Destination: Tarapoto in the Jungle Highlands of Peru

We arrived in Tarapoto by plane at dusk on Thursday night. The airport was small but the building was fairly modern and in good condition. 

There was quite a bit of activity, Tarapoto is sort of a gateway airport for ecological tourists who come to this part of Peru to see the jungle highlands and the scenic wonders. This area is know for the exotic natural orchids and rare butterflies.

After we gathered our luggage we emerge from the airport to find our driver who would escort us into town to our hotel. The parking lot is swarming with motorcycles hooked up to a two-seater rig covered with a canopy. The drivers were hustling to get fares into town as quickly as possible and the scene is lively because the vehicles are painted in bright colors and each has been cleaned until they glisten.

Our driver approaches us and helps us with our luggage as we pile into the van for the ride to Tarapoto. This will be our driver for the next two days, often your driver is your lifeline to safety. You learn to trust them implicitly, they are looking out for you at all times. This trip gave me new respect for these guys.

We're all pretty tired but in a good mood, each of us is looking forward to a chance to get some rest in the privacy of our room. A day of airports and airline food and queues and enforced sociability has made me long for a huge bottle...of water! I'd also like to write down some of my notes and review our itinerary.

CRS trips are busy and every day begins with a packed agenda. Tomorrow we head out for a 3-hour drive across the rugged jungle highland roads to Moyobamba. We are investigating a big problem for the youth of Peru—human trafficking.


© Guy Arceneaux  2010 All Rights Reserved

Travel from Bogota to Lima via Panama City

We often tell our friends how convoluted air routes in the US are. They are indeed, but I was astounded to find that a simple flight from Bogota to Lima was not in the cards for me. We boarded our flight in Bogota, our destination—Panama City. Once there we switched planes for Lima, Peru. Kai Hill, from CRS headquarters, joined us on this leg of the flight. She would accompany us on our trek through Peru.

We all flew into Lima in the early afternoon. There we met an important member of our party, Barbara Fraser, our translator and a top-notch journalist. A CRS Peru office member, Lorena, was also there in the Lima Airport bound for Tarapoto.

We all needed to catch the flight to Tarapoto that evening, where we would spend the night before setting off for Moyobamba. These are towns in a part of Peru referred to as the jungle highlands or the selva.

Luckily we had wireless internet access which allowed us to catch up with news from home. We also ate a fair amount of ice cream (helado) and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. The South Americans are fans of ice cream and make big cool creamy desserts served on platter size dishes. Like every Spanish textbook exercise I remember—people love to gather for cafe y helado and chat away.

Dinner in Bogota

After a busy day in Soacha which included a visit with the Bishop of Soacha for tea that afternoon, I was tired. We were invited to go out with one of our CRS collegues and a friend of hers in a historical section of Bogota. Although Jim and I had to leave early the next day for a flight to Lima, we decided a break from work would do us good.

The area of town must have had a name but it escapes me now, the streets were cobblestone and brick and lined with trendy cafes and boutiques and retaurants. Late model luxury cars prowled the streets as well-heeled citizens entered charming restaurants in period architecture buildings lit by flickering gas jet lamps.

It was reminiscent of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. but even tonier. The mirage was dispelled when you noticed the soldiers in olive drab carrying automatic weapons on the corners of the main square.

The carefree evening was still overshadowed by a city on edge. The restaurant was popular we were told, it was brightly lit and decorated with large panels of gorgeous naturally stained wood. Small globes of glass filled with colored liquid seemed to float in the air above our heads.

The atmosphere was trendy but family friendly and the food proved to be delicious. Although I was really getting a serious "jones" for a huge crisp salad heaped with sliced tomatoes, I abstained, afraid to pick up a bug. So far I had been lucky and I wanted to keep it that way. I always asked for my drinks without ice (sin hielo) for the same reason. I did indulge in an ice cream sundae (helado) for dessert.

After our dinner, one of the best I'd had while in Colombia, we walked up the street to have coffee at the Juan Valdez cafe. Yes, that Juan Valdez, the coffee was smooth, strong and rich, the best coffee ever!

Our hosts were very good company and humored me as I wandered into a boutique that sold nothing but gorgeous glass art pieces. The quality was stunning, this was not cutesy tourist-targeted glass, this was museum quality fine glass. I was charmed by Bogota's elegance, the flip side of the poverty I had seen in the few days I had been there. The disparity was so evident and the security forces were everywhere to assure the rich, I was conflicted.

Tomorrow I was travelling to Peru and another panorama of the human condition through the lens of social justice would reveal itself.

G.

Back in Bogota

We flew out of Quibdó in the morning and into Bogota in time to take a mad dash from the airport across town by cab to meet some colleagues in Soacha. The plane touched down and we were once again reminded of the military presence that is Bogota airport.

Soacha was once a small town south of Bogota that has witnessed an explosive growth in reent years due to the influx of displaced families moving toward the city. Jim Stipe, Matthew Bristow and I got there first and made our way to a little place where we had a great lunch of roasted chicken, potatoes, fried yucca, salad and of course fruit juice. A huge amount of delicious food that broke the bank (my treat) at the equivalent of $6.50 for the three of us.

We shortly met up with other CRS folks who wanted to show us a house being built to receive displaced families when they arrived in Soacha. The house was large and was meant to offer new arrivals not just a place to stay but a place to get some training in how to live in the city environ. Many of the new arrivals were from very rural settings. The mysteries of catching a bus; where to search for work; getting medical care for children would be explained.

The safe house is a great step forward and though it it not meant to house people for a long time it is a better start than many have experienced. Displaced families have nothing and often make a life in a shack built from discarded wooden crates and scraps of corrugated tin. The hillsides of Soacha are crowded with improvised shacks and some substantial cement block dwellings built by families. A temporary shelter often becomes a permanent home.

The government has built a modern highway and a bus route to Soacha that helps these newcomers find work in Bogota. The problem of the displaced is not one easily ignored. I wondered what this place would look like in 10 years, a bustling city, no doubt. The current population of Soacha is now 39,8295.

I asked our colleagues how many displaced people are estimated to arrive here weekly and the reply was 300 people. And those were the people that they knew about, many were off the books. I wondered how the house would accomodate the influx.

My colleague led us next to visit what we told were was a bakery. The bakery closed at five so we had to hurry. We ended up walking quite a way to the "bakery", which turned out to be a modest home with an industrial oven newly installed on the first floor. This was micro-finance at work, and the man and wife who lived here were very proud of the prospects before them. They did not tell me that, but pride is something you can sense, they were lovely people and I am sure they are doing well.

Above is our friendly host who was a beneficiary of a loan that has enabled he and his wife to get an oven. The will bake pastries which will be sold from this pedi-cart along with other goods (like those mangos) throughout the neighborhood. We chatted with them for a while through our interpreter and found out that they were desplazados. Soacha is their new home and they are hopeful about the future. My thoughts are with them even today as I type my post. I wish them a bright future.

G.