Sunday, December 10, 2006
Wow...I didn't realise it was so long since I'd been blogging. Got some catching up to do...No wonder I feel like writing. It's like all the ideas are banked up inside.
Sunday 10 December 2006 Iquitos, Amazonias, Peru
Sounds exotic doesn't it...well it is...actually arriving here was the incentive I needed to blow the cork off my creative bottle of bubbles.
Got back into Lima from a northern Peru adventure late last night (that's another story), crashed and even Matthew (the 3 yo nephew) slept in this morning til after 8am. Hot showers, clean hair, breakfast and washed clothes and it was suddenly 11am. Just enough time for Andrew and I to tackle the bureacracy of LAN to try and sort out one of my flights (everything must be done in person); for me to pack for this journey; and all of us to enjoy another of Paola's tastbud tingling lunches (spinach, basil pesto, garlic, onion, blue cheese, cream and saos (for thickening) all in the blender and served on fettucine with a grilled pork chop. The key to turning this very italian meal into a peruvian one was the condiment we added - FRESH lime juice with corriander and chilli - you would never think this would work but IT DOES.) Then off to the airport for my foray into the northern Amazonian jungle of Peru.
Flew into Iquitos late afternoon as the sun was setting. The river snaked below me through the thick green jungle, with so many twists and turns it was almost impossible to follow it and keep track of the left and right sides of the river. The clouds were banked low on the horizon hinting at rain but promising nothing. They were coloured pink and orange with the late sun with indigo blue adding to their intensity as the sky peeped between them. I disembarked the plane onto the tarmac and the first thing that hit me was the thicknes of the air. I was home. The humidity and heat stuck to my body and immediately started to seep into my clothes. Within minutes my cotton trousers were clinging to my legs and my jacket was off and around my waist. Two burned out passenger planes sat on the edge of the runway immediately reminding me of that movie "Air America" with Mel Gibson. Long thick lush green grass surrounded these planes and grew up to the edge of the runway cement, the security fence was hung with families waiting for their loved ones, waving and calling out across the distance. I felt rather like Kathleen Turner in "Romancing the Stone", when she arrived in Cartigenia Columbia (I know the spelling's wrong but I haven't got a map with me to check).
The slow moving fans in the arrival hall made little impression on the air as we all waited for luggage. And luggage there was. Iquitos is a city of 500,000 only accessible by air and river. It is a week by boat to the nearest city in either Peru or Brazil so air is the only option to escape or arrive. And with christmas coming, arrive they did - with all manner of bags and boxes, parcels and sacks. Travelling into this city I was struck by the incredible combination of cultures -erroding colonial architecture with a spanish missionary and victorian influence; people slowed by the humidity of a lifetime, slumped in chairs in the doorways or windows of their homes or bars seeking any breeeze on the offing; bare chests on the men, singlet shirts on both men and women; loud, brassy, eminently dancable latino music blaring from the radio of the taxi, the doors and windows of bars and shops; and hundreds of tuk-tuks and motorbikes buzzing and honking along the road - like mosquitos - as if I had blinked and arrived in Vietnam. Vibrant and well worn would be a good word to decribe Iquitos.
Like everywhere in Peru the Plaza de Armas is not only the centre of town but the centre of the community and the social pivot for all the town's happenings. My hostel is half a block off the town square. This is a town used to tourism, there are restaurants on every corner, police and traffic and numerous people with a helpful word in English. Tomorrow I am off into the jungle for three days to seek the illusive pink dolphin, and all manner of other amazing amazonian creatures, but more of that once I've found them...
Sunday 10 December 2006 Iquitos, Amazonias, Peru
Sounds exotic doesn't it...well it is...actually arriving here was the incentive I needed to blow the cork off my creative bottle of bubbles.
Got back into Lima from a northern Peru adventure late last night (that's another story), crashed and even Matthew (the 3 yo nephew) slept in this morning til after 8am. Hot showers, clean hair, breakfast and washed clothes and it was suddenly 11am. Just enough time for Andrew and I to tackle the bureacracy of LAN to try and sort out one of my flights (everything must be done in person); for me to pack for this journey; and all of us to enjoy another of Paola's tastbud tingling lunches (spinach, basil pesto, garlic, onion, blue cheese, cream and saos (for thickening) all in the blender and served on fettucine with a grilled pork chop. The key to turning this very italian meal into a peruvian one was the condiment we added - FRESH lime juice with corriander and chilli - you would never think this would work but IT DOES.) Then off to the airport for my foray into the northern Amazonian jungle of Peru.
Flew into Iquitos late afternoon as the sun was setting. The river snaked below me through the thick green jungle, with so many twists and turns it was almost impossible to follow it and keep track of the left and right sides of the river. The clouds were banked low on the horizon hinting at rain but promising nothing. They were coloured pink and orange with the late sun with indigo blue adding to their intensity as the sky peeped between them. I disembarked the plane onto the tarmac and the first thing that hit me was the thicknes of the air. I was home. The humidity and heat stuck to my body and immediately started to seep into my clothes. Within minutes my cotton trousers were clinging to my legs and my jacket was off and around my waist. Two burned out passenger planes sat on the edge of the runway immediately reminding me of that movie "Air America" with Mel Gibson. Long thick lush green grass surrounded these planes and grew up to the edge of the runway cement, the security fence was hung with families waiting for their loved ones, waving and calling out across the distance. I felt rather like Kathleen Turner in "Romancing the Stone", when she arrived in Cartigenia Columbia (I know the spelling's wrong but I haven't got a map with me to check).
The slow moving fans in the arrival hall made little impression on the air as we all waited for luggage. And luggage there was. Iquitos is a city of 500,000 only accessible by air and river. It is a week by boat to the nearest city in either Peru or Brazil so air is the only option to escape or arrive. And with christmas coming, arrive they did - with all manner of bags and boxes, parcels and sacks. Travelling into this city I was struck by the incredible combination of cultures -erroding colonial architecture with a spanish missionary and victorian influence; people slowed by the humidity of a lifetime, slumped in chairs in the doorways or windows of their homes or bars seeking any breeeze on the offing; bare chests on the men, singlet shirts on both men and women; loud, brassy, eminently dancable latino music blaring from the radio of the taxi, the doors and windows of bars and shops; and hundreds of tuk-tuks and motorbikes buzzing and honking along the road - like mosquitos - as if I had blinked and arrived in Vietnam. Vibrant and well worn would be a good word to decribe Iquitos.
Like everywhere in Peru the Plaza de Armas is not only the centre of town but the centre of the community and the social pivot for all the town's happenings. My hostel is half a block off the town square. This is a town used to tourism, there are restaurants on every corner, police and traffic and numerous people with a helpful word in English. Tomorrow I am off into the jungle for three days to seek the illusive pink dolphin, and all manner of other amazing amazonian creatures, but more of that once I've found them...
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 5:31 PM 
