My travel journal

So when I was talking recently to near-xGF about the photo album from Peru, it reminded me that I'll need to collect my travel journals and cart them away with me when I move. Of all the things I've written, my travel journals are the most interesting. I've been thinking for some time that I should clean them up and -- after I manage to collect a few more -- I should *do something* with them. In the meantime, recognizing I should type them in somewhere so I don't lose them, I thought, Why not put them on the blog? ... This will be a slow process, because I they are long and I don't want to sit and type them forever, but they'll come along, and perhaps whoever reads this will find them interesting. (I will not be editing them; this is the raw form of what I wrote, jet lagged, sick, pissed off, injured, tired and all. The first couple entries are rather boring, but it gets better. Much better. And ever so much weirder.)

So, without further adieu:

Lima, Peru ... wee hours of 7 Aug.

Arrived and customs was like a roulette game. "Madam, please step up to this kiosk and press the button." Randomly, the light lit red or green. Green meant you were free to enter the country without a luggage inspection. Red meant customs would tear through your belongings and levy taxes on your extra items. Kate and I didn't know we were only allowed to bring five rolls of film into the country each -- and we'd placed all 14 rolls into her carry-on in a film safe anyway. Lucky for both of us, we got the green light in the roulette game and neither one of us had to go through inspection.

We hired a "remisse" driver to take us to Hostal El Patio, where I am right now. A "remisse" is a safe taxi. You pay a premium for them -- $21 or 70 soles versus $6 -- but they take you to your destination without any hassle (like trying to take you to a different hotel) and they do so in a nice, safe car. Also, you are fairly guaranteed that you will not be robbed.

The drive through Lima from the airport was pleasant. By night, it looks a lot like Panama City or El Paso. It's very late -- 2:50 a.m. -- so we'll see what tomorrow brings.


Iquitos ... 7 Aug.

The first time I heard of this city was reading Tom Robbins' novel "Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates." It is a strange thing to think that I'm now here -- getting ready to go to the land of nod in a hotel one block off the Plaza de las Armas. Iquitos is the world's largest city that's completely inaccessible by road. You have to fly or take a boat up or down the Amazon to get here. Our hotel is about 2 blocks from the river, but we haven't seen it yet. It was dark when we arrived. I suppose that's the first thing we'll do tomorrow after breakfast.

This morning, we awoke in Lima feeling like we had been drugged. Both of us were terribly exhausted -- must've been the late-night arrival and the fact that we wanted to get up in time for breakfast at the hotel. All in all, I could've slept through breakfast, as it consisted of only bread, one container of butter, one glass of a juice that didn't quite taste like the orange-pineapple that the server told me it was and a banana that was -- I kid you not -- the size of my thumb. Also, I had a few cups of tea.

After breakfast, we stored our luggage in the hotel office and a very nice old woman who worked there (or maybe owned the place?) suggested Kate and I visit the Museo de la Nacion, which has a bunch of pre-Columbian artifacts. We hired a guide to take us through the archeaological exhibit and got some pretty good insight into the difference between Chavin (de Huantar) culture, Moche, Nazca, Wari & Incan artifacts, as well as a slew of others. By far, the Nazca pottery was the most superb. It was INCREDIBLE, actually. (God help me, I *think* it was Nazca.) Very exquisit details for that old -- 100 to 500 BC -- really good representations of humans and animals and amazing use of color. I could scarcely believe I was looking at something that old.

I have to say, though, that the museum had a lot of replicas of things and that I was fooled a few times by stone heads and whatnot that turned out to be reproductions. I am assuming all the pottery to which I refer was the real thing.

We saw three incredible mumified heads of people who had been sacrificed. Weird and cool at the same time.

After we left the museum, we took a taxi back to the hotel, got our luggage and met the remisse driver for a ride to the airport. We got our tickest to Cajamarca and then waited -- and waited -- for our LAN flight. It left two hours later than originally stated -- or more. When we first booked the flight, it was scheduled for 3:10 p.m. We got an e-mail that the time had changed to 4:05 p.m. Then, at the airport, a delay was announced -- and it didn't leave until almost 6 p.m. Kate noticed that the boarding passes we got said the flight would leave at 4:05 p.m. but noted that boarding would not begin until 4:55 or so. Guess that's what you call "Latin Time." Oh well. No skin off our backs.

The only thing that bummed me out was not getting to fly over the Andes before sunset and not getting to see the endless Amazon basin *before* I entered it. Our return flight is scheduled for the morning, so we should get to see something then.

We were met at the airport by a driver for this hotel, the Hotel Maranon, *and* by a woman who works for Muyuna. The woman asked if Kate and I could fit all our clothes for the lodge into one back. I *doubt* it, but we'll try. She said the boat is small and goes faster with less luggage. That's understandable, but I'll still be surprised if we manage to get everything we want for the lodge into a single bag...

Oooh! I just heard my first crack of Amazon thunder. It had started to rain when we were coming back from dinner (a very late dinner!) but this thunder is different. Very nice. I wish Kate was awake to hear it. But unlike me, she's smart and went to sleep early. I'm going to follow suit now and shut my eyes and listen to the motorcycles and the Amazon thunder. It's simply a cool thing to be here.