We arrived in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon Basin, late the next evening, and whizzed around the centre in a little moto-taxi with open sides as the full force of a tropical storm unleashed itself around us. The plan was to get a boat up the Amazon from Iquitos to Leticia, in Colombia, and cross the border off the beaten track, spending a memorable New Year on a boat with hundreds of Peruvians and two toilets. Unfortunately, though hardly unsurprising, no one wanted to work over the New Year period, preferring instead to sit on the docked boats in the mud, drinking home-brew liquor. So we had to spend December 31st in Iquitos, wandering around the centre, drinking beer, opening then refusing to drink revolting Peruvian "champagne", setting off fireworks in a crowd, staring guiltily as
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