groceries with him but decides to sit down at this bar and have a smoke for another half hour and obviously he doesn't see us looking up at him and after a full hour now he comes down.
Meanwhile Megan had told me about some obnoxious Americans that were at a restaurant by the water only a couple days ago that they were at and said how loud and obnoxious they were and sure enough to our surprise Megan sees them walking down the dock to the restaurant and tells us "Kevin! Those are the obnoxious Americans we were telling you about!" and sure enough they came and sat right beside us. We said hello and they said they were from New Orleans. I guess it was a mother and daughter and the daughters female friend. They were loud but harmless and we found the mother who was probably in her 60's to beentertaining hearing their thick southern drall as she says "This place is just like the Lousiana bayou!!". Our guy was still gone so the outspoken mother said she would go to the back and just pull some more beers out of the fridge so we quickly realized who should be getting the tip as she came back with beers for us.
Most of the music was rap but then switched to "The Doors" and we heard many DOOR classics (Roadhouse blues, etc...) while we were by the water and then came the DOORS song "Waiting for the sun". The song would go "waiting... (Big pause).. waiting,,, (big pause).. waiting... (big pause)... waiting for the sun!" but at the very end all 3 of us would yell out "WAITING FOR OUR CHEESESTICKS!!!!". I haven't had a lot of beer on this trip but definitely enjoyed the beers on the floating restaurant that night while we listened to the DOORS songs.
After there fishing trip with Rene on Sunday, Megan and Eugene and I are invited back to meet Rene's house on Tuesday to meet his wife and kids over dinner at their place. So today Eugene and I are to meet Rene at the same dock at 6pm and he will take us 30 mintues by boat up the Amazon river to a place where we will sit around and smoke some tobacco from a pipe for awhile and then the ceremony will start and we will drink our ayahuasca at 10pm tonight and we will bring our hammocks with us and then we will be brought back by boat sometime in the morning.
So Eugene and I have our big night tonight so I am going to take it easy today and do some laundry here at my place and rest up now since I don't want to fall asleep right after drinking the ayahuasca at 10pm when our reality begins to change! Eugene and I are about to delve deep into the spirit world of infinite consciousness!
Don't change that channel because we will be right back after these important messages :).
On Sunday morning I get up early and head down towards the river to Eugene and Megans place at 5:45am and we get a motorcycle taxi to Belen Market. We wander around the big market and it is very big and if it walks then they sell it here. We see lots of fish, live turtles and dissected turtles, alligator paws, etc... and everything is in its right area so you know where to go. I had told the people who run the hotel I am staying at that I want to go to Belen market and they tell me it is a dangerous place to go and that I shouldn't and even Sammy from Lousiana says the same that he will never go down there. I have my zippers on my bag facing the same way with my wallet zipper facing the inside towards my body just to take preventive measures. As we are walking around the slummier areas of Belen some older guy asks Megan if she wants to hire him for protection even though Eugene could probably take him out with one punch but it lets us know what type of area we are in. I load up on shaving razors and other needed things and then Eugene and Megan have to leave to meet Rene at the boat for their fishing adventure so I wander around Belen Market by myself for a couple more hours. I sit down for awhile on the stairs and a young woman tells me it is not safe here and that I should not go down to the floating homes down below. I always feel safe no matter where I am because I am always with ME! but I take a look and see that there is nothing of value/interest down there except slum homes on a dock. I ask her where the shaman/healing area is and she gives me the directions and I go there and there are a few venders there selling "Ayahuasca" in used water bottles. I buy 1 liter of Ayahuasca for 70 soles ($23US) and I may go back to buy some cocaine leaves that are for sale there (Just leaves and nothing more). It is really hot out and I decide I have had enough of the market for now and head to the main plaza square.
It is Sunday so they have shut down the streets for a couple blocks in all directions of the plaza and they are having their "raising of the flag" event which is done every Sunday. Lots of Peruvian military marching around with their guns strapped to them. All the stores are shut down for Sunday so I decide to go back to the hotel at my air conditioned place and chill out for most of the day. When I had first arrived a guy at one of the hotels had given me an english newspaper that is for the gringo tourists and have had it in my bag for the past 2 days. So at my hotel I begin to read it from cover to cover which talks about all the sites to see and about Ayahuasca as a medicine and its benefits etc... and I also read an article that takes up a 1/4 of the page titled "Gringo conman in Iquitos" and he is a British guy in his 30's that has a story about how he was robbed and beat up and now had huge medical bills and gets other Gringos to give him money out of sympathy or goodwill etc... and there is a full picture of the guy in the newspaper article. And it says that he approaches gringos immediately by saying "Excuse me, do you speak english?".
