The Huascar (left) in the calle de las piedras
Update July 2015: We’ve now expanded and improved Huascar Bar. It’s still in the same place, but bigger and better. I’ll write more about it soon.
OK, so I might be a little (extremely) biased here, but my wife’s little bar — Huascar Bar — is obviously the best bar in Tarapoto. Officially, it’s a bodega / licorería — at least for now, anyway. But we sell beer.
Anyway, things have been going pretty well so far, we’ve got plenty of regulars, there haven’t been too many fights yet, and we have pretty little laser lights drifting across the walls. What more could you ask for?
As I said, it’s really my wife’s bar, but I’ve been helping her out by drinking as much beer as possible. A healthy relationship is built on sacrifices, so I’m willing to imbibe my fair share.
I’ve also been setting up the music side of things, hopefully making our bar one of the best places in town for listening to good tunes. I’m using deezer.com (a good option for Peru) with high-speed internet, which lets me stream pretty much any song you could ask for. So feel free to request whatever you like (but please, please, please don’t ask for any Casio keyboard cumbia, that shit makes me cry). We try to keep the volume at a level that allows for comfortable conversation, but things tend to get louder later on Fridays and Saturdays. Monday to Wednesday is the best time for relaxed drinking and varied music.
So you should all come round for a beer or three. Our regulars include locals and quite a few gringos, so you can normally find some people to chat with in Spanish or English.
Oh, and feel free to “Like” the Huascar Bar Facebook page — and check out the photos while you’re there.
Tarapoto Gringo / Expat Night?
As noted above, a few expats frequent the Huascar Bar. But if any of you Tarapoto expats or long-term slackers want to get some kind of gringo night happening, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday would all work well (less traffic, less noise, more relaxed).
If it sounds like something you’d be interested in, leave a comment below with your preferred day of the week and your drink of choice, and maybe we can get something started.
Huascar Bar Key Details:
- Location: Lamas 244 (in the so-called calle de las piedras, a few doors down from Stonewasi and across the street from Suchiche Cafe Cultural and La Patarashca)
- Opening hours: Monday to Saturday (sometimes Sunday) from about 4 pm until the last man standing (or slumping) decides to go home
- Prices: Pilsen Callao and Cristal S/.5; Cusqueña S/.6; Cusqueña de Trigo S/.7; Cusqueña Malta (black beer) S/.7
Halloween 2013 at the Huascar Bar. The little devil is the owner (and my better half)
nice post, i am a tarapotian living in Lima, and is really nice to heard about my place throu a foreing vision.
i hope i can visit your place this hollydays. good luck!
Thanks Jose Antonio. Maybe we’ll be able to share a beer in Tarapoto sometime.
Good luck with the bar. Does your wife have a picture in her bar of the famous monitor Huascar that gave the Chileans such a hard time duriing the War of the Pacific?
Hi Vincent. Miguel Grau is my favourite figure from Peruvian history, so the whole Huascar thing is my influence (I’ve wanted a bar called Huascar for years). And there’s a British connection: the Huascar was built in England. So yeah, we should have the Miguel Grau image — as seen on the Facebook page — and a big picture of the Huascar in battle adorning the bar fairly soon.
Cool,
I am a gringo been living in Tarapoto for 3 years now have not met many gringos here, will have to slip by and have a few when I get off work in December. ( they ship me out and lock me up for 35 days at a time so I don’t get out much) Looking forward to seeing the place.
Hi Chris, good to hear from you. Yeah, come along for a few beers once you get released. I’m kind of afraid to ask what your job is, but I guess I’ll find out….
Hi Tony! Thank you for sharing your experiences on this blog, I find it fascinating , well written and funny. Well, my wife and me came to Peru a year ago and got stuck in Lima for work and family matters. We had been thinking about moving to a jungle town and we chose Tarapoto based on city’s size,natural beauty and internet speed. We’re looking for a reasonable priced, safe apartment for a couple with one baby and a cat, also we’ll need a moving service. I tried to find places online unsucessfully, also I’ve been looking for jobs in Tarapoto, please let me know if you know about any local web pages or resources, thanks.
Hi Kike,
I get asked about places to rent quite a lot, so I’ve just written an article about it:
http://tarapotolife.com/2014/03/12/renting-rooms-apartments-and-houses-in-tarapoto/
I might also have a moving service for you, but I can’t remember the guy’s name (I’ll see if my wife has his number still).
As for looking for jobs, I don’t know of any online resources. Like the house hunt scenario, it tends to be a case of talking to the locals for leads.
Feel free to email me using the contact form if you want some more info or have any other questions.
Hi Tony, thank you for the good article on finding apartments on Tarapoto. Let me tell you that finally me and my wife managed to get employment online and decided to move to Tarapoto in the next few weeks. So I’m going alone first to scout the area for apartments and the best internet connection that I can find (for a reasonable price…)
I’m looking for a 1 bedroom apartment on a safe area for baby and wife ,not to noisy, a good and reliable internet connection (at least 8 Mbps) and Pet friendly, cause we have a cat. Also I don’t know if I should move with my appliances or purchase them over there , do they have second hand markets? .
I’ll like to stop by your bar and have a few beers with you and get some advice, I’m hoping to achieve all that I mentioned before in a week and be ready to bring the family in, we’ll see. Take care.
Hi,
My name is Dario and I´ve never been to Tarapoto. There´s a friend of mine (he´s from England) who went to Tarapoto some time ago. His name is Mark Wragg.
It seems Huacar is the place where I must drink a beer, if I decide to go to Tarapoto at some point in my life.
Cheers,
Dario
Hi Dario. There are quite a few good bars in Tarapoto, like Warmi, Stonewasi, La Tangana and many more. But yeah, Huascar Bar is definitely a good place to drink beer! I’ll hopefully see you there sometime.