Sprinting to the finish in Peru

The drive through more desert terrain from Arica, Chile to Arequipa, Peru started with a small adventure.  After leaving our hostel in Arica we thought we were catching a bus to Arequipa, since we had bought a bus ticket.  We arrived at the bus station and were shuttled on foot across the street to the International bus terminal where countless numbers of travelers were milling about.  Our temporary guide showed us to an old, beat up Chevy sedan with 3 other passengers in the back of it.  We were told that the driver would drive us the hour or so through customs to a border town where we would then board a bus.  The driver nor any of the passengers spoke English.   Gilly and I sat squeezed in the front of the Chevy along with the oversized driver.  We weren't confident that the Chevy would even make it all the way and the driver sped through stop signs, tailgated made us less confident that we would survive the journey.  Customs in Peru was a relative breeze compared to Argentina and Chile and the drive.    The bus station at the border town was different with money changing tables set out on the bottom floor.  No ATM's there.  We changed just enough to have a meal before our bus was to leave.  Various people soliciting you for every service and item available.  The bus company staff speak English and offered to store our bags, let us use their bathroom and free wifi.  It's a 2 hour time difference from Chile and after we are escorted to another bus terminal again across the street, we are told that we must pay to use the terminal of 1 sole per person (about $2.8).  The cramped, decaying bus had no air conditioner,  traveled through more barren dessert hills until a slightly more lush topography came into view.  A large herd of goats delayed us momentarily.  The first bus stop indicated that Peru has a much more orderly, safer boarding and deboarding routine than the previous two countries.  This was a welcome procedure after our experience in Chile.  Back on the road, we are again surrounded by high mountain desert hills with amazing plot lines in the sand marking boundaries with cairns.  We were told later that if enough people squat on these lands, the government is forced to provide utilities.  Peru is a huge mining country and we thought that these plots belonged to miners.     A few outposts of civilization existed with adobe structures and thatched roofs.  Police checkpoints are as common here as in Chile and Argentina.  The bus broke down just on the outskirts of Arequipa.  With nothing but bleakness on the outskirts of the city, we were happy to be shuttled to a bus, which just happened to be the most comfortable bus we have had.  It took us to the inner city bus terminal, about 15 minutes away.  We met a young man from the nice town of Puno, Chile and a young girl from Japan, who wanted to share a cab.  They were both traveling solo; the girl had been traveling for 8 months.  We were pleasantly surprised as the cab driver drove us into the Plaza de Armis, the center of this city and close to our hostel.  The center is a very nice, clean and orderly.  It has cobblestone streets and spanish influenced architecture.  A high end shopping district is within close proximity.  Our hostel is very nice, but unfortunately the first night a nearby band loudly performs until 5 a.m. so sleep was elusive.  We had a nice day exploring the town; went for a tour in the 15 century convent designed for wealthy patrons.  It was shook to its foundation by an earthquake in 1600, which essentially destroyed it and most of the city in the process.  We went into a travel agent in the main square to look into our plans to travel to Machu Picchu.  Lonely Planet cautions not to wait too long to get tickets to enter Machu Picchu.  The travel agent was a pushy saleslady trying desperately to sell us packages we didn't need or want.  We left to search for one not so aggressive.  When looking off the main square we met a very nice, approachable travel agent, who was willing to share information with us without a catch.  He informed us that the Inca trail, which we had already heard from other travelers was sold out.  You need to arrange this 6 months or more in advance.  He suggested we go to a tourist agency in the city of Cuzco.

