Iquitos to Leticia day 2

We docked late last night at San Pablo de Loreto. Much to my dismay, it turned out to be a very extended stop. They had a mountain of bags of cement to  offload onto the dock. There  must  have been more than 20 guys carrying off the bags for 4 or 5 hours. Then they started offloading reiforcing steel bars.  In the picture on the right, you cans see the mountain of cement and a guy carrying a bag of cement. The guy with the burgandy shirt is uncovering what is yet another pile of cement bags to offload. The guy in the blue shirt is working with one other guy digging out the steel rebars to offload. On the far right you see a que of other guys waiting to be passed bags of cement.

At some point, they stopped before completely off loading both the cement and steel bars. I  think the floating pier had reached it's  limit. Maybe they will stop on the way back to complete off loading.

At one point a fast boat pulled along side to offload a couple passengers and others passengers got on. These fast boats make their journeys in less than half the time of the slow boats. In the fast boat, you sit in a reclining seat similar to a reclining seat in a bus. This boat has airconditioning that can be turned on in the heat of the day.

Between this busy port commotion and the cool wind, I only slept in short increments all night. Finally before 5 am I gave up and stayed awake.

The boat stopped several more times before daylight and in the early morning hours.

They have been loading a lot of plantains. Sometimes just 10 or 20 stocks and other times a smaller boat full. Banana spiders are crossing my mind, but so far not crossing my body.

I spotted river dolphins again, several times this morning. Lots of birds flying around in the early hours and a bunch or vultures.

I have an early morning flight out of Letica tomorrow morning. I am having some minor anxiety attacks on whether I willl get there on time to make my flight. 20 hours and counting down.... tick, tock, tick.

We just completed another lengthy stop at Caballococha. I figured since we were going to be there awhile, I should buy another 3 hours internet access to do some research. Pretty cheap, 3 soles for 3 hours, about 80 cents.

I remembered from 2 years ago that Colombia requires that you apply for entry and exit permits online using a system called CheckMig. After connecting to the internet, I spent some time on the CheckMig site trying to complete my application. The problem was that the first thing they want to know is how you are entering Colombia. There are choices: Air, Road, Ocean and River. The only one that would accept a check was by Air. I tried a couple alternate approaches and didn't make any progress.

The next thing was to check the immigration office times. I will have to go to the immigration office in Santa Rosa to get an exit stamp for Peru. The Santa Rosa immigration offices closes at 6 pm and opens at 8 am. I will for sure be getting there after 6 pm. I read on a another blog, that you could knock on the office door after hours and still get a stamp. So, the exit stamp for Peru is possible.

The next is the entry immigration stamp in Leticia, Colombia. The immigration office there is at the airport, about a 20 minute tuk-tuk ride from the port. Here is the catch, my flight leaves at 7:15 am. The immigration office opens and 8 am and closes at 6 pm. So immigration needs to be done a day earlier for morning flights.

I have accepted my blunder. I am going to miss my flight, loose the ticket and have to buy another. Having accepted the inevitable, my anxiety is gone.

I saw this lady bringing these long green fruits on board and selling them. I found out they are called "guamá". I saw people cracking them open and eating the fruit inside. I had to try it. I walked down to meet the lady selling them. She sold me a bundle of 3 for soles (about 60 cents). I took them back up to my hammock.

To open, I saw them grab the hard casing of the fruit with 2 hands and twist in opposite directions. The cracks the outside casing exposing the white fruit on the inside.

There are many large beans in the inside, each surrounded by the pulpy fruit. They are not juicy, so the fruit can easily be seperated from the bean to be eaten easily without making a mess.

I extracted my  first bite and gave it a try. Not bad, the taste is a very subtle grape flavor.

Back to my blunder. I will not buy another ticket until I have all the formalities done in Santa Rosa, Peru áand Leticia, Colombia. The earliesy I plan to fly now is June 20, but I don't need to be locked into that date either. I have time.


Spending a day or few in Leticia will give me time to go to at ATM to get Colombian pesos, get my laundry done (I have been washing a few items, but having mostly been on the boat,  they haven't been washed or more importantly, dried in almost 2 weeks). Most importantly, take care of my immigration tasks.

