2.) Arriving in Iquitos

Finally in Iquitos after more than 40 hours of travelling.
I realised that I am really going to the jungle when we landed on a runway that is literally cut into the jungle. Lining the runway there are little bamboo huts which fit exactly one man, who stands there, guarding the runway, keeping the lions out or whatever. I don´t have the slightest idea.

The airport is a tiny building that looks like it´s been made from bits of a container ship. The luggage is dropped in the middle of the hall - unfortunately mine didn´t make it, with all the delays and flight changes.
When I walk out of the airport i get an idea of what superstars on the red carpet must feel like: there is a crowd of people there all waving and shouting at me. Taxi drivers, or Motokar drivers, as the three wheeled motor-bike-people-carriers are called here. I am glad as I spot Eduardos face in the crowd - he is as skinny as he looks in the pictures. He welcomes me very warmly and we take one of the noisy motokars to town.

Iquitos is like I imagined a booming Indian metropolis- unbelievably packed, loud and noisy. Hundreds of Motokars driving around and even more people in the streets. The only other place where I have seen similar amounts of people is in the center of Tokyo and in New Yorks time square. Its madness!

We are driving to a hostel where Eduardo has accommodated me for the night. The eldery reception lady sitting in an even more ancient reception hall, starts hectically shuffling around when we enter. She is trying to put my details into the hostel-book and reads my last name in my passport as ´Deutsch´´Johanna Deutsch´. I can make her understand, that that is my nationality and not my last name but when it comes to homeland and country of residence (Germany and Scotland) she looks at me with an air of panic.

The room is tiny, dark and dirty, but I am happy and would sleep standing upright tonight.
Eduardo takes me for a short walk downtown to get some dinner. I try one of the local specialities - Paice, which is a huge fish, which looks like it exists only in fairy tales: about 2-4 meters long, pure muscle with shining green to purple scales. It is absolutely delicious, served with green fried Bananas, rice and a hot sauce. All that goes down very well with my first local beer Íquitenia´. Good stuff.

I decide that it is finally time to seperate the clothes from my stinking body- which seem to be stuck together. Unfortunately my clothes are still in Lima so I will have to wear this sticky layer again tomorrow. Not too much fun. Anyway, I am glad to finally be in a bed - not even bothered about the bedbugs.