We took the river back to Puerto Sungaro where we got a collectivo ute to any place about 3 hours south. That happened to be a place called Pasco in the area of Constitution. Carol had tried in Puerto Inca to get a boat all the way there but it worked out to be too expensive as the river winds in and out and it would take about 8-10 hours and about 20 gallons of gas so a lot of dinero.
The collectivo ute to Pasco was 15s ea and this time we rode in the back and it was great, no getting in the front ever again. Everyone talks to each other and the views are great. The roads are really bad and bumpy and full of huge ruts and muddy holes and the trip is really the best.
On the way we got a flat on the back so you can imagine how hard the roads are on the vehicles.
Pasco was similar to Km86, just formed around the main (dirt) road. We got a room in the only high rise building nearby but should have looked around a bit more as the town spread out behind and there were other places. Carol is finding she is unable to eat a big lunch in the middle of the day when it is hot, no problem for Kent tho he is still a racehorse. In the evening we ate on the street and Carol asked one stall for 'fried bananas' and the lady replied 'empeñadas? they're over there.' Great! We'd been looking for empeñadas for days, and very yummy they were too! Found a restaurant that fried up some bananas for Kent, this is a minor miracle. Usually you can only buy what they have to sell but this place not only understood what we wanted but provided it - Bravo for Pasco!
Our collectivo for La Merced (10 hours) was due to leave at 3am so we headed to bed early only to be awakened in the night by a jerk who buzzed the bell for about half an hour at 1am to be let in then came into the room next to us and turned on his tv, loud. Carol banged on his door and requested he turn it down but he told her to piss off and locked his door. Kent got up and opened the window between our rooms and politely asked 'desculpe, abajo por favor' and the guy turned it down immediately! Is Kent that scary? Or is this some male networking thing!
