Wandering North

Africa Ethiopia Ethiopia Trip 2015

The Road to Harar

I got up insanely early this morning to catch a taxi to the airport. It was still dark out but there were men out…exercising. I saw guys doing pushups off the sidewalk and groups of men out jogging – some while carrying rifles.

Security at the airport was a breeze and the flight was short. To get to Harar, unless you are driving, you fly to a city called Dire Dawa and then catch some vehicular transport from there. I took a taxi from the airport to the train station in Dire Dawa.

The trains haven’t run in years, but the station was a good starting point for a walk around. I couldn’t leave without taking a look. On one side of the river (well, the river no longer has water in it. It’s just a dusty thoroughfare for goats and a dumping ground for trash) the town has nice leafy streets with a few good cafes and an orderly feel.

On the other side the town is a bit more chaotic and distinctly Muslim, with hints at the sort of architecture i will see in Harar.

I enjoyed the wander at first, but then i realized i had no idea where to catch a minibus out of the city. So i just kept walking, with my backpack, dodging 3 wheeled tuk tuk type things, donkeys pulling carts, dudes who were a little too friendly, kids who kept trying to hold my hand, and people on the streets selling random items, sewing clothes, and making furniture.

Just when i started to get hot and tired, i broke down to ask directions, having no luck in Amharic, i walked into a cafe and said “does anyone speak English?” One guy put up his hand and he offered to walk me to where i could catch a minibus. Very kind. The journey was just over an hour and cost about $2. The scenery was more deserty, with dry green shrubbery and people engaging in the necessities of rural life.

Finally i was let off just outside the gates to the old city. I am not staying in the old city, which i am staying near to. My hotel is the Ras Hotel, which is old but decent. The only drawback though is that there is no water. The man at the desk was not sure when the water would be restored, but they have put a nice big bucket of water in my room with a ladle, so i guess that works. Plus, i now know the Amharic word for water. The power has already gone out twice and there are vultures outside my window, but it is all just fine. I am now having a cigar before i head back to the old city to look around.
All is well.

Africa Ethiopia Ethiopia Trip 2015

Addis Ababa

I arrived in Addis Ababa at 6am, just as the sun was coming up. Got my visa at the border and changed some US dollars to Ethiopian Birr. Caught a taxi (a bright yellow, decrepit Lada) to my hotel. There wasn’t much in the way of lovely sights on the drive in. Busy streets with traffic, pedestrians, and donkeys. Aside from a few nice churches and mosques, it’s all just very shabby, which is, what i expected. What was nice though was seeing the crowds of people going to church, dressed in white robes and veils and some of the residential side streets we drove down, which were very poor, but i liked seeing all of the people out starting their day.

My hotel is a a chandelier-crazy 3 star (ish) hotel. When i arrived, all of the staff were crowded around a tv watching the Mayweather flight and when the bell boy (he was probably 40 but his badge said “bell boy”) took me to my room he immediately put the boxing match on my tv too.

My room looks out over tne city and directly down on a corrugated tin conglomeration of houses.

I headed out to explore. All i knew about Addis Ababa (which means ‘new flower’ is that it is about 4 million people, home to a handful of decent sights, and according to most reports is poor and one is likely to be harassed, cheated, and mugged. Oh and i was told that you shouldn’t walk anywhere. So of course i spent the whole day walking. The weather was warm and lovely. The streets are admittedly not good for walking. Only intermittently paved and when they are they are broken and often you have to walk with the traffic, but if you don’t walk you can’t really experience things.

Today was not only a Sunday but some sort of a holiday so many businesses were closed but people were out in throngs. I walked past hole in the wall stores selling beverages and fruit, at least a hundred shoe shine guys, several blocks of shops selling colorful, fringed coffins and flowers, and tons of butchers which were either marked with a cross or a moon and star so you can tell the christian from the halal meat. And there were people on the street selling peppers, limes, books, bits of wood that people chew on instead of brushing their teeth, candy, and cigarettes. Lots of very thin homeless people, often crippled or high on glue or gasoline, I am told. Also in the streets are dogs, goats, sheep, donkeys and a few cows.

