Iquitos

Just when I arrived the Confederations Cup Final between the Gringos and Brazil was on. Peruvians were clearly on Brazils side, so I didn't collect a lot of goodwill when I couldn't hold back my emotions when the USnA scored 2 early goals. But ultimatly the laws of nature prevailed and things settled. (Peru has the worst team of South America) In my hostel I got to know some local people and Igor from Croatia. He's in Peru for six months to study shamanism in order to write a book about it. The 7th book of his life - none have been published yet. My comment about the placebo effect sparked and a long discussion with plenty beers. In the evening we took a tuktuk to a huge local fiesta where we ate and drank some more. We invited the tuktuk driver to join us and he showed us around a little. There were a lot of transvestites, churchgoers and young drunken people. Some were faster than others - some were lying on the floor at dusk. Eventually we got drunk with the locals and crawled home.
Iquitos is on a remote island and thats why there are almost no cars. TukTuks loudly drive past all the time. There are some nice pizzarias and colonial style houses, but in general this city is living from past glory and struggles in every sence there is. The nice riverfront offers a great view on the river with all the floating houses upon it. That makes them immune against floodings. The harbors are extremly messy and buzzling all the time. Thats where I got another boat - this time a cargo boat - to Santa Rosa on the eastern peruvian boarder.