Headed to the 'buses leave from here' part of town and watched out for one heading for Pucallpa. We were unsure whether we were going to go there or head south at Km 86 where the road divides. Found a bus and a bus helper gracias enough to organise front seats for us and off we went. It was a long journey because they are doing up the road at every second corner, and at one point the bridge was out and we had to ford a good sized river.
Although we had been told the scenery was magnificent the first part was in cloud and the rest wasn't as great as what we have seen in the past. We were also informed by the L¨P Guide that this particular stretch of road is very dangerous. Indeed we were boarded by a man armed with a rifle who collected dinero from the full bus for protection, we gave 1s but he only stayed on the bus about 10 minutes so maybe we were paying him not to rob us?
Km 86 was a dirt road town with one hotel called 'Hotel California' where we stayed for 15s in a room with nothing on the window (as in anyone could climb into our room). We were assured noone would as there is always someone there, they were right, everything was perfectly safe. We ate at one of the five in a row restaurants and had juices at the place where a movie was playing on the tv in english. Ten minutes before the end a customer came in and requested it be changed to the football (soccer) and so it was, despite the fact there were at least 8 people watching the movie... Went and monopolised the tv at our hotel instead and watched a movie there - only to improve our spanish skills of course!