I have no idea what time we will get to Santa Rosa, so I did a quick search for accomodations there. There are a couple options close to the port, one advertises 24 hour access, so that will work. I think my preference will be to stay in Santa Rosa tonight, do Peru migration tomorrow, and take a 10 minute boat ride across the river the Leticia, Peru. (The boat may dock in Tabatinga, Brasil. Even if it does, I will not have to do immigration there, I can catch a tuk-tuk directly from where the boat docks, a few blocks ride in Tabatinga and into Leticia, Colombia. There is no border crossing between Tabatinga and Leticia. Kind of like going from state to state in the US.

So now there is nothing left to do except wait to arrive in Santa Rosa. It is now about 1 pm. At this point in time I don't even know if we will arrive before midnight.

They just served our lunch, it is the same every day on this boat. Rice, a small portion of lentil beans, a small piece of stewed plantain and a very small piece of chicken.

Having feasted, I think I will sleep it off with a afternoon siesta.

The boat seems to have completed most of it's short stops and we are moving right along.

It is now  looking promising that we will arrive in Santa Rosa a little after 5  pm.

Just before arriving at Santa Rosa it started to rain, pretty heavy. The boat hung out in the river until after the rain stopped. When the rain stopped,  the boat nosed up to the river bank.

As with most stops, Santa Rosa had no pier, we  had to climb the relatively steep bank. We were met by boat drivers to taking those interested across the river directly to Leticia and also tuk-tuk drivers for others planning to stay in Santa Rosa.

I opted to take a tuk-tuk. While in Santa Rosa I  wanted to go  to immigration to get my exit stamp from Peru.

What a ride, remember I mentioned rain. The ride was a muddy slippery mess of a ride. At one time we almost flipped over in mud hole. At other times, the back tires were slipping and the driver had to push with one foot to avoid getting stuck in the mud. I was a longer ride than I expected. Sorry I was pre occupied and didn't get any pictures.

We arrived and immigration. I had the  driver wait. My plan was to get my exit stamp then go back to the river to catch a boat to Leticia.

I knocked at the door. It was about 5:30 pm. A guy came to the window and said they were closed, come back tomorrow. I told him I didn't have time, my flight was leaving in the morning. After a few minutes discussing among themselves they let me in. 

Sitting down with the immigration officer was when he pointed out that my flight was not for tomorrow morning but for July 18 not June 18. I had already resigned myself to the idea that I had to buy another plane ticket, but this was just embarrasing. Lucky for me, he felt my  pain and embarrassment and continued to give me my exit stamp. I thanked him very much and sheepishly slinked out of the office.

Outside, the tuk-tuk driver was waiting to take me back to the river. This time to a wooden pier stretching into the river lined with boats. I  was directed to a boat going to Leticia. The driver told me it would be 10 soles (just over $2 usd) to cross. He wanted to wait for one other passenger. By the time we left there were 5 passengers on board.

A quick ride across the river and up a smaller river to the small boat docks of Leticia. Getting on and off these narrow tipsy river boats, my age shows a bit. I really appreciate the helping outstretched hands to help me off and on the boats without an unintended swim.

 

Once off the boat, I made my way up the plank walkway to steps leading to the waiting tuk-tuks on the road.

I found a driver and told him I needed to make a  few stops. First to get a SIM card for my phone, then to an ATM to get money and finally to a hostel.  He was very accomodating and took my directly to get a  SIM  card and ATM. 

I didn't have any reservations for a place to stay, so I asked  him to recommend a place. He first took me to a hotel, I told him not a hotel a hostel, a cheap hostel. He said he knew a place.

We ended up at the same hostel that I stayed at 2 years ago.

 I was hungry by this time. I found a place  about a block away that made gordas over charcoal fire I ordered 2 and a beer. The gordos were good and pretty big. One would have been plenty.

Returning to the hostel, I took a cooling shower. it wasn't long before I was ready to hit the sack. A little early, but I was ready for sleep.