TARAPOTO: Grotty little Amazonian Gateway

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Coming from the delightfully friendly town of Chachapoyas, we were high on the concept that small town Peru was fundamentally different to the surly indifference we have often received in Peru. So we embarked on a bus journey to Tarapoto - our gateway into the Amazonian rainforest/jungle areas. Granted the bus journey was over four hours longer than expected due to the search and seizure of a suspect bag of fireworks on our bus. After the two action DVDs had expired, the spare time was voluminously filled with poor quality footage of a music concert - every band a similar format, with 4 guys singing and dancing on the stage. No surprises, but the music was all very much the same, only occasionally punctuated by the girating form of a barely clad female doing her best to present front and back surfaces in equal measure. It is the first time we have actually had to use an Ipod as a cultural defensive screen, with Linkin Park having to raise the volume even further to be heard above the local artistic variant.

And so we were a little frazzled on arrival, and just couldn´t help notice the dreadfully dire level of enthusiasm provided with the service at restaurants and laundry. It really was the perfect match of this most architecturally abhorrent little town.

The most standout feature was motorbikes - two and three wheels trotting along the streets. Men, women. And sometimes both with child all on one bike. And not a single testosterone charged engine rev. No evident arrogance over what bike they were showing off to the world as an expression of status. Absent were any signs of people leaning their bikes into a fast corner. They were simply the most ideal way to get around in the warm conditions. Superb.

While there were some activities (well out of town) to go off and do, we spent our meagre two days here preparing for the next chapter - the flight into Iquitos, and the Amazon jungle ... and struggling to stave off the extra charges our dragon woman hostel-manager was working us into.

Adios Tarapoto, lo siento yo tengo no mas mejor hablar con usted.

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