Day 2 Boat Trip Yurimaguas to Iquitos

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Fellow Bloggers, always remember to save your entry, just lost 15 minutes of typing, dang, user error.
First to Slackman, no fine wine or continental breakfast, however, did supplement the fine on board fare with tuna, pork & beans, and oreo cookies, so all was not lost. This little journey is unlike our jaunt through Thailand a couple of years ago or Baja Mexico before that, remember that travel book I gave you when in Fairbanks, Alaska the summer before last, the author wrote about "threading", this trip is that kind of travel, wish I could remember the name of that book.
On to Day 2: As stated somewhere in the last entry was up about 4-4:30am Stopped at villages numerous times, don´t ask how many, I don´t remember, many 5-15 homes and all the people came to see the boat and load and unload cargo and goods. Some stops were at the bank of the river with no homes in sight, only two-three people in a small clearing with a stack of bananas fruit, bundles of hearts of palm, etc. their village was back in the jungle on terra firma to avoid the seasonal river fluctuations. At different spots along the river there would be a meeting of a black water river or stream and watching the muddy Amazon and these black water rivers mix was an interesting sight. (just remembered saw many dolphins all along the river and many at the meeting of rivers) Late in the afternoon picked up some American folks on a church mission, some doctors, and others, as the boat could not get close to shore they were brought to the big boat in a small outboard boat, poor folks were a bit wet as it had been raining for awhile. They were pretty wrapped up in themselves and there was not much conversation about their week in the jungle with anyone on board, I introduced myself and the was the last time we spoke, oh well.
As it is FASTER (remember this word) to get to Iquitos by getting off the boat in Nauta and taking a bus or taxi the last 105 Km. to Iquitos, we elected to do this, as it was 11:30pm and I could enjoy a hot shower and a bed in Iquitos rather than stay on the boat until 11:00am the next day. So a two minute motocar ride to the taxi stand and on our way by highway to Iquitos at 12:15am. we were the 1st taxi to leave so I could feel the bed in Iquitos waiting for me, and of course this vehicle left a lot to be desired. The driver had to hold the gear shift in gear or it would disengage. Speeds were 60-100 KPM pitch black as it was raining and the inside had the aroma of the cattle on the boat as to get off the boat you walk next to the penned up cattle. So we have three taxis pass us, and by golly our driver was not to be the last to arrive in Iquitos so we passed the last taxi, things were fine until a taxi from the same company was broken down at KM 74, , so being good folks we were, a rope was tied to the disabled taxi and we were off to Iquitos towing the taxi that had four passangers in the seats and one in the back of the stationwagon taxi. Things were fine until KM 70 when the rope broke, retied then on to KM 56, rope broke retied, on to KM 43, rope broke retied, in all the rope broke 5 times. The taxi being towed had it´s lights off and would weave back and forth from lane to lane, in turn our driver was looking out his side window to see where the other taxi was and I was elected to wipe the inside of the windscreen as there were no defrosters. Did arrive in Iquitos at 3:30am an 1 hour taxi ride extended to three and a quarter hours.
So went to my hostal (gerson had made reservations from Yurimaguas) and was told I could not have my room as I was to arrive about noon not 3:30am (there was a mix up between the day staff and night staff, and by gosh the night guy was sticking by the rules. So found another hostal for a 4 hour sleep.
Well all, that´s about all I can remember, I´ll check my journal to see if there is more to add to this blog in regards to the boat trip.
Have been in Iquitos since 2.21.08 and will write about that later today or tommorow. Mac, if your sending emails to my charter.net address, I can´t access it here in Peru, please use my gmail account or respond here. I´ll need to change my flight date from Feb 27th to Mar 3 as soon as I here from you. Hope all is well in tinseltown and the movie. Man this seems like a long blog entry.
Cheers all, Ralph

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