Was it charming? Not at all, but i really liked it. It was bustling and interesting and sometimes I would meander off a main road into the side streets where i caught glimpses of very simple homes. There were many things that i wanted to take photos of but didn’t, as people didn’t seem keen on having their picture taken and it was impossible for me to be discrete since in every scenario, as I was the only tourist/white person and i attracted a lot of attention. But I took some pictures of people.

I went to a few churches, where people were praying or in the midst of weddings – lots of weddings with enthusiastic singing and dancing.

I walked past multiple squares and countless streets, until i got to Meskel Sqaure, which last week was the site of violent protests. No so today. I visited the Museum of the Red Terror, which shares the history of the oppression and genocide by the Derg regime, primarily in the 1970s. They killed a half million people and tortured countless more. It was very similar to what you see and hear in Cambodia – photos of the dead, mass graves, human remains, general misery. It was however very interesting.

By mid afternoon i was exhausted and starving. The people who approached me on the street were friendly and curious, but by this point i was too exhausted to be pleasant. One guy came up to me and I blew him off but he kept walking along side me and talking and, well, he was actually pretty nice. When i said i was starving and vegetarian, he took me to the historic Taitu Hotel, which although recently damaged in a fire, was till open for business. It had a cozy interior and a shady patio and, most importantly, it has a daily vegan lunch buffet of Ethiopian delights. The food was awesome and it was $3.50. He didn’t eat but had a drink and we carried on chatting. After that we went to a rooftop cafe and had coffee and smoked. I had a really nice time.

Refreshed, we parted ways and i went back to my hotel, where i crashed. I had thought i would go out again tonight, but it is intimidatingly dark out in this neighborhood (like no street lights, power outage dark), so i am at the hotel cafe having a sandwich and trying not to eat this delicious looking salad they brought be which will certainly make me sick.

Oh, I must say something about the coffee. Ethiopia, being the birthplace of coffee, is mad for cafes. There are cafes on every block, tons of them and the coffee is amazing. Basically they serve espresso or machiattos and sometimes they roast and pound to a powder the beans right in front of you. I went to several several cafes, but particularly sought out Tomoca, which is considered to be the best. It is a hole in the wall joint where you order and drink standing at the counter. It’s packed and understandably so. I blurted out “oh my god” after every sip.

My Amaharic is poor, but i have mastered hello, goodbye, please, thank you, yes, no, and coffee. What more could i need on my first day?

Tomorrow i have an early flight to Dire Dawa where i will hopefully convince someone to drinve me to Harar, where i will spend the next few days.
It’s off to a good start.
d

England Ethiopia Trip 2015 Europe United Kingdom

No Place Like London

When I was booking my flight to Ethiopia, i chose the one with the longest possible layover, which was through London. I had about 10 hours. Not a leisurely visit, but more than enough for a good afternoon.

I lived in London briefly from 1994-95 and loved it, but have not been back since. The idea of being back there was exciting and actually being there was awesome. In some small way i was able to tap into the excitement of young me arriving in London for the first time. I couldn’t stop smiling and i just wanted to walk around and see everything.

Of course though, i didn’t have time for everything, so i planned a strategic walk past some key sights and old haunts. I took the train to Westminster and caught a glimpse of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, before walking up to Trafalgar Square.

I was struck by how lovely everything was and how thoroughly British everything is. Almost to the point of cliché. The architecture, monuments, flags, black cabs, red phone booths and double decker buses, chip shops, mind the gap, and every wonderful variation on the British accent you could imagine. Delightful. Trafalgar Square was teeming with people, but the inside of St Martin-in-the-Fields was serene.

