November 15, 2011
On Friday night after I got back to my hotel from eating the super hot "Vindaloo" I could feel the hot spices for 10 hours slowly moving through my intestines and burning it as it moved until 6:30am the next day when I relieved myself on the toilet and even then I had the "ring of fire" for 45 more minutes but after that I was 100%.
My bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30am so just to ensure that "Murphy's law" doesn't effect me I left my hotel at 7:20am even though it is only a 10 minute taxi ride to the bus station. "Murphy's law" tried its best to get me since my taxi driver tried to get me to the bus station as quick as possible in the super slow La Paz rush hour traffic and police were blocking all the main roads to the bus station so my taxi driver drove around in circles for 45 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic and each time we thought we would get there another road block (or I should say Road closed sign) and we went in circles at a snail's pace and I was wondering if I was going to miss my bus. I finally got on the bus at 8:25am and we left 10 minutes later.
The bus took an hour to get out of La Paz and another hour to reach the Bolivia/Peru border (Desaguadero border crossing) which was a different border crossing than the one I originally came into Bolivia through to Copacabana (Yunguyo border crossing). I waited in a long line to go through customs at once I was close to the customs office they shut it down and our whole line had to get into another long line. It is just how things work down here. At 11am we left the border for Puno.
I sat beside a 60 year old Colombian nun who helped me with my spanish for pronounciation. At Puno half the bus got off and changed buses for Arequipa and for the next 7 hours I sat beside a woman who was breast feeding her baby half the time. Nothing wrong with that of course but it was a little different seeing a woman pulling out her boob in front of a total stranger to breast feed. Most women back home are a little more discreet about it. Of course I feel something in my pocket and realize I forgot (again) to leave the hotel key at the hotel (2nd time I have done this but she didn't have change to break 100 soles ($14US) so she ran out trying to find change and my mind was preoccupied about the road ahead.
At 9pm we arrived in Arequipa and I knew I was in Peru since the honking was constant compared to Bolivia. I decided to skip the "Colca canon" tour which is a 2 day hike down a canon where you spend the night and then climb back out the next day since I only have a week left in my trip and wanted to get to the Peruvian coast as soon as possible. Some travelers already showed me some pictures of it so I don't feel I am missing anything by skipping it. I find taxi drivers usually try to rip you off but they are a good source for finding cheap hotels in the center of town. My breathing is back to normal in Arequipa so I assume I am at a much lower altitude than I have been for the past 2 weeks.
On Sunday morning I looked around Arequipa where many of the buildings are made from "Sillar" which is white volcanic rock quarried nearby. The power was out for the first half of the morning so no coffee for me. I don't usually like visiting churches or monasteries but my LP guidebook said the "Santa Catalina monastery" was a MUST SEE since it was 5 acres in size and covered a whole block of Arequipa with a big white volcanic rock wall surrounding it. It began construction in 1579 by some rich spanish widow and she only allowed rich spanish families to become nuns so they could afford to build a nice place for themselves. It was like a huge maze like its own town inside the big walls.
In one of the Arequipa museums they have a preserved body of a 500 year old sacrificed woman at the top of a mountain by the Incas where he body was preserved in ice but I saw the picture of it and they did not allow cameras inside and you had to hand over your camera and cell phones into one of their safety deposit boxes so I passed on it.
I purchased my ticket to Trujillo and they only had evening buses for it so I booked with "Cruz del Sur" which is a tourist bus with reclining seats. I went down to the central market and bought a digital wall clock for $6US since it had everything on it like temperature, day, date, time, alarm, etc... As I walked around the big central market I saw "pig faces" for sale. I saw 2 women laughing at me behind the counter as I looked in horror at seeing this pig faces piled on a dish. "Yeah I feel like having pig faces for dinner tonight... not!". I went back to my hotel for the last few hours before my bus leaves and heard the "Lord of the rings" music blaring in the hotel room next door so I flipped through 100 channels to find it and watched it in spanish.
I read in my LP guide book that robberies are very frequent with taxi's in Arequipa as anyone can rent them so I took precautions as I pulled a cab driver over and looked inside for an official certificate and he didn't have one but he had a big religious cross hanging from his rear view mirror and 2 pictures of the virgin mary so I figured I was safe (or else he would be going to hell right?).
I had 30 minutes to kill at the bus station and walked around and some woman called out to me for "cafe" (which always gets my attention of course) and they had a nice looking picture of coffee at the place but I had been fooled too many times so I simply asked "Tienes una macina de cafe aqui?" (Do you have a coffee machine here?) and she said "Macina?? no" and then I said "Adios amiga!!". That simple spanish sentence stops every phoney coffee outlet in their tracks like a Mike Tyson right hand to the chin. I love it!!
