I depart Tarapoto today....

But not with such happiness after Viva!Air charged me 72 soles to print my boarding pass at the airport!! That's almost as much as I paid for the whole fare and it only took them 30 seconds. Then they also tried to slug me for my backpack which they wanted to put in the hold (I've always carried it on board with me and pointed that out but they insisted it was over-sized until I proved it wasn't by forcing it into the steel cage they use to gauge the dimensions. It's still a cheap flight but it rankled a bit with me to have to pay for a boarding pass. I hope I don't have to go through the same insane procedure at Lima when I check in for Santiago in two days. I'll be checking before I get to the airport in case I have to get my ticket printed in advance somewhere.
Friday, 29th June 2018 in Sydney.
Well, as you can imagine, I've hardly had time to add to the post I started in Tarapoto at the airport and here I am in Sydney already!! Thankfully Sky Airlines were kinder than Viva!Air and didn't charge me any extra for printing my boarding pass or for luggage - for a budget airline I thought they were at least as good as a full service carrier. You pay for extras such as food and drinks on board but not at unreasonable prices and the club sandwiches were nice and fresh. Arrived into Santiago in the afternoon and checked into my Airbnb close to the airport and struck up a conversation with a young woman from Argentina who was returning from her 1 month holiday in Europe and also just overnighting close to the airport as she had a 6am flight the next day. She wanted to do some shopping and the hostess recommended a shopping mall not far from the Airbnb so we shared a taxi to there and arranged to meet up for something to eat in two hours time. The mall was huge and modern - bigger than any I've seen in NZ and on a par with Miranda Fair in Sydney - the Supermarket section was the biggest I've ever seen and even sold a wide range of tyres!! Imagine putting a few of those in your shopping trolley with your groceries!! I wanted to buy a neck pillow and slippers for the long flight back to Sydney but the only neck pillow I could find had children's motifs on it so I gave that a pass!! I did get the slip on slippers, though. 
The thirteen hour flight the next day to Sydney wasn't too bad - the noise cancelling headphones and a heap of new albums I downloaded on Spotify along with a sleeping pill made the trip a pleasure. I probably slept or dozed for at least six hours but the passenger in the seat behind me was a pain, playing the drums on my seat back a couple of times while he listened to his own music. I warned him once and he desisted for an hour but the second time he started up I threatened to have him removed to another seat in the plane if he kept it up. For a man in his mid twenties I was surprised he could be so inconsiderate (but you get the odd imbecile like that on some flights!!).
Today is a beautiful sunny day in Sydney after rain yesterday and I remembered why I loved the climate here so much - even in winter it's a joy to be here!!
Ruth and Cam's Au pair arrives from the USA on Monday, so I'm looking for a car with auto transmission today as they struggle with Ruth's Mazda which is manual shift - she prefers the manual shift but the Au pairs struggle with having to change gears AND drive on the "wrong" side of the road while they're here. I'm pushing for a low mileage Peugeot as they have the best ANCAP safety ratings!! No more to post at this stage so I'll publish this now and MAY get one more in before NZ.

I'm pleased to say I managed to  avoid something like this!!

Blue Lagoon my @#$%!!

Clearly Peruvians are colour blind - I went to El Sauce today which is on the edge of a lake called Laguna Azul (Azure Lagoon). Well, maybe it was a few hundred years ago, but today it is just a murky, olive coloured, polluted cesspool. I'm glad I didn't plan to stay there overnight and didn't pay for a tour to get there. A tourist from Colorado I met in Gacto described it as a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. Neither is correct. The hills are not very high and deforested in parts for agriculture and the lake is no more than a large pond by Canadian standards. There was a modest hotel on the edge of the lake where I took refuge for the day as it had a nice swimming pool with sun loungers around it. The water was warm enough for swimming and I enjoyed a relaxing day there. A bar service to the pool would have been a welcome addition but they just don't get that here (unlike in Asia where the tourists can order a cool drink from one of the many waiters circulating around the pool). The road to and from is horrendous - no more than a goat track for much of the way. The smoothest part was crossing the river on a large barge which carried the bus and trucks as well. So I'm back in the Hotel San Antonio with hot water in the shower for another night. It's close to the Plaza and there's a noisy party happening there tonight, which may have something to do with the winter solstice. I may wander up there for a look later and if it goes on too long it will be another night with an earplug in.

If this colour is blue I must be colour blind!

Loading the barge to cross the muddy river, a tributary of the Amazon.

Tarapoto itself has nothing much to recommend it....

