I checked out of the hotel at which I was staying, paying my 50,000 pesos for two nights. Actually I was staying in the hostel across from the hotel but the hotel had the administrative staff. For two nights I had the large house by myself. I turned in the keys and requested that my bags be checked, "Equipaja seguridad, por favor." and went for a walk, back down to the school dock, then around town. Lunch was fish soup, fried fish of some sort, rice, salad of onions and tomatoes. The guide I met at the park yesterday greeted me. It was apparent that he just wanted to talk to while away the time. It started to rain, "It's not the rain forest without the rain." It slowed to a light drizzle so I went back and gathered my bags and headed back to town central. A few people came by, said their good byes and I waited. At about a quarter to four I headed to the dock. A young woman was taking money from a man and entering his name on a list. "Comprar tiquete pora barco hasta Caballococha aqui?" "Si" I handed her a twenty thousand note. "No cambio". Shit, how can you do this job with no change? I bought a bottle of water at the store and returned, but she was nowhere to be seen. About 4:30 the 4:00 boat showed up and the woman reappeared. I handed her the ten but she took the five and the two. I thought this was ten thousand but it was merely seven. The boarding process took almost half an hour. We left and half an hour later arrived at Caballococha.
The reception party consisted of five or six people bearing signs, half a dozen playing various instruments and a young man singing some awful song greatly amplified and broadcast through a megaphone with expected audio fidelity. It was not musical or charming. A dozen motorized rickshaws sat at the dock. I inquired about the location for immigration and received directions to the police station. Six officers sat around shooting the bull and a couple more watched television. They wore shoes, not boots, black pants and black tee shirts. A web belt secured leather holsters holding old automatics, the bluing was worn off, the grips were worn. I don't know what one has to do to get a gun in this condition; I have fired thousands of rounds with mine and they look new. One is now in the hands of some Southlake delinquent have been stolen during one of the innumerable parties thrown at my house by my kids when I was out of town.
"Necessito immagracion registrada." Seems strange to have to hunt people down to get to immigration control. A kid pulled out a bound graph pad filled with stamps and lines and opened it to a new page. Referring back to a former page he drew lines and headings and labels to create a form of sorts. Stamps were entered, notations made and finally he asked for my passport. I gave it to him and then pointed to the fields for my name, passport number, state of birth etc when he asked for them.
I then asked one of the cops where I could by a ticket for a fast boat to Iquitos. Guessing I wouldn't understand his answer he walked me to the store. I bought my ticket for $70 with a USD $100 bill. They only had two twenties and a five so they couldn't figure out how to make change. I took the $25 and grabbed a few notes of Peruvian money and said "sufficio completo" ????????????? The took the hint and calculated what it would take to give me $5 USD in Peruvian Sol. The exchange rate used was 2.8 Sol per USD but I had no idea if that was a good rate. Then the cop pointed out the hotel, which looked more promising than the international hostel, which looked like a wharf warehouse. The place was a dump. The man told be "viente cinco dollars." I looked at the cop and said "viente cinco sol?" "Si" No way was any room in this dump worth $25 USD; eight bucks, that's about right.
I knew there was an ATM here and need some Peruvian currency so I asked the cop, "Donde este Clave?" I got a blank reply. "Donde esta cajage automatico?" "Como?" Why the hell do they need a different name for an ATM in every latin american country. "Necessito dinero, donde esta banco carte automatico." Ah, finally and then he walked me over to the bank. I withdrew 400 sol, about $140 and noted that the internet cafe was right next to the bank. Returning to the hotel I gave the man my 100 note. Of course, being a hotel that only accepted cash he had no change. The man grabbed an aerosol can and walked me to my room. He sprayed large quantities of air freshener. The bed looked comfortable and clean and the bathroom was, well, latin american, the shower had no curtain the drain was in the middle of the room, there was no shower head and only a single pipe, no hot water here.
I told him I'd be back in an hour to get the change then went around town. Apparently some voting was taking place and announcements were being made to a large group of people. A man took videos of the crowd while I presume the winners were announced. The crowd cheered the announcements and were filmed in their displays of jubilance. I killed forty minutes at the internet cafe and made my way back toward the hotel. The central park was jammed full of people. Saturday night had begun. I collected my change and went to my room. It took me 10 minutes to open the door and I 've worked as a locksmith. The cylinder flopped around and rotated. I determined how it had to be aligned and held it in place with my thumb while I operated the key. To my great relief my bags were still in the room. My room faced town square. There was no glass in the windows, just coarse screens, the wires sufficiently small that they offered no security but the openings sufficiently large that they presented no barrier to mosquitos, which fortunately did not become a problem.
The music blared. I turned on the TV and watched Casino Royale in Spanish. Bond was getting his nuts mashed. A tone such as could be made by blowing over a glass bottle filled the air. It was so loud it made my guts rumble. WTF? An hour or two later I drifted off to sleep despite the commotion.
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