Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [271]
Madera Verde Hotel (56-2047; www.geocities.com/maverde_pe; Universitaria; s/d incl breakfast S125/165; ) Just over 1km south of town and set in leafy gardens, the 40 rooms here are a good size, with bathrooms, hot water, TV and minibar. Walk-in rates can be discounted. Three quadruple bungalows are available, too. You’ll also find a pleasant restaurant and bar, a playground, a pool and a butterfly park.
Eating
Eating out in Tingo is a bit of a hit-or-miss experience: just as one good restaurant opens, another closes. The best bakery is Panadería Dulce Tentación, below the Hotel Nueva York. Villa Jennifer’s restaurant is recommended, comes with complimentary pool use and is open to nonresidents on weekends. The following eateries also stand out against the proliferation of other OK hole-in-the-wall options.
Los Nueve Dragones (Av Fernández 394; mains S7-15; lunch & dinner) The ‘Nine Dragons’ chifa has put some effort into making its restaurant a pleasant and cheery eating environment and serves a predictable range of Peruvian-Chinese fusion plates.
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LA RUTA DE COCA
Growing the coca plant itself is not illegal. Its leaves are used for chewing, making infusions of mate de coca (coca-leaf tea) and for other medicinal purposes.
However it is the mashing of coca leaves into pasta básica (basic paste) that gets people into trouble. This is the stuff that has hitherto been surreptitiously ghosted out of the region to processing centers – notably in Colombia – where the refined drug cocaine is produced. Coca grows in profusion in the hidden corners of the long Huallaga valley that runs from Tingo María to Tarapoto in the north. Close to Tingo, Monzón and its valley is a particularly troublesome area where police rarely tread. This is primary army territory.
But the battle against cocaine is a tough one. Farmers who make a pittance out of growing fruit or coffee can earn a viable living out of coca. It is a perverse logic played out equally in other South American nations with coca, or in Afghanistan with its poppies. Narcotraficantes (drug traffickers) have now established hidden processing centers within the Huallaga region instead of exporting the pasta básica. Pure cocaine now flows out of the region via various routes and methods. While the police and army try hard to stem the flow, it is ultimately a losing battle.
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La Estancia (79-5703; Alameda Perú 554; mains S8-15; to midnight daily) You won’t munch your chicken or lomo saltado in a better setting in Tingo: La Estancia has about the only pavement dining in town plus a 2nd-floor eating area. Dishes are unsurprising, but it’s lively enough.
Encanto de la Selva (40-6440; Alameda Perú 288; mains S8-15; breakfast & lunch) For local jungle specialties this bright, two-floor establishment ticks all the boxes. Try tacacho con cecina (a bed of barbecued banana pummeled into rice-sized grains with dried, smoked meat on top) and wash it down with some cool coconut juice. It’s simple, satisfying food.
Cevichería de Piurano (56-1822; Pratto 100; menú S8-15; lunch only) Service is slow here but you’ll see why when you see the lovingly prepared ceviche platters: besides, it’s no hardship to spend that bit longer with a cool beer on the flower-festooned outside terrace, watching the Rio Huallaga flow lazily alongside.
El Carbón (Raimondi 345; mains S15-25; lunch & dinner) One of the best restaurants in town these days, doing good grilled chicken, fish and steak.
Drinking
El Trapiche (Alameda Perú & San Alejandro; 11am-3am) A stylishly rustic venue, El Trapiche is stacked to the gills with bottles and serves a dangerously extensive