Tarapoto is more of a base for exploring the surrounding regions, like El Sauce, etc. It's very humid here and I don't feel much like doing any strenuous exercise - even walking into the town centre is enough to make you want a shower, but there is only a cold shower here at this Airbnb (Casa de Hiro) which is really a hostel, not a private residence. There's evidence that previous guests in this room have been using illicit drugs here (knives with the tell-tale signs of having been used for "spotting"). You can't tell from the descriptions on Airbnb if the host is running a hostel or a private home. I've asked Airbnb to look at adding to the amenities section of the host's profiles whether there's hot water in the shower or not. I have had to ask that of each individual place I've considered booking which is time consuming - be much easier if that was published information. Westerners simply assume that there will be. My room here is good - spacious and clean with a private kitchen and bathroom attached (but not enough cutlery - I had to ask for a spoon, knife and fork so I could have my Granola for breakfast and a hot dog for lunch).
One thing I noticed coming here from Chachapoyas is there seems to be very different traffic laws - in Chachapoyas there are no noisy Tuktuks or old taxis (or old tourist mini-buses). Here there are thousands of the tuktuks and motorbikes and no-one wears a crash helmet. I hate to think how many head injuries are suffered, especially when I see young children without crash helmets traveling as passengers with their mothers on the motorbikes.
Tomorrow I'll catch a colectivo (shared taxi) from here to El Sauce and stay there for at least one night - I may even book into a hotel with hot water in the shower!
Wednesday 20 June: I'm stuck in Tarapoto - at least for a few hours. I took a tuktuk to the base where the colectivos depart for El Sauce only to find a notice there advising that the road is closed today! ONLY today!! The sad thing is, I could have gone yesterday if I'd known. I only stayed the second night in Tarapoto because I'd already prepaid it - I'd have been happy to lose that cost in order to get to El Sauce. So, I'm in a cafe drinking coffee and wondering what my next move should be - I don't particularly want to spend another day here. I may be able to get a ride to some other close by destination for the day and overnight there and get to El Sauce tomorrow.
Nothing else to post in the blog today - nothing of interest has happened here. There may be more tomorrow, I hope.

That's it! I'm through with trekking in Peru....

Just too old for this kind of punishment! The tour operator failed to tell me that the tour to Gocta involved a two and a half hour strenuous trek through the jungle up hill and down dale in order to reach the falls and then the same back to the tour bus, of course. Otherwise I might not have gone (he probably figured that but wanted to make a sale). However, I'd have to say they are spectacular falls - you can see both the upper and lower falls from a distance but only the lower falls as you get closer. A total drop of 770 metres, the longest being the lower falls drop of 540 metres - that's a long way! Compare that to our Sutherland falls, which are also spectacular, which has three drops totaling 581 metres the longest being a mere 248 metres! The trek was so strenuous that I actually threw up on the side of the track about half way back to the bus - first time I've ever done that on a trek. I'd felt faint a couple of times and was worried I'd topple off the track and down the steep banks into the ravine below if I did faint. It could've taken days to find me if that had happened, the jungle is so dense. It will be even more dense in Tarapoto. I could have hired a horse for 40 soles for the trek but decided against that option. Several people did hire horses, donkeys, burrows and asses but I discovered that they only took you half way there and you still had to walk some steep inclines and valleys to get to the falls. I was surprised how much faster the horses were and the handlers walking alongside must be incredibly fit to be able to keep up with them, some of which were rather reluctant participants on the steep uphill grades and needed some "encouragement" from the handlers to keep them moving.
I've booked a flight from Tarapoto back to Lima to join my onward flight to Santiago - one a half hour flight for NZD$39.00 (and that includes the agent's booking fee). You'd have to wonder how the airline makes money at that price - maybe they don't pay the pilots? The flight will save me about 40 hours travel on buses and several days of accommodation and meals plus the added bonus of giving me more time in the Tarapoto region - I may even be able to fit in a short river trip on one of the tributaries of the Amazon. The longer trips get boring, so I'm told, because all you see is the river and the jungle clad riverbanks on either side for days on end. No wildlife. I've only booked my first two nights in Tarapoto to allow me the flexibility to do an overnight tour to other places close by if I feel so inclined.
This morning I found the central market which every Peruvian town has where local vendors sell their produce. Much cheaper than the mini market I'd been buying at, but maybe not as hygienic. At least they have butchers there with real meat - chicken, pork, lamb and beef. I've been hanging out for a beef steak for a few days and the butcher cut me off a steak that definitely isn't wagyu as there isn't an ounce of fat on or in it - it looks like lean rump and may be tough but at least it's red meat. A few eggs, fried onions and tomatoes and fried bread (there's no toaster here) and I'll have the makings of a Kiwi breakfast. I'm having a rest day today after yesterday's marathon effort - I tried to get a full body massage last night to ease my aching muscles but without success (seems to be very few places here in Chachapoya that offer massages, unlike Trujillo where they're on every street). Maybe I'll have more success later today.

A pretty butterfly that sat still just long enough for me to get a photo on the way to Gocta Falls.

Did I say coach?? No way! A small bus with no loo!!