The streets were busier than i remembered and there seemed to be more advertising and you can’t smoke everywhere anymore, but all of the stuff i cared about was the same. I wandered in all of the squares and parks i passed, enjoying the flowers and sculptures and meandered through the streets, enjoying the bustle.

Then, I turned down a street and was met with the Dunhill shop. For those of you who don’t smoke, it is a famous tobacconist shop. I went in and it was beautiful and I suddenly became very conscious of the fact that i looked very shabby. I apologized for my attire and immediately began prattling on about cigars and Dunhill and the man working there – with a posh accent and nattily dressed in fine tweeds – could not have been nicer. I picked a Partagas from the walk-in humidor and settled into the lounge, for a smoke and espresso.

The only other guys there were two very handsome and super fancy looking young men, smoking Cohiba Behikes and playing cards, immaculately dressed. We chatted a bit and then i was on my way and discovered that there are in fact 3 more cigars stores on that block. If i hadn’t had a plane to catch i would have spent all day there, but instead i walked past Buckingham Palace, through Piccadilly Circus, the theatre district, Leicester Square, Soho, and Chinatown, before ending at Covent Garden. I didn’t really do anything; i just walked and took everything in. Finally it was time to head back to the Airport.

Africa Ethiopia Ethiopia Trip 2015

Ethiopia!

In less than a day i’m off to Ethiopia! I can’t believe this is finally happening. I have only been to Africa once before and that was to Egypt in 1995. Twenty years later and I’m finally heading back.

Like most people my age, my foundational knowledge about Ethiopia is from the images seen during the famines of the 1980s. Since then i have discovered Ethiopian

A few random facts: Ethiopia is big (bigger than British Columbia or Texas) and is landlocked in Eastern Africa, bordered by Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya, Djbouti, the Sudan, and South Sudan. The capital city is Addis Ababa (which i will not tire of saying in full, even though it is commonly shortened to “Addis”). Ethiopia has a population of just over 90M, for whom the average life expectancy is about 63. The literacy rates run at a little less than 50%. The main language is Amharic, which looks like this: አልገባኝም (which translates as “I don’t understand”, a phrase i am sure i’ll be using frequently). The currency is called the Birr and for $4.90 US you get 100 Birr. Your dollar goes a long way in Ethiopia, with a coffee costing about 15 cents. The country is nearly 50/50 Muslim/Orthodox Christians, with the Christians slightly in the lead, numbers-wise. Ethiopia is also the rare African country to have never been colonized, although it was occupied by the Italians for a few years in the 1930s, which apparently only enhanced Ethiopia’s existing coffee culture. This prevailing independence has, as i understand it, left Ethiopian culture largely intact.

Speaking of culture: Ethiopia has its own means of telling time. They start with sunrise each day as being at 00 and each hour after sunrise (until sunset) is counted from that point. So, one hour after sunrise is 1:00am, two hours after is 2:00am…get it? This goes on until sunset and then the evening/nighttime hours are counted from sunset until the next morning. Apparently this means that one has to be very careful when booking bus tickets etc as to whether it is Ethiopian time or foreign time that is being used. Oh, and Ethiopia has 13 months a year. They have 12 months of 30 days each and then a 13th month of 5-6 days. As a result of this, in Ethiopia it is currently 8 years behind and it is 2007 there. Confused? Well, given that i still haven’t mastered 24hr hour time telling and i’m not great at reading analog clocks to begin with, this could prove to be a special challenge.

My first stop is Addis Ababa, via London, where i have a layover long enough to afford me some time in the city, which i am looking forward to, but the real excitement is getting to Ethiopia and exploring.

