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Run through the Jungle

i just got back from the jungle on Sunday. we bussed 20 hrs to
get there, which wasnt fun, but we had a blast once
there. we first went all the way to tarapoto, a very
small town and we ate lunch and then took a taxi to a
small village called San Antonio (not adobe or
anything, just a few small houses around a square). we
hired a 13 year old guide named Luis through a little
agency there to take us on a 90 min hike to a cool
little waterfall in the jungle. we climbed up and got
in it, but i was the only one of the three of us (abbi
and will are the other two with me on the trip) to have the guts to jump
into the hole where the waterfall fell. of course,
Luis did too, but he lives there. it was a blast. then
we hiked back, and almost got stranded in San Antonio
due to lack of taxi traffic in town but we paid double
for the last one to take us back to tarapoto. while we
waited, we made friends with Luis, and his friends and
siblings.

when we got back to tarapoto, we found a place to eat
(i had to get the meal called 'viagra del mar...' and
it turned out to be a seafood stew with whole crabs
and shrimp and mussels and squid and some other
seafood in it - mysterious but tasty.) afterward, i
bought some tarapoto cigarrillos and smoked one while
sipping uve cocktail (made from a grape wine made in
the jungle called uvechado, which has actual pitted
grapes in it and is very strong and salty, not very
good. but the cocktail was much more tolerable and i
grew to like it the more i drank it). we stayed the
night in tarapoto and the next morning hired a car and
driver to take us back west two hours to moyabamba,
capital of the san martin department of peru, a town
of 66,000. this was friday.

when we arrived, we checked into a hostal and went to
a local restaurant that was recommended in abbi's
lonely planet peru travel book (moyobamba and tarapoto
aren't in my frommer's) where we ate a local dish
called 'juanes' which is basically chicken and
surrounded by rice and baked in a banana tree leaf. it
was pretty good. to drink we had a local beverage
called 'camu camu' which was truly the nectar of the
gods, and made from some grape-like fruit in the
jungle.
after lunch, we walked to the 'central market' and
bought some stuff and browsed. then we walked out of
the paved part of town and into the poorer regions (or
so we imagine) and took photos of the valley and
chilled with beer (me) and soda (others) in some
thatch cabanas or something on the premises of the
bodega (convenience store) where we bought them. then,
it was dinner time, so we went to another restaurant
recommended in abbi's book, which also was a
resort-type hotel with an amazing view of the valley,
where we watched the sunset, ate dinner (i had some
fish i think, but i dont remember what it was) and a
pisco sour to drink (this is the so-called national
beverage of peru, and tasted and looked a lot like a
margarita with no ice, but is made with pisco (some
peruvian alcohol, some sort of souring agent, and egg
whites, which gave it a frothy foam top - it was
delish). after dinner, we each smoked one of my
tarapoto cigarrillos (i still havent found cubans -
but allegedly, the cubans came to the jungle and
showed the jungle-peruvians somewhere how to make the
cigars, the wrapper on the cigarrillos says 'tobaco
habano' so who knows?) anyway, the cigars were fine
tasting and even-burning so it was fun. it turned out
we crashed some guy’s wedding party at this little
bungalow-restaurant where we ate. he was american from
arizona and marrying a girl from Lima, and it looked
like it was just him and her and her family and like 5
other guests. there was a band playing, but since
there were only like 2 women there, no one was
dancing. they played their own songs in spanish and
some american covers. it was nice free entertainment.
and the american groom came over and talked to us and
said thanks for coming to his wedding, saying they
were just begging for guests. i scored a free beer. we
went back, and we stayed friday night in moyobamba.

we got up on saturday and found out our bus was
leaving at 4:30 pm so ate at a panaderia (bread shop)
and then hiked down to the river in the valley, and
paid a total of 10 soles ($3) for a half hour ride on the river. then
we hiked back up and went to the hot baths just out of
town which were very relaxing, although we only had
about half an hour before we had to check out of our
hostal. then we went to lunch, also over-looking the
valley, we had more camu camu. i had some crazy looking tilapia.
there were some american missionaries we met who had spent 50 plus
years in the jungle translating the new and then old
testaments into the jungle languages. then we went
back to the plaza (square) and looked into a catholic
church there which was interesting. then we left. fun
times.

paz fuera.