Today marks the 5th and final day Simon and I will be in Iquitos - 2 days prior and 3 days after Blue Morpho. Although Iquitos is the largest city in the northern amazon region (accessible by only plane or boat), it only encompasses about 30 square blocks. Good news for us since it makes it relatively easy to get around. You can either walk everywhere or take the local public transit in the form of motortaxis (think half motorcycles attached to buggy trailer-carts) for only about $1 US per ride. On the outset, Iquitos is a dirty, noisy, polluted city, making sleeping-in difficult from the incessant rumble of motorcycles. But after spending so many days here, we've managed to discover many the little nitches the city has to offer. From local handmade crafts, to markets in the most random places, to finding one of the only bakeries in town, and 3rd world country versions of walmart (stores that carry everything from q-tips to remote control cars to clothes stacked up from wall to wall), to doing laundry (4kg of clothes for only $3, including washing, drying, and folding - pretty good deal considering both Simon & I only brought a combined 4kg of clothes on the trip), to finding random juice bars that serve fresh papaya/strawberry/banana smoothies (Tutti Frutti was our random encounter), to eating at local restaurants (the most expensive ones in town were only $9 US for entire meals). yum! The language barrier makes it doubly adventurous for us considering neither of us speak spanish and few Iquitinians speak english. But we've gotten through it by a lot of pointing, nodding, and charades. It certainly makes me appreciate language in a whole new light and forces you to learn the basics like learning your numbers and saying "I'll have what they're having" or "I'll take that".
And last night I had my first experience that makes me think twice of trusting "friendly" people, who turn out to be not so friendly. I ran into a kid that I had bought a bracelet from earlier in the day and he was a friendly folk, talked about this and that, about how he was born in the jungle, and moved to Iquitos to earn money to send home to his family. He seemed completely harmless and took us to a local bar that was on the river. From watching Rachel Ray, I thought it would be a good idea to get suggestions from locals about good places to go. So we went. He took us to this cool little quaint bar that (hilariously) played a mix of reggae, hip-hop, electronic music. We got some drinks, hung out, and talked. By the time I wanted to leave and we were about to pay, he tried to get us to give him 20sol for him to take his friend out for his birthday, which was completely ridiculous, but I politely said no. Then he tried to get us to give him 30sol for drinks so he'd help us pay at the counter...which was 15 sol more than it should have been, and to top it off, he tried to get us to pay for his drink. We were emphatic about saying no and when he realized he couldn't squeeze anything from us, he bolted out of the bar. Thankfully, the waitresses didn't make us pay and that nothing worse happened (like getting mugged or followed). Thank god it wasn't anything worse. Good lesson to learn early on the trip: Don't trust the local hagglers!
I'm definitely ready to head to the mountains of central Peru, and also to get some fresh clean air.
Iquitos, along side the river before the storm
Plaza de Armas in Iquitos
Yellow Rose of Texas, where Texas
is the center of the universe, even in Peru
Sunsets were always gorgeous
Cruising around on Hamilton's bike
Bags from the the one-stop shop. lol.
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