I have a list of things that i want to do and see, but for the most part, i just hope to be surprised. I’ll be blogging as frequently as the wifi allows. The next time i write i should be fresh from London and en route to Addis Ababa. Happy trails to me.
d

Peru South America

Final Day in Iquitos

The day we left Peru we did not fly out until the evening, so there was still one final day to enjoy. After luxuriating in our wonderful hotel room and breakfast buffet, i set out to the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm and animal rescue. To get there i took a 4 Sole tuk tuk ride from the hotel to Bella Vista-Nanay, a nearby town along a tributary of the Amazon. It had started to rain, so when i was dropped off at the muddy market along the river, i waited out the rain at a floating cafe and watched the boats depart.

I then found a boat heading to Padre Cocha, the village where my destination was located. I had been told that a boat would cost 20-30 Soles, but the going rate seemed to be 3, which suited me just fine. I got on a simple boat with a thatched roof and run by a rickety motor. I was the only tourist on the boat which was mostly filled with locals and items going to or from market. The trip wasn’t very long, but suddenly seemed to take forever when water began entering the boat and a couple of people had to pitch in, bailing water with buckets. This made me nervous, but we were always swimming distance from shore and i just tried to put giant Amazonian fish out of my mind. No one else seemed too concerned.

We arrived and i landed in the village. There were no signs, but the place wasn’t very big, so i just started walking, figuring that i would find a sign at some point. I walked past the simple houses, which were not on stilts, due to the village being elevated somewhat from the river. It was a pretty, sleepy little place and the few people i asked about the butterfly farm seemed to have no idea what i walk talking about, despite my passable Spanish and excellent butterfly charades.

Finally, i saw a sign, or rather, a series of signs, leading me along an increasingly tropical and beautiful jungle path.

I headed back by boat to Bella Vista-Nanay (this time suffering not a near sinking but an engine that regularly cut out and left us adrift), where i spent sometime at the market, ogling the giant grubs being grilled up for snacks (and being thankful of my vegetarianism).

We flew out that night, from Iquitos to Lima, Lima to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Vancouver. We even got upgraded to business class on one leg of the trip. The business class seats were entirely unbooked i guess and in some weird, racist airline policy, the only white people on the flight got bumped up. One couple, with a white woman and her Mexican partner, found that only she was offered an upgrade. I can’t support the policy, but i did not decline the upgrade. I’d never pay for first or business class, but it really is better.
I wish i didn’t know that.

And that was it for Peru. I am happy with the trip. I did everything I wanted to do and didn’t feel rushed. There is always more to see, but i am happy with our choices. I think I am done with South America for a while, but this was a great trip. Home now and time to start daydreaming about the next destination.

Peru South America

The Village in the Peruvian Amazon

Our third and final day at the Tahuayo Lodge in the Amazon was only a half day, as we were scheduled to go back to Iquitos by boat in the afternoon. After breakfast we took a boat downriver to a nearby village, nicknamed Los Chinos, for reasons i couldn’t really determine. The village was simple. Huts with thatched palm roofs and many sitting on stilts were located around a central field along the river and on the edge of the forest. The houses were very simple and were open at the sides. Few had walls, or had only half walls.

One man invited us into his home. It had a single room which served as living room, kitchen, etc. and then a separate area as a bedroom for him and his family. It was very simple and completely open. on the fire freshly caught river fish were grilling.

Most houses did not appear to have electricity, but some central, shared buildings had wires and satellite dishes and there was a public phone outside under a palm shelter on a wooden stand.

We spoke with (through our guide) a woman who was picking tropical fruit which could be used as both a medicine and a pigment.

Then it started to rain, gently at first and i naively said it was not a problem. Then it became a torrential, tropical downpour so heavy that it was blinding. We took shelter under an outdoor but covered area where a couple of women were cooking lunch for the whole school of kids. They had a fire going and were making fish, rice, and spaghetti. We warmed and dried ourselves by the fire (a smell, as it turned out, we would wear for the rest of the trip) and then pitched in helping with lunch. It was a marvelous way to wait out the rain until it was time to head out on the boat.

