I apologize for not updating as often as I would like. I know you’re all dying to hear about my Peruvian adventure, but ya know, falling down stairs, getting robbed, breaking my shoes, seeing sweater dog without a sweater, and starting a LOST marathon was just way more important than blogging. But today I've decided it is time to tell you about my winter vacation.
So about a month ago mi amigas y yo, Katie and Jackie, set out for our 2 week adventure north. It was sad to leave our beloved city, but we did and it was on an 8 hour bus ride to Arica; which is the northern most city in Chile. We spent the day and night in Arica. This city is one of the nicer cities found in Chile, for the most part it was pretty kept up and the beach areas were very nice. Last year, known for its waves, Arica hosted the International Surfing competition, or something like that. We ate at McDonalds and stayed at an interesting little hostel made for real backpackers, or simply foreigners who need money and
have no where to go. The people who worked at the hostel were young Europeans and often stayed for long periods of time. One of them strolled in from the beach when we arrived and the other we had just woken up from a long night. They didn't wear shoes and there was beer bottles scattered throughout the common area. The man who ran the hostel was wonderful. He had some sort of crazy accent and very much enjoyed saying "mother fucker." Sorry for the profanity, but it really helps describe his character. Never would I have thought that a Brazilian with long hair who permanently smelled like alcohol could be such a pleasure. Roberto, you have helped us in many ways and we thank you for all your handy advice.
So we arrived in Arica early Sunday morning but we had to wait until Monday morning for our friends Nick and Andrew who were coming from Antofagasta and Valdivia; destinations further south. We met with them Monday morning and now we were finally able to begin our adventure. Thanks to Roberto, we found out it was more cost and time
efficient to take a taxi across the border and into Peru; so that is what we did. At the international bus station there were plenty of “taxis” to choose from, waiting to take gringos like us into their country. As we found our taxi, the driver took all of our passports and walked away. After he was gone we thought that may
have no been the smartest idea, but his keys were still in the car and he came back about 15 minutes later. The car was a Buick like car and it was something that could be found in the 70’s. Nothing inside the car worked except the radio which only played reggaeton music. So, we loaded our luggage, piled in the car and headed towards Peru. After about 20 minutes of driving, we arrive at the Chile border. We waited in line for while to present our passports and Chilean ID cards so we could leave the country, since we are citizens until May. Unfortunately, Jackie forgot her ID card, and the ID was needed to prove that she had registered her Visa, but since she didn’t have it, they would not let her leave the country. We left her at the border hoping we would see her again shortly. From there, we headed to the Peru border, got our passports stamped, and had to have our entire luggage scanned like they do at the airports. You cannot bring fruit into the country and the guy was convinced I had an apple in my bag so he had to search my bag for this mysterious manzana only to find out I did not have one; I can’t even eat apples unless they are chopped up because of my dang teeth. But other
than that, we finally made it to Peru. The taxi brought us to the Peruvian city equivalent to Tijuana, Tacna. Luckily for us we didn’t stay long, only about 2 hours. Xiao was right, it smelled bad and everyone wanted to sell me a calculator.
Now let me inform you that Peru is the land of the “native” or “indigenous” people who dress in traditional clothing, carry babies on their backs, and try their hardest to sell the same exact items as the other 35 vendors in one area to all the tourists they can find.
We bought our bus tickets so we could continue our journey. We took Cruz Del Sur for 6 hours to Arequipa, played bingo, and watched every Adrian Brody movie possible. For anyone traveling in Peru, I suggest Cruz Del Sur, most of the other bus companies are just people who bought a bus, painted it, and eventually just end up ripping you off, or you may experience what we experienced towards the end of our trip, but that comes later.
