Flying to Iquitos

My plane ticket said Cusco to Iquitos. My boarding pass said Cusco to Iquitos. So you can imagine my surprise when the plane landed in Lima and the pilot said, "Welcome to Lima. Enjoy your stay." Um....

I gathered up my stuff and yes, I should have asked the question BEFORE I disembarked...but I didn´t. I went to the baggage claim place in the airport...there, I asked the question.

The airline person looked in puzzlement at my boarding pass. "There´s no direct flight from Cusco to Iquitos." No shit.  After showing my pass and telling my story to a few people, one lady said, "You shouldn´t have left the plane." No shit. "It´s leaving in 20 minutes!" Oh shit.

I was not permitted to go back the way I came - security. I had to go through the airport proper, go through security, the whole rigmarole. An air hostess who was going that way was recruited to help fast track me - she shoved me through the metal detectors, explaining things quickly to the security folks. We jogged down the line of boarding gates - mine was at the end...of course. She pointed in the direction I needed to go and told me to RUN to gate 9.

I ran. The guy was waiting for me at the gate and ushered me into the corridor leading to the plane. I ran down the corridor, with visions of a plane full of glaring, angry passengers....but no, folks were still settling in.

I found the seat I had occupied just 35 min ago. sigh. FLIGHT TIP: When in doubt, ask BEFORE you get off the plane.

We landed in Iquitos at around 8pm and immediately I could feel the heat and humidity. When I got to the terminal there was a porter there with my name. Ok...didn´t really need a porter...he grabbed my stuff and then escorted me outside - where we were assailed by a barrage of taxi and mototaxi drivers. The porter walked past them all to one in particular, and when we got to his car the porter waited...oh I need to tip you do I? grrrr didn´t need a bloody porter...

Iquitos is the largest city that you have to either fly into or boat into - there are no roads or rails to this place. Cars are a real luxury and are not very common. I was quite scary to watch this taxi guy dodging motorcycles stacked with entire families on them.

We finally arrived at my hostel - in a pitch black street...oh dear. He honked his horn and the door opened. A guy came out to grab my bags. "Welcome to the Flying Dog - we have no power." Great.

The taxi asked for a ridiculous 20 soles for the trip - I had paid 6 in Cusco. Oh....it´s going to be one of those places.