Quote: (11-08-2016 07:51 AM)zoom Wrote:
Last month I went to Iquitos to do a jungle tour. PM me if you have any questions.
Actually Zoom, I am heading to Iquitos very soon so please send me a p.m. with some info. I appreciate it.
I just got robbed (sneak theft) a few days ago for the 3rd time in Peru. Possibly (there is one other possibility for the theft which i will not go into) when I was asleep on the bus between two cities they must have robbed my bag in the overhead storage compartment. Some buses in Peru have cameras in the bus and a security guard with a camera records everybody's face once they sit down in the bus. This bus did not have either, and surprise my shit gets stolen. I did not realise until later.
I should not have let my guard down and made a newbie mistake of leaving my tablet and my mobile phone charger in my backpack. Sometimes when it is night and tired and in a hurry and you had to deal with other bullshit during the day you forget about shit like making sure stuff is not easily accessible to thieves or checking the shower, internet and toilet of a hostel you are paying for to make sure it works, checking the notes you get as change to make sure they are not slightly torn (nobody accepts slightly torn notes in Peru so you have to wait in their horrendously long bank queues to change it), etc. In Peru everyone, even including the government is trying to hustle you.
The fuckers at the airport (you read on the internet that you get 183 days stay in Peru) stamp your passport without telling you they are giving you less days (apparently the officers have discretion) put a sneaky little number (with no explanation next to it mind you) that tells you how many days you get (in my case 30 days) in the corner of your stamp in small writing which you probably will not even look at (because you assume you are getting the advertised 183 days, especially when nobody explained to you otherwise). Then they catch you by surprise for a fine for "overstaying" when you leave the airport. This was despite both my incoming and return flight being booked before I entered Peru and now I found out about it and apparently there is nothing I can do and must pay a $70 USD fine when I leave Peru.
Its like when I was in Cusco they sell a ticket for tourists for 130 soles which gives you entrance to a bunch of different historical sites and museums. It lasts for 10 days. Because I was busy in Cusco I did not get to see everywhere on the ticket in 10 days and there were a few places left. A few days after the ticket expired I went to this one museum 10 minutes walk from the Plaza De Armas and I showed them my expired ticket and asked them if I could buy a separate entrance ticket for the museum. They said they did not sell a separate entrance ticket and I would have to buy another full "bolleto touristico" for 70 or 130 soles. I of course just skipped the museum. But it is typical of how the Peruvian government treats tourists. The tourism police and the migration office, tourist information, etc were all being cunts to me. When I got robbed at gunpoint in Huaraz when I went to the tourism police apart from sending me back and forth on a wild goose chase to different government agencies and asking me the same questions 5 times, they were being cunts. It was a public holiday and none of the currency exchanges would open until night and I had no soles (I had USD in my hostel) because my wallet got stolen. You should not drink the tap water in Huaraz (like most Peruvian cities). I explained the situation to the police and said I needed one sole to buy a bottle of water and asked 3 police officers at the station. None of the fuckers would give me one sole after I got robbed during the day in their city (useless fuckers) at gunpoint in a tourist agency on the main street.
I never got robbed in my life until I came to Peru when I got robbed 3 times in 12 weeks. Not to mention the amount of people I had trying to scam me and all the unfriendly and unhelpful locals and government employees I had to deal with. When I was in Piura and trying to replace my little white tourist card (Andean Migration card or something) the manager there told me basically I had to go to Lima and its not her problem. Of course I was yelling at her for not even trying to help me or call Lima and then she said I was being rude and that she would complain about me! The useless bitch could have actually used the time she was going to use for complaining about me (to who would she even complain?) to actually try and call up someone in Lima and get info and try and help me out. I am sick of useless people in Peru. Nobody ever wants to help you and everything is somebody elses problem or fault. I have never been in a country where people are so useless and tourists are treated so bad. I would rather go to Afghanistan then come back to Peru. Fuck Peru!!