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).
Jean and I sit and read your letters almost daily, we enjoy them very much.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kirk, pleased you're enjoying them - I enjoy writing them and try to keep them interesting and with the odd bit of humour.
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