Lots of aggressive sales people where they are always calling you into their shops.
The tourist buses are usually double decker buses with first class on the first floor and second class on the second floor so I took first class for the long journey ahead to Trujillo (25 hours). Every bus I have been on has a washroom at the back that you are NOT allowed to use and the driver won't give you the key to open it up and I don't know why but Cruz del Sur did have a nice washroom you could use and they even videotaped every passenger on it before they left. It was very professional and they had 2 bus drivers that took turns driving every 4 hours and you could see their speed with a digital read out and they are not allowed to go over 90km/h or the digital read out will start beeping loudly.
It was an overnight bus and it left at 7:30pm and was suppose to arrive in Lima at 10:30am according to their computerized schedule but we got there closer to 12noon where I had originally left a 2 hour window to change buses in Lima (Murphy's law) and had 30 minutes to switch buses. I waited for my luggage and the guy grabbed my suitcase and demanded my ticket which I couldn't find and didn't look like he was going to give it to me until I found it and I was losing my patience (even though he was in the right) and I said loudly "That is my fucken bag!!" and the Peruvian passenger woman beside me laughed so she obviously understood a little english and he gave me my suitcase. I went to exchange my Trujillo voucher for my bus ticket at the counter and as soon as I handed her my voucher her computer malfunctioned (out of 7 computers at the desk hers malfunctions as soon as I show up) and I waited for another 15 minutes before she got someone else to do it for me on a computer that worked so I got on my 12:30pm bus at 12:25pm.
It was a 9 hour journey from Lima to Trujillo (12:30pm-9:30pm) and going up the Pacific coast of Peru to northern Trujillo was 95% desert. Just sand as far as the eye could see with the odd stretch of crops and good soil with a few shanty towns along the way. I got to Trujillo on time (9:30pm) and got a cab to a hotel just for the night and planned to find another hotel the next day.
I tried to write a blog entry earlier but I have mostly been on the bus over the past few days and the place I stayed in Arequipa did not have internet and neither did the place I stayed at last night in Trujillo have internet. I walked around this morning (Tuesday) and found a place that has the same name as Pilar's place in Miraflores Lima called "El Mochilero".
I will be using Trujillo as a base to explore some nearby ruins in all directions and then go to Huanchaco and check out the beach since it is suppose to be the best part of the coast for surfing and swimming. Exactly one more week before I fly back to Canada.
On Friday night after I got back to my hotel from eating the super hot "Vindaloo" I could feel the hot spices for 10 hours slowly moving through my intestines and burning it as it moved until 6:30am the next day when I relieved myself on the toilet and even then I had the "ring of fire" for 45 more minutes but after that I was 100%.
My bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30am so just to ensure that "Murphy's law" doesn't effect me I left my hotel at 7:20am even though it is only a 10 minute taxi ride to the bus station. "Murphy's law" tried its best to get me since my taxi driver tried to get me to the bus station as quick as possible in the super slow La Paz rush hour traffic and police were blocking all the main roads to the bus station so my taxi driver drove around in circles for 45 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic and each time we thought we would get there another road block (or I should say Road closed sign) and we went in circles at a snail's pace and I was wondering if I was going to miss my bus. I finally got on the bus at 8:25am and we left 10 minutes later.
The bus took an hour to get out of La Paz and another hour to reach the Bolivia/Peru border (Desaguadero border crossing) which was a different border crossing than the one I originally came into Bolivia through to Copacabana (Yunguyo border crossing). I waited in a long line to go through customs at once I was close to the customs office they shut it down and our whole line had to get into another long line. It is just how things work down here. At 11am we left the border for Puno.
I sat beside a 60 year old Colombian nun who helped me with my spanish for pronounciation. At Puno half the bus got off and changed buses for Arequipa and for the next 7 hours I sat beside a woman who was breast feeding her baby half the time. Nothing wrong with that of course but it was a little different seeing a woman pulling out her boob in front of a total stranger to breast feed. Most women back home are a little more discreet about it. Of course I feel something in my pocket and realize I forgot (again) to leave the hotel key at the hotel (2nd time I have done this but she didn't have change to break 100 soles ($14US) so she ran out trying to find change and my mind was preoccupied about the road ahead.
At 9pm we arrived in Arequipa and I knew I was in Peru since the honking was constant compared to Bolivia. I decided to skip the "Colca canon" tour which is a 2 day hike down a canon where you spend the night and then climb back out the next day since I only have a week left in my trip and wanted to get to the Peruvian coast as soon as possible. Some travelers already showed me some pictures of it so I don't feel I am missing anything by skipping it. I find taxi drivers usually try to rip you off but they are a good source for finding cheap hotels in the center of town. My breathing is back to normal in Arequipa so I assume I am at a much lower altitude than I have been for the past 2 weeks.
