Thursday, June 14th – Day 4 – Lima, Peru

ots of Amy Winehouse going on, again, @ breakfast and also there were Amy Winehouse quotes spray painted on walls in the city. And UH – WOW!!! I'm writing this at night after the day has happened, and UHHH.....WOW!

Woke up and got breakfast again at the hotel, Mark and I walked about a mile and found the airline office in Miraflores and bought our plane tickets from Lima to Iquitos, and we were so glad we waited to buy them until we got to South America. It was only $130 USD each for a roundtrip! The internet price back home was about $300+. We went back to the hotel, showered, packed and checked out. We hung out in the lobby talking to my favorite hostesses, Marisol and Ali. They were great. We booked our trip on the Amazon on the hotel computer, arranged for a ride to the airport and waited for our driver to show up. He arrived and we went to the Lima airport, checked in, and went to eat at a place called Manos Morenas in the food court, we had a wiatress, which was different for a food court, and I ordered lomo saltado, a Peruvian favorite. It's a dish with beef and veggies. It reminded me of asian stir fry. When we were done eating, I noticed my camera bag was missing. I racked my brain if I could have possibly left it in the bathroom or something, but I know I put it under my chair as Mark and I sat down and ate in the food court. It was stolen from under my chair as we ate. AARRRRRGGGH! Seriously! Whatever. Trying not to think about my missing $1000 camera, Ipod, chargers, batteries, memory cards I just bought, lenses, brand new camera bag, cash, receipts, list of places to visit while on vacation, and outlet adapters. But it's hard to forget that. Not gonna let it ruin my trip though...At the end of the day, it's just stuff, replaceable stuff. I wish I had those pictures on there though. FUCK! Whatever. I must be more careful from now on. Not safe enough. I contacted security, walked to the police station and filled out a report. They were very nice and helpful, definitely tested my Spanish skills. They said they are cameras in the airport, but that also they pan back and forth, and the thieves are generally so good that they know the timing, so I'm not holding out any hope for its return.

Anyway, we got on our flight, it was almost all indigenous Peruvians, and we met a nice man named Lucas. Matthew, Mark and Luke in the same row. (Christian joke, ha!) He was awesome. A food salesman who lives in Iquitos and he invited us to his restaurant. He spoke little to no English, so my Spanish is definitely getting tested today. He talked fast and quiet and my ear has been kinda plugged up since my shower today, but I understood about 60% of our conversation.

Our ride met us at the airport, you could feel the humidity as we walked down onto the tarmac and we took a twenty minute ride of culture shock/amazement to our hotel. Motos and mototaxis everywhere. Crazier driving than Lima, it is sort of what I had in my head that traffic in Thailand would be like. Dirt roads, poor outdoor shops with no A/C, no tall buildings, and its fabulous. We get to our hotel, our room is on the 2^nd floor, down a long hallway, near a wall that hides the shanty next door. A small, clean, quiet room with A/C, s/70 (70 Nuevo Soles) (about $20 USD total, 10 each) per night. We mention I'd like to try and find a camera, so a hotel employeetakes us around town to several shops looking for one, but the consensus is that there isn't a decent SLR in all of Iquitos. Everyone says to try Lima. Whatever. Now my Amazon pictures will be taken on my PAS (point and shoot), which is starting to have issues as well. Robert took us on a mototaxi, to several shops, an ATM, and we bought him a beer before saying gracias and goodnight to him. Many, many vendors and people on the street wanting to talk. The streets are in bad shape, there are homeless people, and many homeless dogs and cats. We found a place called the Yellow Rose of Texas and we enjoyed the company of the waitresses and Esther the bartender for a few drinks. They looked up music for us online and played it for us. I was listening to the White Stripes in an American owned sports bar in the Amazon while watching the Heat beat the Thunder in game 2 of the NBA finals. Finally, we walked back to the hotel and called it a night. Tomorrow, the Amazon River.