We said good bye to the lodge and sped back to Iquitos in the rain (this time taking half the time as it had to get there). We returned to the Casa Morey hotel where we found we had been upgraded. Our previous room was huge and more than adequate, but this room was so grand that we simply giggled upon entering. It was easily bigger than the main floor of Betty-Lou’s house and was many times bigger than my apartment. It had three big beds, 20 foot ceilings, and giant french door type windows that opened up with views of the Amazon and the city. There was a sitting room and a giant bathroom with an antique tub, and outside was another sitting area looking down on the pool. The hot shower was the best thing i could have imagined.

Peru South America

The Peruvian Amazon

Day two in the Peruvian Amazon began early – before dawn – so I could go on a bird watching trip. Full disclosure: I hate bird watching. It’s super boring in my opinion, but this was to be from a small boat on the Amazon, which sounded better than my last experience, which was standing in a wooden tower with binoculars.

The boat ride was lovely. The air was wonderful and the scenery was spectacular in the morning light. And yeah, we saw birds. It was a nice trip though I still am not excited by spotting a scarlet tanager, or whatever, high in a tree.

We returned to the lodge for breakfast, followed by a jungle walk that three of us and two guides went on. We walked for a couple hours, sometimes on pseudo paths and sometimes cutting our way through the trees with a machete. In some areas we were sucked into mid-calf-deep mud and in others we walked precariously along slippery logs. It was fun.

We did see some wildlife: a tree rat, some monkeys, a lizard, a millipede, and more frogs.

After our hike we relaxed at the lodge for a couple of hours, which of course meant that i lounged in a chair by the river with a couple of cigars. Then a group of us and several guides went out on a boat in search of the Amazonian pink dolphin. I was huge cynic setting out on this boat ride: sure, what were the chances that we would see the rare pink dolphin? Not bloody likely, but it’s nice to go on the boat. We set out and we saw a sloth high in a tree, a ton more birds, and some sleeping bats. The scenery was pretty. We traveled past some villages where people were visible along the shore, bathing and doing laundry, and the air was pleasant with the breeze from the boat.

And then, we saw them. Unexpectedly, slivers of bright pink started to appear around the boat. At least two and maybe four pink dolphins. It was quite exciting. I have no pictures to prove it because it was impossible to know when and where they would surface and the one picture i have where one is visible is so blurry that it looks like a grainy loch ness monster photo from the 1920s. But we saw them and it was pretty cool.

We opted out of a nighttime activity and Betty-Lou and i stayed in the lodge that night to play some cards before killing a hoard of cockroaches and going to bed. It was a very full day.

Peru South America

Return to the Jungle

We were picked up from our hotel in Iquitos by tuk tuk and taken to a boat dock along the Amazon. This would be my second trip to Amazon, the first having been in 2010 in Ecuador. It was a great experience and one i was happy to repeat, feeling like last time i had conquered my fears of darkness and nuclear-sized spiders.

The boat sped us along the brown river until it got narrower and the vegetation closed in, and then, finally about 4 hours later arriving at the Tahyayo Lodge. It was a welcoming sight, with its thatched roofs peeking out between the trees.

The lodge had common areas: a dining room, a hammock room, and a games room, and the rest was private cabins, some with washrooms and showers and some without. Everything was high on stilts to accommodate the rainy season when the river rises as much as 15 feet. The hammock room was the best, as it had lovely views over the river and a tree full of nests of particularly active and boisterous black and yellow birds.

Our room was cozy and had beds protected by mosquito nets, and a bathroom, which had a few too many cockroaches for my liking. The whole thing was made of jungle trees so it was enclosed, but still allowed in all of the steamy jungle air and wonderful (and at times frightening) sounds.

