Taxi rides in Peru

I’m all for an unstructured, plan-as-you-go trip to the Peruvian Amazon, but in the the suffocating midday humidity of Iquitos, along with a swarm of approximately 20 taxi drivers offering their services, both of which have surrounded us on our first steps outside of the airport, I am realizing that in this particular instance, pre-planning may have been the way to go.
As we ask our taxi driver to take us into the centre of the city, we tell him of our haphazard plans of trekking to the jungle with a yet to be decided tour company. At this he offers to contact his brother for us, who happens to be a tour guide. My boyfriend and I exchange glances and after a moment, politely decline, saying that we’ll explore our options at the city centre. Minutes pass with amiable chatter and the traffic slows to a halt; motorcycles with two adults and a small child sandwiched in between them seem to be the norm as they weave in and out of the crawl of vehicles. Our driver once again compels us to let him help us plan our jungle adventure, taking out his cell phone and saying he’ll call his brother and let him talk to us. We try to insist that his trouble is not necessary but now he is handing the phone to my boyfriend, who haltingly converses about trip details and prices which we have no idea how to gauge, it ends with an encouraging, “We’ll let you know “. Traffic picks up again, the clog of vehicles move at a breakneck pace as the motorcycles still defiantly weave in and out, but suddenly we’ve slowed and then stopped at a curb. The front passenger door opens - it is the tour guide from the phone, the taxi driver’s brother. It seems the decision making process is imminent, although we are completely out of our depth. Suddenly although seemingly impossible, the sun seems hotter, the dust swirling through the air is stuck in my throat, and I’m not sure if the sweat burning in my eyes is from the heat or the situation we’ve found ourselves in in the back of a taxicab.
Finally, the city centre looms in front of me and the seemingly longest journey of my life is over. I set my feet on solid ground again I am confident that anything the jungle throws at me, I can handle - the taxi ride was just the beginning.