My favorite city in Peru, as of now, Arequipa. We only spent one night and one day here because we had to leave the next night at 8:30 pm on a 10 hour bus ride to Cusco. However, I personally liked this city the best, it resembled a city you could find in Europe, only it’s in Peru and everyone speaks Spanish. Our day in Arequipa began by finding out Jackie was alive, safe, and made it into the country. After our trip to the Starbucks like coffee shop, we met her in the Plaza de Armas. Early in the day we spent a while touring the city sights and shopping. The boys ditched me and Katie, so we could go shopping because we were determined to find the perfect Alpaca sweater and fanny pack. Afterwards, we all met up again and grabbed a taxi to see the outskirts of the city. We were supposed to go see some wheel type thing that we read about in our handy dandy travel book, but we ended up at a horse ranch and went horse back riding for 3 hours throughout the Incan terrace farms. We also had a great view of the Misti Volcano and the countryside. It was actually pretty amazing to see the farmers still using farming techniques
they used thousands of years ago. Also, this was my first time ever on a horse, so it made the trip even more interesting. Good ole Oro de Pluma, my lovely horse. She wasn’t the leader, but insisted on being in front the whole time. We almost got kicked by another horse, she kept biting the baby horse, and always wanted to drink water; but we got along and she treated me well. The next three days were hell for my legs, nor was the 10 hour bus ride in the freezing cold top, front of the bus any better.
Pretty much every city we went to in Peru is located at a really high altitude. The air is thin and it’s difficult to breath. The weather was quite warm during the day since we were closer to the sun, but once the night came, the temps dropped.
Cusco, one step close to the world wonder. Cusco is a lot higher in elevation than Arequipa, so we were warned to drink lots of Te de Mate, with the cocao leaves in order to avoid any type of altitude sickness. I luckily didn’t get sick to a point where it seemed like the flu. Instead it was more of a massive cold, but once we dropped in elevation it went away. Anyway, we layed low for our first day here; all we did was nap, watch Motorcycle Diaries with the rest of our hostel, and go for dinner at the best restaurant I have been to so far here in South America. The service was great, we sat on a bed for our seats, the food was great, and we ate Alpaca or Llama ceviche.
The next day in Cusco we hiked up the steep city to check out some Incan ruins called “Sacsaywumun”, I’m actually not to sure of that spell job but it is pronounced by just about
everyone as “sexy woman”. The altitude was a killer and made me
feel like I was really out of shape. This night we met up with a bunch of other volunteers and had an English Opens Doors dinner together.
If you ever make it to Cusco, don’t be alarmed if you are asked on multiple occasions if you would like a massage or maybe even a happy ending to go along with.
The next morning we got up super early to get on a bus that took us to the train station which took us to Aguas Calientes. The town which all tourists stay at and have to stay at before
heading up to the big MP. We didn’t do much when we got here, only eat, sleep, and bathe in hot springs.
Saturday, July 19, the day we got to go to Machu Picchu. It seemed terrible at first because we had to wake up at 4am and go wait in a line to get on yet another bus. But around 5:30am we got on a bus that brought us up the terrifying, steep, road that led us to MP. We made it in time to see a beautiful sun rise and watch MP shine with light. I fully understand why Machu Picchu is one of the world wonders. It’s the most amazing place I have ever been to and I encourage everyone to go there at least once in their life. We spent several hours here. The morning was cold, but it
quickly warmed up as the sun came out. We took a tour around the ruins and learned some pretty cool stuff. Afterwards the boys were determined to embark on a 2 hour hike up a
mountain, none of that interested us girls, so we found a lovely spot on one of the terraces and took a nap. Katie was snoring and a tour guide walked passed us and we heard them say “Here is where the Incans used to sacrifice Llamas. Now it is where these senoritas nap.” Once we left MP, we were covered in bug bites since we were practically on the border of the jungle, we ate some lunch, and unfortunately we already checked out of the hostel so we napped for several hours on a bench. Later on we weren’t able to get on the earlier train back to Cusco, so we had to wait. We found a restaurant where you can watch movies, so we watched Happy Potter.