Everyone or group who was there got their own guide and we had ours: Tito. That first night, after dinner, we went on a nightie walk in the jungle. This is an activity i enjoy immensely, despite finding it terrifying. I’m not afraid of animals, but i hate the dark and the jungle at night is pitch black. Having a flashlight makes it manageable but no less scary. We walked for a while. We didn’t see too much: a tarantula, a couple of large frogs, and a giant leech (like over 12 inches long). The sounds of the nocturnal creatures were eerie. Finally we packed it in when it began to rain. Back at the cabin, Betty-Lou killed the visible cockroaches and we searched our beds by flashlight before tucking our mosquito nets in around us and settling in for a spotty sleep in the heat and humidity.

It’s far from comfortable, but it is an adventure.

Peru South America

The Belen Market, Iquitos

I never do this, but i am writing this post from Vancouver. I wrote my last post on the Peru trip in Peru the day before we went into the internet-free Amazon and then i was so sick the one day we had back in civilization before heading back that i didn’t feel like writing anything. So as i write this i am am nestled in a leather chair, with a cigar, back in Vancouver. But for now…back to Peru…

The morning before we went from Iquitos back into the jungle i went to the Belen market. I had tried to go the previous day but by the time i got there it was packing up. The next morning however i had no such problems. Belen is an area in Iquitos, partly made up of a floating village and partly made up of the sprawling market. It is unquestionably a poor neighbourhood and much of what i had read about the market before leaving for Peru was that it was too dangerous to visit alone. Of course i have heard that before and i know enough not to listen to such advice (which is usually just borne out of irrational fears and racism).

The market (a short walk from the main part of the river boardwalk) was intimidating on first arrival, only because the entrance is thresholded by a large pile of garbage and ankle deep mud. Oh well, i wasn’t clean anyway. Once inside, the market is a sensory experience, with all of the sights, smells and sounds of a jungle market (including raw meat and fish sitting for hours in the hot sun). Sure, there are the usual fruits and vegetables, plus those of the tropical variety. Then there are sacks of peppers, spices, grains, and flours. Women sit at booths and on the drier parts of the ground, selling their wares while wrangling their children.

Then there were fish – so many varieties and many so large, fresh from the amazon – being sold raw and being grilled over barrels for eating.

There were tables of outdoor, makeshift eateries, mostly with rice, fish, chicken and eggs. Then there was the butchery section, where the ground was slippery with blood and water and i was almost hit in the head with a half a dead hog being carried down a narrow aisle. I wanted to and did take pictures, but so as to not appear like a judgmental douche-bag, i smiled at all of the women and tried out my Spanish on them, identifying various body parts and smiling with approval before snapping pictures. I did see some large alligators getting butchered, but didn’t feel right taking a picture.

Then there were the aisles selling Amazonian medical remedies for everything from diabetes to impotence, depression to cancer. The remedies themselves consisted of brown powders to incense to bottles of amber liquid filled with vegetable and animal parts. There were also skulls and bones and feathers for sale and various parts of endangered creatures. Fancy a jaguar pelt? You could buy one for $40. I didn’t buy anything like that, but i did pick up some small cigars, which were allegedly rolled of locally grown tobacco.

I could have wandered around there all day, but i had to be back at the hotel to get picked up to go into the jungle, so i slowly found my way out of the merchant maze and walked back down the boardwalk to the hotel. If i had more time i would have taken a canoe tour through the floating village, but the schedule did not allow it and the jungle awaited.

Peru South America

Iquitos

Our trip to Iquitos should have taken about five hours. A short flight from Cusco to Lima and then short flight from Lima to Iquitos. There are no direct flights from Cusco to Iquitos at this time. We arrived at the airport at 5:30 am for our 7am flight, but at just after 7:00 we were told the flight was cancelled. We had to pick up our bags and check in again for another flight. The problem was, so did everyone else. The line, had we stood in it, would have kept us queued up for 3 hours. Some fast talking (and a few lies) got us out of the queue and on to a 12:00 flight to Lima and a 3pm flight to Iquitos…but the 12:00 noon flight was delayed by an hour. We did make our 3pm flight but it involved running at top speed through the airport to make the connection, which we did. Miraculously, so did our bags.