My last day in Cajamarca I rested as much as I could on my rock hard bed at the Airbnb, preparing in the knowledge that I'd likely get no sleep on the "coach". I did wander into town around lunch time for a bite to eat - the sidewalk vendors cooking meat pieces on skewers over charcoal fires always tempt me, but the meat in Cajamarca was slices of tough and inedible ox heart not cooked long enough to be hot with a cold piece of boiled potato stuck on the end (for decoration??). The local dogs were happy for me, though. I always ask "caliente??" before I buy and always get the same answer "si!!" but invariably it's "frio". At the next vendor, small pieces of something that looked enticing being stir fried on a hot plate made me part with another two soles ($1.00) and more dogs got a snack - this time it turned out to be tripe!! Now, I have nothing against tripe. But it needs to be boiled for days with onions and served in a white sauce to be edible!
Back at the Airbnb nature, like time, waits not upon men, and sooner or later she calls you again. A note on the cistern says "don't put the paper in the toilet - put it in the bin next to the toilet". No way!! If the toilet can manage to cope with my "number twos" it can damn well cope with a few sheets of soluble toilet tissues!! Lol!!
Never believe the pictures in the brochures! I must be naive! I should have learned by now! The "coach" for the 12 hour trip was in fact an old 30 seater bus - I guess 12 hours of travel for $23.00 is pretty cheap, but I'd have willingly paid three times that for the comfort of a Cruz del Sur luxury coach with comfortable reclining seats like I've had over previous routes. But a full size coach could never negotiate the road with its tight corners. The seats on the bus reclined but were still uncomfortable but at least I had two to myself for most of the journey, so I could stretch out a bit and shift positions to ease the discomfort. You also get an inkling of the torment you're about to endure en route when the conductor hands out sick bags before you depart! The road was the roughest, potholed, unsealed road I think I've ever traveled on. This torment is exacerbated by the Peruvians love of speed humps - they hardly ever allow the bus to get up to speed before it has to slow down for the next one. They're everywhere. I doubt they actually prevent any accidents but they sure must add to the fuel bill of the motorists and coach operators.
The bus I traveled on was under-powered for the terrain it had to conquer - maybe it was only 200H.P. - so the trip was often reduced to a slow crawl up the mountainsides. Thankfully it stopped about every three hours so passengers could relieve themselves on the side of the road (it was dark, remember, and maybe that's why the service only operates at night??). Around 9pm it stopped at a cafe where a meal of boiled rice and pumpkin stew was served with a cube of boiled beef brisket which was dry and unpalatable - included in the fare. The locals probably pay about four soles (less than $2.00) for the same meal. At around 5:30am the bus pulled into Chachapoyas and I headed straight for my hostel and bed for three hours sleep. I was ever so thankful I packed earplugs - the hostel rooster was crowing in full voice as I turned in.
Feeling rested by 9am I wandered next door to a nice clean (empty) cafe advertising various breakfast options - the menu had photos and I ordered the English breakfast of ham and eggs with bread rolls and coffee, specifying two eggs as only one showed in the photo. It was okay - the eggs were fried and I expected the ham or bacon would be as well. No, just a square slice of cold supermarket pre-sliced packet fake ham. I could make a mint in Peru teaching the cafe owners how to put together the kind of  cooked breakfast gringos want - two fried or poached eggs, fried or grilled (real) bacon, fried tomatoes, fried potato chips, a grilled breakfast sausage or two and hot toast with butter and marmalade or jam, washed down with a large cup of real coffee. And salt and pepper on the table (you always have to ask for those or bring your own, as I do). They could up the price from 6 soles to 15 or 20 soles and have a queue lining up at the door. I bought Granola and milk for tomorrow and the next day and will try to get "Ensalada de Fruta" in a paper cup from the cafe next door to add to it.
I booked a full day tour to Gocta falls for tomorrow - fifty soles - it's on the road to Tarapoto where I'm going on 17th but the bus doesn't stop there so I have to do it as a separate trip (in any case the bus to Tarapoto is at night). It's a six kilometre trek from where the bus stops to the lower falls or ten kilometres to the upper falls - I'll see how I feel when I get there as to whether I do both. Nothing more to add today.

I love these Peruvian showers - they give me a real buzz! 50 hertz of 230 volts power to be precise!

The longest leg of my six sector trip, Cajamarca to Chachapoyas - 12 hrs!

