somos yurimaguinos

We tried to leave today by boat: lugging our stuff to the port and being harrassed by a bunch of men who grabbed our stuff and offered (in yelling voices) to take us to their boat. They were all trying to get us to take their boat, but in the end, none of the boats left today because there were neither enough passengers, cargo, nor workers because today is Peru´s independence day....so we sat, and swat, and grew grumpy sitting in the boat and being strangulated by the oppressive jungle air. At last we decided to lug everything back to the hostel and wait until tomorrow, when there will definitely be boats.

We decided to go meet his mom´s friend, who she had only actually met a couple of times and who he had only met once when he was 6 years old, but he was sure she would want to see us...we arrived after asking several people if they knew her, and of course were greeted with kisses. We stayed for a couple hours and were force-fed lunch. Then with nothing else to do, we went to the plaza de armas, where there´s usually good people watching if nothing else. Unfortunately today, everyone was apparently melting inside their own homes.

I have never been one to be bored, but I found myself miserable with the heat--my mind couldn´t even will myself to think of something to do, as it was too full of thick thick air. The heat uncomfortably surrounding us like the men at the port, and with nothing open and nowhere to go, we again just sat and swat . Segundo kept me laughing though by saying ¨Rachel, I got 99 problems, but a bitch aint one.¨ Finally we crashed a nice hotel´s pool, which was the answer to all problems. Being surrounded and sustained in cold water...oh my, it made all the difference in the world. Then we drank 2 cremoladas (super yummy slushy with jungle fruits like aguaje)and a beer and life couldn´t have been better.

So tomorrow...tomorrow, hopefully we are off! Today was a good opportunity though to buy another shirt for $2, since I was already getting sick of my smell and we hadn´t even started the journey, and I bought a light blanket to sleep in the hammock with at night.
One final note, is that I really really love eating in the street...I think it´s great how you can go out at any time and find someone selling something yummy to eat, and enjoy it with random enevitably friendly people....here that usually entails some form of banana and or something wrapped in banana leaves like fish, rice, and-or chicken.

PS somos yurimaguinos means that we are people who live in yurimaguas, which we indeed feel like now