We stepped off the plane in Iquitos onto the tarmac and were hit with a wonderful blast of thick, tropical air as well as the first drops of a fantastic downpour, complete with lightning. Thankfully, shortly after checking in to our hotel the rain had stopped.

We stayed in Iquitos at the Casa Morey. It is a historic building, built originally as a mansion residence for a rubber baron at the turn of the 20th century. Iquitos was founded in the 1500s as a Jesuit missionary, but in the mid 1800s it was transformed by the rubber boom and consequently the city is filled with faded and crumbly buildings which once were splendid but now are only dim reminders of a time long past. Casa Morey has however been lovingly restored. It is covered with beautiful ajuelos and the common areas are filled with period furniture, including the lobby, breakfast room and library. The rooms by the pool are a bit more simple in decor but they are massive. Our room, which opens onto the courtyard pool, is gigantic and has 20 foot ceilings.

After checking into the hotel, we walked – in the dark – along the streets, which seem quite dangerous. Iquitos is the largest city in the world not accessible by road, so there are very few cars, but the streets are electric with tuk tuks (called mototaxis here) and motorcycles, none of which stop for pedestrians. In this and other respects it feels more like a South East Asian city than a South American one. The streets, like the buildings, are in poor repair, so we stepped carefully.

There is a marvelous boardwalk along the Amazon however. It is wide and pedestrian and lined with a mix of restaurants and civic buildings. At night the side along the river was black. We could see nothing but an inky black void. By day however the river side was revealed as the verdant, river landscape that it is.

That first night we had dinner in the oppressive humidity along the river on the patio of a restaurant and went to bed, tired after our long day of travel.

The next day before breakfast i went for an early morning walk. I crossed a wooden pedestrian bridge high above the river below. On the river was a cluster of very poor looking floating houses of wood and corrugated metal. At this time of the day many children climbed the steep stairs out if the village and up to the bridge in their school uniforms, which were impossibly clean, considering the state of the houses that produced them.

I walked along a busy street to where i saw cluster of tuk tuks and people and found that a market of sorts had emerged. People cooking and selling food for breakfast (rice, fish, chicken and eggs for the most part). People unloading fish and chickens and thousands of bananas, still connected to the tree limbs for pickup or sale. Women sitting on street selling chilies, potatos and other vegetables. It was busy and delightful. I strolled along for a while, politely declining the numerous taxi offers and headed back for breakfast at the hotel. I didn’t take many photos, because i felt so conspicuous, but i took a few when someone gave me an ok.

We spent the day in Iquitos walking and looking at the buildings and streets. There really aren’t any sites per se, aside from one building designed by Gustav Eiffel and shipped over in pieces from Europe (a building which is, in all honesty, not particularly attractive). So we just walked past shops and squares, and along the riverfront. We went to the Mercado Central and to several huts selling handicrafts and souvenirs. And we stopped a lot of fresh juices, to help with the heat and humidity. Our hotel had AC but few other places seemed to. The city is definitely run down, but it is interesting and there are reminders of its glory days past.

We enjoyed the wonderfully colorful graffiti down by the boardwalk.

In the evening over dinner at Dawn on the Amazon, a popular restaurant on the boardwalk, we eaves-dropped on various conversations, most of which had to do with ayahuasca ceremonies. A lot of travelers come to Iquitos to partake in ayahuasca ceremonies overseen by shamans and they are keen to discuss their experiences and how it has opened their minds. (Just take any 1967 era conversation about LSD and substitute ayahuasca for LSD and you’ll get the idea.) A number of westerners seem to have given up their lives back home to move here and follow this way of life. Ayahuasca is such a big thing here that many restaurants have special menus to cater to people on the drug/following the lifestyle. Probably needless to say, we did not partake, but we enjoyed listening in.

Our first whole day in Iquitos really allowed us to see everything, but we still had a half day more before going to the jungle lodge. I’ll save it for a new post.