We thought
we had arranged transportation to Pucallpa when we were in town on Wednesday
but they never showed up. So we
loaded our bags into a mototaxi and went to one of the car companies for a
shared taxi to Pucallpa; 5 hours for 45 soles. The Nissan station wagon had no rear seat legroom but we
were willing to give it a go even if we had to share it with several stinky
chickens in the back. When they
decided to squeeze another passenger in with us I said, “No quierro ir!” and we
got our money back. The bus would
be leaving within the hour and even if it took seven hours the added legroom
would be worth it. And it cost
less than half the taxi.
The Paredes
Estrella bus company isn’t Cruz del Sur but we had the four rear rows to
ourselves. We hadn’t been on the
road for 20 minutes when we stopped to change a flat tire but after that the
trip was routine…for Peru. Fast on
the paved sections, slow through construction, long delays for washed out
sections, and many stops to pick up and drop off passengers. It rained as we climbed through the
cloud forest and we saw hundreds of waterfalls. Fernando, our guide in Manu, told me of a place named
‘Quince mil,’ (fifteen thousand) for the 15,000 mm of rain it gets each
year. Can you imagine fifty feet
of rain? No wonder there are so
many mud slides and washed out roads.
We arrived
in Pucallpa as predicted and hired a mototaxi to take us to Hostal
Arequipa. Connie rush off to the
toilet while I checked for a vacancy, collected our luggage and paid the
driver. In the confusion I left my
backpack in the mototaxi; two cameras ($2,000), eyeglasses ($250) and
sunglasses ($100) plus some incidentals.
Shit! Shit! Shit! There
must be 10,000 of the mototaxis in town, maybe 50,000. And we didn’t know the drivers name.
Pedro from
the hotel escorted me to the police station so I could fill out a report for
insurance purposes while Connie sat in the room trying not to be sick and
probably thinking of ways to kill me.
As we were working through the report in Spanglish, in walked Alex, the
driver, with my pack. I hugged
everyone and tipped Alex 50 soles, a pittance really since the trip would have
been ruined without the cameras.
Pedro insisted on carrying the pack back to the hotel and presenting it
to Connie since I was obviously incapable of caring for it.
We
negotiated a fair rate of 80 soles a night (about $30) for the month so we will
call Hostal Arequipa home. We have
a sitting area, a mini-fridge, wi-fi and TV with some English channels but not
CNN or BBC. No matter, we
have lots to read. The motos
outside make a heck of a racket but we are getting used to it and wear earplugs
to bed.
