Puerto Maldonado: partying and final days

After returning back to town, we got settled in at a different hostel (not going back to Hostal El Solar). This hostel was better and much cheaper. Hostal Moderno is a low-grade, family-run facility but had a somewhat of a homey feel. The rooms had 3 beds each and a small table. Washrooms were shared and were minimal. Showers were basically just like standing under a garden hose. Despite that, I liked this place. It cost only 10 soles per person per night, so it was very reasonable. And it was right next to the main square in town.

That night we went back, with the group, to El Hornito Pizza Bar for drinks and pizza (obviously). We were hoping to watch some good spanish music videos in the bar but as soon as we got in there they started showing english music videos - go figure. I tried a Pisco Sour, which is Peru's national drink. It was good, despite the fact that it has egg whites in it, and cured my heat stroke pretty quickly. The most interesting pizza there was probably their supreme hawaiian pizza, which has ham, pineapple and peaches on it. Interesting.

From there we went to a karaoke bar on the other side of town. The locals probably hated us considering it was Valentine's Day and they take karaoke very seriously, and there was a contest going on at the same time to see who could sing the best love song. Then there was us Canadians, who do not take karaoke seriously, and took over the dance floor with the YMCA, Bohemian Rhapsody, Copa Cobana and a New Kids on the Block song. After a few pitchers of Cuba Libres, we were ready to move on, and the people in that bar were probably ecstatic to see us leave.

On the way to the next place, we went by a street that had a huge, unattended bonfire blazing in the middle. Oh the places you'll see.

Our next two stops were right across from each other, actually just around the corner from our hostel and where we started out. These discoteques were very popular and loud! but we had a lot of fun dancing with JJ and the guys. These clubs were full of 17 year old peruvians who wanted to dance with us. The one across the road was similar, not quite as crazy, but still a lot of fun. By 3 am we were ready to stumble back to the hostel and fall asleep.

The next day we were suppose to fly back to Lima, so we got our gear together and headed to the airport. Security was very lax and actually their screening machines were not working, so the security staff, who spoke some english, just eyeballed our bags and that was it. We were sitting in the departure lounge, waiting for our plane which was already late, and a staff member comes on the speaker and says something really long in spanish. Then everyone sitting in the lounge got up and left. The security guy saw that we were a little confused and came over to tell us that our flight was cancelled. That was the only flight back to Lima for the day. We headed back into town and went back to the hostel. The afternoon was low-key, and we explored around town a bit to get some photos. We also needed to go to the LAN office in town to get put on the next flight. The office opened up at 3:30 (after siesta) and by then there was a long line up, luckily we were one of the first people in line and had no problems getting on the flight the next day.

Our last day started out the same way as the day before, we got packed up and went back to the airport. We dropped off our luggage and had some time to spare, so we visited the 'serpentario' just beside the airport. This place is a little reptile zoo that houses some native reptile species. After negotiating a price, we got a private tour of their facilities and got to see some animals up close. It was a great way to pass the time before heading back to Lima.

The guys got off at our stopover in Cusco, and we carried on to Lima, where we spent the rest of the day in the Lima Airport waiting for our flight, which departed from Lima at 2:30 am. Back to Toronto, hope to return to Peru again sometime soon.