Well I read this article and wonder within the week I will stay here if I will run into him since he obviously will be cruising the Gringo locations closer to the main plaza. Well 30 minutes after reading that article I head out to meet up with Eugene and Megan who I think must be home by now after completing their fishing expedition with Rene and I take a different route than normal and go along the river walkway and I look across the street to see a skinny gringo in this 30's walking the same way on the opposite side of the road and then he crosses the road right in front of me where later stops and thinks for a bit and then turns around to face me and says "Excuse me... do you speak english?". Well I immediately recognize hims from the newspaper photo and I am shocked that within 30 minutes after reading the paper that I would be meeting this guy and I hesitantly say "yes" (Thinking "All Gringos speak english moron". And then he cuts right to the chase and gives me his sob story of how he was robbed and beat up and lost all his money and I cut him off immediately so I can finish his story and say "Yeah Yeah I know and you had to go to the hospital and you have big medical bills to pay, right?". He is a bit stunned at this point as I am reaching into my bag (which he probably thinks I am pulling out money for him as he carefully watches) and I pull out my camera and ask if I can take a picture of him and he hesitantly says "Umm ok... but this seems kind of weird" and I tell him I just want a photo of him that is all. So he is doing his best not to give me a straight face to conceal himself as best he can and after taking the picture I say "Hey mate, I take it you don't ever read the local newspaper?" at which he now understands what I am talking about and says "Oh that article is 2 years old with an old photo of me" and I tell him "Yeah, it is 2 years old and you are still doing the same con trick for 2 years now!!". I am being nice to him as I say this and he says even after all that stuff that he does have a legitimate story and I tell him that stories are like assholes and that everybody has one. I tell him he could go to the British embassy in Lima if he was destitute but I know he probably prefers ripping off Gringos and feeding his drug habit by the look of him since he is very skinny. He then introduces himself as "Brian" from Britain and tells me that he appreciates my attitude (for not getting mad at him) and walks off. It is funny but after 30 minutes of reading this in the paper and then meeting this guy on the street was too coincidental! On my first day in Iquitos I had met a gringo restaurant owner named "Gerald" who was a retired engineer from Houston Texas and he tell me 80% of the gringos here are drug addicts.
So I continue on my way to Eugene and Megans place even though they already checked out of their floating hotel because it had big spiders and a huge rat in their floating one room hotel suite that is connected by a few planks to the floating restaurant. The previous day I had asked Eugene at their place while we were lying in the hammocks on their deck if I could use their washroom and he said certainly but didn't know whether calling it a washroom was a suitable word for it since there was no door and was almost built right into the room with a wall 6 inches from the toilet so when I sat down my knees were jammed up against the wall. The place definitely had lots of "character". That is just my polite way of saying a "shithole" LOL! Anyhow I had forgotten that they had checked out of this place after they left the market but as I went down the dock to the floating restaurant I saw them sitting down at a table having a few beers and were the only people there (as always). They wanted to order but this guy who worked there who had dreadlocks never came to ask them what they wanted (just rested in his hammock) until an hour later as we keep staring at him so he gets the hint and at which time they order "cheesesticks" and the guy with dreadlocks explains that they do not presently have the ingredients to make the cheesesticks and would have to go out to the store to get this stuff (fair enough we think) and I ask how long would it take and he say "Oh about 5 minutes" so even if he was 15 minutes it would be no big deal so he leaves and half an hour goes by until we see him up the riverbank at a different bar and he has some groceries with him but decides to sit down at this bar and have a smoke for another half hour and obviously he doesn't see us looking up at him and after a full hour now he comes down.
Meanwhile Megan had told me about some obnoxious Americans that were at a restaurant by the water only a couple days ago that they were at and said how loud and obnoxious they were and sure enough to our surprise Megan sees them walking down the dock to the restaurant and tells us "Kevin! Those are the obnoxious Americans we were telling you about!" and sure enough they came and sat right beside us. We said hello and they said they were from New Orleans. I guess it was a mother and daughter and the daughters female friend. They were loud but harmless and we found the mother who was probably in her 60's to beentertaining hearing their thick southern drall as she says "This place is just like the Lousiana bayou!!". Our guy was still gone so the outspoken mother said she would go to the back and just pull some more beers out of the fridge so we quickly realized who should be getting the tip as she came back with beers for us.
Most of the music was rap but then switched to "The Doors" and we heard many DOOR classics (Roadhouse blues, etc...) while we were by the water and then came the DOORS song "Waiting for the sun". The song would go "waiting... (Big pause).. waiting,,, (big pause).. waiting... (big pause)... waiting for the sun!" but at the very end all 3 of us would yell out "WAITING FOR OUR CHEESESTICKS!!!!". I haven't had a lot of beer on this trip but definitely enjoyed the beers on the floating restaurant that night while we listened to the DOORS songs.
After there fishing trip with Rene on Sunday, Megan and Eugene and I are invited back to meet Rene's house on Tuesday to meet his wife and kids over dinner at their place. So today Eugene and I are to meet Rene at the same dock at 6pm and he will take us 30 mintues by boat up the Amazon river to a place where we will sit around and smoke some tobacco from a pipe for awhile and then the ceremony will start and we will drink our ayahuasca at 10pm tonight and we will bring our hammocks with us and then we will be brought back by boat sometime in the morning.
So Eugene and I have our big night tonight so I am going to take it easy today and do some laundry here at my place and rest up now since I don't want to fall asleep right after drinking the ayahuasca at 10pm when our reality begins to change! Eugene and I are about to delve deep into the spirit world of infinite consciousness!
Don't change that channel because we will be right back after these important messages :).