The next morning we left Cusco and headed to Puno and Lake Titicaca in the southern part of Peru. Lake Titicaca is known to be one of the natural wonders of
the worlds. It’s a gigantic lake with large islands, man made floating islands, and it is bordered by both Peru and Bolivia. We never made it to Bolivia because it was too expensive, we had no time, and Katie and I didn’t have our yellow fever shots. So, here in Puno we got on a boat. First it took us to some man-made floating islands and interacted with the locals. Afterwards, we set out for a 4 hour boat ride to the island where we were to sleep. At the island we were greeted with a bunch of traditional Peruvian women. Peruvian women wear very bright colored skirts, white blouses with colorful embroidery on the front, these black scarf things and usually have a colorful blanket tied to their back that is holding something, most commonly, a baby. Katie, Jackie, and I met our host mom and she took us back to her home. After the 20 minute walk through streets, farms, and sheep gatherings, we made it to her house and made ourselves at home. The house had no electricity and the toilet was in an outhouse with no toilet seat, but don’t fear, we had plenty of scented puppy toilet paper. She made us lunch. I hope to never eat such a thing again. First we had soup which had potatoes,
oka (another potato type food), and rice. Second was the main course. The dinner consisted of everything found in the soup, just not in soup form and was accompanied by squeaky cheese. These people don’t eat meat because they don’t have adequate farming for animals and use their sheep and cows for milk and cheese purposes only. After we ate and napped, we were forced to eat again; the same exact thing. By now my body was on such carb overload it was terrible. Also, we had to interact with our host mom’s parents who only spoke Quechua, the indigenous language, so let’s talk about a language barrier. Anyway, after dinner we had to attend the party which was help for us. Luckily we got to wear some sweet traditional clothing, and of course mine had to
reek of body odor.
The next morning we washed up in a bucket of warm water, ate pancakes, and were late for the departure off the island. We went to another island, had to walk a lot uphill, and all for no particular reason, so by now I was extremely miserable and bitter. Also, to add to this wonderful trip, our tour guide Miguel, was an idiot and wore too much sun screen on his face that each day we walked around with a white face because there was too much to rub it all in. Eventually after walking down 700 steps, we set out for the mainland. 4 hours later as we approached Puno our boat was pulled over by the lake’s coast guard and our driver lost his license was fined 90 soles for over capacity. Oh Peru. Overall, I am glad I was able to do this trip to the island, it was quite an experience but I will never do it again.
The next morning it was time to head home. Taking a bus from Puno to Tacna is not something that a lot of tourists do. We didn't have a bus ticket before we left, so we just went to the bus station in the morning and found a bus right away. However, this was not a bus that is meant for tourists and it only took a few minutes to realize this, and we were on this bus for 10 hours. We were the only people on the bus that weren't Peruvian, and by Peruvian I mean carrying a baby on your back with a mini-bowler cap and long braids. The two seats behind Katie and I were filled by two mothers with two babies. One mother sat in the aisle for most of the trip feeding her baby, and when she was not there, her breasts were exposed while she was breastfeeding, or sometimes they were just out. About three hours into the voyage, a very old woman came on the bus with a walking stick that was actually a stick and decided halfway on her way to her seat that she didn't want to sit that far back, so she planted herself in the middle of the aisle, on Katie's feet. She sat their very content for about 2 hours until I woke up and desperately needed to get up to go to the bathroom. I was pretty annoyed by this point so I didn't whether she could get up or not. Eventually it took about 4 people to get her up off the floor and she finally made it to her actual assigned seat. There were three people on the bus who stood up and made speeches, basically asking for money. One did magic. One evangilized then talked about eating right and gave out books, and the last one sold skin care products and even had a portable microphone. We stopped many times on the bus, and one time everyone had to get off. This was a fruit checkpoint meaning that you aren't supposed to take fruit passed this point. Although everyone was supposed to get off, only about 20 people did, and all the women who did, except us, lifted up their skirts on the side of the road and went to the bathroom right there, although there was a bathroom in the bus. And, as soon as the bus took off again, a wholw bunch of people whipped out their fruit and started eating away. Good thing there was a fruit check. This bus ride was probably the most culture I experienced my entire time in Peru.
When we made it to Tacna, we had to find another taxi to take across the border. All went well and in Arica we hoped to find a bus leaving shortly going straight to Tocopilla. No. Buses were only going to Antofagasta, 2 ½ hours south of Tocopilla. So we decided to take this overnight bus, which stopped three times to check for drugs, to Antofagasta. We got there very early and had to wait about 3 hours for our bus to Toco. We finally made it home only to be greeted by no one other than Sweater Dog, without a sweater.
Back in Tocopilla, it’s good to be home.
Overall this was an unforgettable trip. Before I left the states I told myself that I was going to make it to Machu Picchu no matter what, and I am thrilled that it actually happened.
Check it out.
Hope you enjoyed.
Paz.