On Sunday morning I looked around Arequipa where many of the buildings are made from "Sillar" which is white volcanic rock quarried nearby. The power was out for the first half of the morning so no coffee for me. I don't usually like visiting churches or monasteries but my LP guidebook said the "Santa Catalina monastery" was a MUST SEE since it was 5 acres in size and covered a whole block of Arequipa with a big white volcanic rock wall surrounding it. It began construction in 1579 by some rich spanish widow and she only allowed rich spanish families to become nuns so they could afford to build a nice place for themselves. It was like a huge maze like its own town inside the big walls.
In one of the Arequipa museums they have a preserved body of a 500 year old sacrificed woman at the top of a mountain by the Incas where he body was preserved in ice but I saw the picture of it and they did not allow cameras inside and you had to hand over your camera and cell phones into one of their safety deposit boxes so I passed on it.
I purchased my ticket to Trujillo and they only had evening buses for it so I booked with "Cruz del Sur" which is a tourist bus with reclining seats. I went down to the central market and bought a digital wall clock for $6US since it had everything on it like temperature, day, date, time, alarm, etc... As I walked around the big central market I saw "pig faces" for sale. I saw 2 women laughing at me behind the counter as I looked in horror at seeing this pig faces piled on a dish. "Yeah I feel like having pig faces for dinner tonight... not!". I went back to my hotel for the last few hours before my bus leaves and heard the "Lord of the rings" music blaring in the hotel room next door so I flipped through 100 channels to find it and watched it in spanish.
I read in my LP guide book that robberies are very frequent with taxi's in Arequipa as anyone can rent them so I took precautions as I pulled a cab driver over and looked inside for an official certificate and he didn't have one but he had a big religious cross hanging from his rear view mirror and 2 pictures of the virgin mary so I figured I was safe (or else he would be going to hell right?).
I had 30 minutes to kill at the bus station and walked around and some woman called out to me for "cafe" (which always gets my attention of course) and they had a nice looking picture of coffee at the place but I had been fooled too many times so I simply asked "Tienes una macina de cafe aqui?" (Do you have a coffee machine here?) and she said "Macina?? no" and then I said "Adios amiga!!". That simple spanish sentence stops every phoney coffee outlet in their tracks like a Mike Tyson right hand to the chin. I love it!!
Lots of aggressive sales people where they are always calling you into their shops.
The tourist buses are usually double decker buses with first class on the first floor and second class on the second floor so I took first class for the long journey ahead to Trujillo (25 hours). Every bus I have been on has a washroom at the back that you are NOT allowed to use and the driver won't give you the key to open it up and I don't know why but Cruz del Sur did have a nice washroom you could use and they even videotaped every passenger on it before they left. It was very professional and they had 2 bus drivers that took turns driving every 4 hours and you could see their speed with a digital read out and they are not allowed to go over 90km/h or the digital read out will start beeping loudly.
It was an overnight bus and it left at 7:30pm and was suppose to arrive in Lima at 10:30am according to their computerized schedule but we got there closer to 12noon where I had originally left a 2 hour window to change buses in Lima (Murphy's law) and had 30 minutes to switch buses. I waited for my luggage and the guy grabbed my suitcase and demanded my ticket which I couldn't find and didn't look like he was going to give it to me until I found it and I was losing my patience (even though he was in the right) and I said loudly "That is my fucken bag!!" and the Peruvian passenger woman beside me laughed so she obviously understood a little english and he gave me my suitcase. I went to exchange my Trujillo voucher for my bus ticket at the counter and as soon as I handed her my voucher her computer malfunctioned (out of 7 computers at the desk hers malfunctions as soon as I show up) and I waited for another 15 minutes before she got someone else to do it for me on a computer that worked so I got on my 12:30pm bus at 12:25pm.
It was a 9 hour journey from Lima to Trujillo (12:30pm-9:30pm) and going up the Pacific coast of Peru to northern Trujillo was 95% desert. Just sand as far as the eye could see with the odd stretch of crops and good soil with a few shanty towns along the way. I got to Trujillo on time (9:30pm) and got a cab to a hotel just for the night and planned to find another hotel the next day.
I tried to write a blog entry earlier but I have mostly been on the bus over the past few days and the place I stayed in Arequipa did not have internet and neither did the place I stayed at last night in Trujillo have internet. I walked around this morning (Tuesday) and found a place that has the same name as Pilar's place in Miraflores Lima called "El Mochilero".
I will be using Trujillo as a base to explore some nearby ruins in all directions and then go to Huanchaco and check out the beach since it is suppose to be the best part of the coast for surfing and swimming. Exactly one more week before I fly back to Canada.
