No River/ No Canoe

After winding out through the Andean foothills, we have arrived in Tarapoto, our last stop before home. Seems implausible that in 5 days we´ll be home.

I´ve heard Shakira´s ¨She Wolf¨every hour at least. Thank god.

Tarapoto is a bizarre town. No cars, mostly mototaxis and scooters, we´re staying in a little hotel next to the Plaza de Armas. Though our neighbors are a family of 15 circus preformers that screetch like banshees during siésta, I´m pretty positive it isn´t a cathouse, like the last hotel...

Interesting things in Tarapoto:

Laguna Veneia: A small lake that is line with palms and hammocks. Because we are on the seam between mountains and basin, the clouds soars over the sun so fast that it makes you dizzy. Monkeys, agoutis and capybarra POWs. Maegan and I must´ve watched the monkeys for 2 hours today.

Waterfalls: And swimming in them. Reminds me of Hawai'i.

Restaurants: Tonight I had amazing Italian food- wood-fired pizza and artichoke bruschetta. Yesterday we ordered 4 hamburgers, got 5.25, and one made in front of us out of the scraps of meat from our plates by the bizarre older lady running the place...

Children: They try to sell overpriced candy on the street. At a restaurant last night, one of the little swindlers was being persistent, and when we refused, dropped a little cockroach on our table. As he watched, we didn´t react at all, instead we watched curiously to see where the little critter would go.

Chocolate Factory: Orchid Chocolates are made right here, with organic cacao beans, from small-scale farmers. The factory smelled amazing, we got to eat raw cacao, and their chocolate is AMAZING! They use cocoa butter, not milk or vegetable oil to lighten their chocolate, and it also turns out they sell it RAW. Picked up a few kilos a piece...

Tomorrow we head to Laguna Azul, in the town of Sauce. No joke. Then to Lima, then home. But for now, we have real wine, coffee, and chocolate, so it might be few and far between.