It seems like a lot has happened since my last entry in Yurimaguas, which was only 5 days ago, so here goes...
So me and the four Americans set off for Tarapoto that afternoon in two cars. The road between Yurimaguas and Tarapoto is closed until 6pm for "repairs" so we had to wait until later in the day to travel. It was soon apparent that these were more than just repairs... the road in some places was pretty scary as it climbed up and down mountains, we were glad that it was soon dark so we couldn´t see how high up we were! The road was terrible in some places, nothing more than a dirt track and it took us a good 3 hours to get to Tarapoto. By the time we`d found a hostel it was pretty late, so we went straight for food at a pretty good Italian restaurant nearby. Its a shame I didn`t get to see much of Tarapoto as it looks like an interesting place - lots of bars and shops and nightclubs. It has a very different feel to Iquitos, much more edgy and we all had the feeling that you`d have to be careful around here at night.
The two girls, Lynsey and Gretchen, had a tight time schedule and so were keen to get moving ASAP. They booked a car for 7am the next morning to go to Moyobamba, and I decided to go with them. This time we had a much better (safer) driver and the trip was much more pleasant. The scenery was noticeably different to Tarapoto, with mountains now visible in the distance. An hour or two later we arrived in Moyobamba, which was a nice laid back place with the usual dusty roads, small shops selling random stuff, lots of street markets, but with a stunning backdrop of mountains. We checked into a hostel that Lynsey had stayed in previously, which had a big courtyard garden overlooked by all of the rooms. A green macaw lived in the garden, he was famous for saying "Hola" to visitors but for now he was quiet.
After some food, we decided to go to the orchid farm which Moyobamba is well known for. The climate is here is really nice, quite warm but not hot and with a kind of mist that hangs around and makes everything feel fresh and cool. We`re at the start of the ´cloud forest` area here as we are getting closer to the Andes. The orchids were amazing, I took lots of pictures. Afterwards we walked a couple of km to the nearby thermal baths and spent a couple of hours lazing in very hot waters which were reputed to be healing. It certainly seemed to help heal the persistently itchy insect bites that Gretchen and I both have. Later we went back to the hostel and found Arturo, the parrot, in a very talkative mood. Lynsey and I went to tempt him with some salted peanuts, and when we laughed at his funny antics, he suddenly laughed back at us. This made us laugh even more, and he did the same. Before long we were both in fits of giggles and Arturo kept copying us, doing full-on belly laughs and hysterical girly giggles perfectly. It was a really funny end to the day, though I couldn`t help feeling sorry for the poor bird who couldn`t fly as his wings were clipped. He was stuck in his tree which he had to climb using his beak and claws, and had nobody to talk to for most of the time.
Next day we caught a 10am bus to Pedro Ruiz, 3.5 hours away, which is a small dusty town at the crossroads of the road from Moyobamba which continues to Chiclayo on the coast, and the road that runs south through the highlands to Chachapoyas - our next destination. There was nothing to do here at all, and we had to wait until 6pm for the next bus out. We walked slowly, ate slowly, and used a similarly slow internet to pass the time. Finally the bus arrived and we were on our way. It should`ve been a couple of hours, but disaster struck on the mountain roads when the bus in front of hours got grounded on the terrible road surface and had to be pulled out by cranes. Luckily it happened right where the cranes and workmen were already stationed, otherwise god knows how long we`d have been there. As it was it took 2 hours to pull the bus out and smooth the road enough that the other traffic could get through. Again we were glad of the dark which meant we couldn´t see just how sheer those drops were..