I'm not looking forward to the next leg of my trip - 5pm tonight until 5am tomorrow! Almost twice as long as most coach sectors I do and as long as Santiago to Sydney by air! Thankfully my accommodation will have a night receptionist on duty who can let me in at 5am. I booked the stopovers using a tourist map of Peru which I bought in Puno but it doesn't accurately represent the distances between towns. If I'd had an accurate road map I'd have maybe gone as far as Celedin the first day instead of only Cajamarca. Though Cajamarca to Chachpoyas doesn't look that far on the tourist map it's obviously a very slow trip across the Andes due to the number of switchbacks necessary to gain the altitude needed to get across these huge mountains. 1 kilometre (1,000 metres) in altitude means about 40 kilometres of road travel, often on unsealed narrow roads with huge drop-offs into ravines. It may be safer traveling at night because the coach can see oncoming traffic (if they have lights). The alternative route, over the "Death Road", is littered with buses that have gone over the edge, according to the people I've talked to who've done it. It will only be light for the first hour of my trip tonight so I might not get any photos.
I had a good breakfast again this morning at a place called "Ronald's", which is quite a way from here ($1 in a mototaxi), but they do a large bowl of mixed fresh tropical fruit salad with cereal and yoghurt. I asked for less fruit and more yoghurt this morning but still didn't get the proportions I was hoping for - only slightly less fruit and slightly more cereal, but it was still good and even with a large cup of coffee less than $4.00. I'll probably not eat again today - the coaches have toilets on board but they ask you not to use them for "number twos". I did have to one time, but I try to comply with their request. I only hope the coach stops somewhere en route for a half hour break so I can get a coffee and a snack (and use the restaurant loo if it's clean enough). You sometimes have to bucket water out of a 44 gallon drum outside the cubicle to flush them and they always cost, usually only half a sol (.25 cents).
I took a few photos of the washerwomen at the well across the road from this Airbnb doing my washing this morning - they do an excellent job, scrubbing the collars of my shirts so hard I was worried they'd disintegrate and rinsing the suds off thoroughly before wringing them out by hand (never as dry as a spin cycle, of course). I decided I'd risk it in the hope I'd at least get the shirts dry before 4pm today on the line at the Airbnb. It's overcast with no breeze so it may not happen, but at least it's clean and will only be damp. The internet connection here is so slow I won't even attempt to upload them to this posting today - hopefully it'll be a fast connection in the next place.

The street where I was staying - more like a dry river than a street.

The washerwoman doing my laundry opposite the house I stayed in.

Every day, hundreds of buckets of water by hand from the well to the tubs to do the laundry.

I've just been transported back 300 years in time, I think!!

The first sector of my 6 sector journey to and from Tarapoto is over - a 6 and a half hour overnight coach trip departing Trujillo at 10pm last night and arriving into Cajamarca at 4:30am this morning. Way to early to impose on my host here but thankfully the coach company leave the coach open so passengers can rest on board until a civilised hour, 6:30am in my case. There's usually one annoying passenger, of course, and today it was a man who decided that he'd play a game on his phone to pass the time (despite a mother trying to settle her baby to sleep) and the pinging every few seconds eventually drove me off the bus and into the dark and uncomfortable bus station.
At 6:30am I knew my host would be up getting her older child ready for school so caught a three wheeled mototaxi to the address - she did warn me that it was the worst street in the town and it was unbelievable. More like a dry river bed and I doubt the mototaxi could have driven any further up the hill than it did. Thankfully the host had given me explicit directions for the driver and he stopped at the well opposite where the house is and where even at 6:30am women were busy washing clothes by hand in primitive tubs of cold water. I feel as through I've been transported back 300 years here - the town smells like a sewer, which isn't surprising given that the drains are either open or only covered with slabs of concrete which don't keep the smell contained. It looks a bit like some of the old paintings of London town before sanitation was introduced and roads were cobbled - dirty and smelly.
The Airbnb here is very basic - more than just rustic! The room is clean, though, but the roof looks like it may leak if it rains as the ceiling is lined with plastic sheeting. And I did manage to have a hot shower this morning (under one of those same "electrocute yourself" shower fittings that are so common in South America). The host, Susan, is of Dutch stock but I haven't found out yet what she's doing here in such a third world situation. She seems so out of place here with her high school aged son and another 11 year old with Down Syndrome (both of mixed parentage). I couldn't find a laundry in town that could do my laundry before I depart at 5pm tomorrow night (and Susan says her washing machine is broken and she does hers by hand) so I'll take it with me to my next stop where I'll be for three days. I didn't quite trust the women across the road to do it there in case I never saw it again (with my Spanish language skills they may have thought I was donating it to them!).
There is a nice clean restaurant only five minutes away where I had a lovely lunch of Tallarin Chifa, which I think translates to Chinese noodles - it had plenty of nice fresh vegetables and white meat mixed in with it and was very tasty - $3.50. I may eat there again tonight - a hamburger maybe. They always offer soup as a starter but I always pass as I can't finish the main course otherwise. On occasions the soup still arrives but I usually just send it back or they might charge an extra $4.00 for it. They don't necessarily serve bread rolls with the soup either and even if you ask for them they usually say they don't have any, even when the bakery is right next door!
Not much else to report today - I'll see if I can find a photo or two to add. (Tried, not possible due slow internet connection, sorry).