We returned early to our hostel to catch a 3 a.m. tour to Colca canyon,  ancient cities, and volcanoes around Arequipa; I have no idea what I was thinking to agree to go on a 3 a.m tour.  We awoke bleary eyed for our tour bus, which was packed with similarly affected travelers, mostly South American.  The bus drove up over mountains into small ancient villages that had predated Inca civilization according to our guide.  We stopped at a small restaurant eatery and were treated to a breakfast of coca leaves, bread and coffee.  The coca leaves could be eaten or put in hot water.  A young Bavarian tourist joked about potential hallucinogenic properties of the leaves; of course none was felt.  Our first stop was to view the amazing terracing done for farming with stone walls marking boundary lines.  Many livestock-- donkeys, bulls, cows, sheep, llamas, alpacas--roamed wild.  The Alpacas are prized for their wool as well as their meat.  I purchased two scarves on a road side stand for about $8.  We ascended higher into the mountains, we saw condors in flight and one sitting atop a rock about 75 feet away.  A dead bull in a nearby field would undoubtedly be food for the condor.  The valley below soon became shrouded in a impenetrable fog.  This fog followed us up to the highest point, just under 5,000 meters, obscuring our view of the volcano.  Unfortunately our hostel did not warn us to bring warm clothes as the temperature plummeted to just above freezing.  We ended our tour with lunch and a visit to a Alpaca and Picuna sanctuary.

Away from the Plaza de Armis and center of Arequipa, one can find anything for sale at more reasonable prices.  Along the city streets, we saw a man dressed in drag with overinflated breasts and buttocks, numerous citizens selling everything from stockings to bathroom scales and pencils.  I purchased a replacement for my stolen daypack.  As we returned to the Plaza, there was a small protests with police presence.  We are told it is common as citizens demand better pay from the government, now that the government has offered to share proceeds of the mines with the people.

Gilly finds a travel agent to arrange our tickets to Cusco along with our next week's travel arrangements to Machu Picchu, along with a flight to Lima and towards the coast towards Huaraz, Peru.  They only take credit cards at 18% surcharge so we pay cash reluctantly.  We don't have time to do all the travel arrangements on our own as we had been doing.  Our time is all too quickly disappearing and our plans to see lots of Ecuador is looking less likely.  It is impossible to fly from one town to the next without first going through Lima, requiring lots of backpacking.  All out of country air travel must also go through Lima.     If we rely exclusively on buses, we would be hard pressed to see any of Ecuador.    We decide to travel, when possible, by night buses to avoid missing days engaged in activities.    Leaving Arequipa was a nerve wracking experience as we waited impatiently for the travel agent with whom we had arranged our next week's travel arrangements to take us to the bus station.   As we waited we thought about the stories of being ripped off by unscrupulous travel agents and assumed we would be one of them.    In addition he was supposed to also give us the travel itinerary, vouchers, tickets for the plane, bus, train to Machu picchu and hostel.   We had our hostel call him and were assured that he would be on his way shortly.  We only had one hour until our bus departed.  Finally a person arrived with the bus tickets and itinerary but told us that our vouchers and other tickets for the plane and hostel would be at the next location in Cusco.    We were momentarily relieved.

We arrived 15 minutes before the buses departure.   Our bags were stored on the bus by orderlies.   The double decker bus was a cadillac version of our previous buses with decent food (which we could have preordered Vegetarian, had we known), good movies viewed on individual video screens, comfortable seats and working bathrooms.  The bus even had wifi.  The only problem experienced on the bus was the road conditions with its constant twists and turns and sudden breaking due to multiple speed bumps.  I ended up watching lots of different movies.

We arrived one hour late in Cusco.  We expected a representative from the travel agent promised us in Arequipa to meet us but alas no one was waiting for us.  After getting our bags off the bus, we asked around and a nice taxi driver at the station offered to call the number of the agency for us, which did lead to a young man arriving to drive us to our hostel.  The outskirts of Cusco is similar to many of the towns/cities we have traveled through, dilapidated buildings, trash strewn about and of course stray dogs.  We arrive in the town of Cusco with it's elevated altitude at 3300 meters and cobblestone streets and are told it was known as the "belly button of the world," as the center of the Inca civilization.  Cusco is a thriving tourist destination with most people speaking English.  The street vendors selling anything and everything, constantly soliciting, have  a good command of the English language.  The Plaza de Armis is again the center of the town, which is very nice with cobblestone streets, a beautiful fountain, spanish influenced cathedrals and statues paying homage to their indigenous ancestors.  We do some siteseeing around the Plaza after taking a quick tour of our hostel, with its exhausting stairs to navigate at each visit.  Definitely feeling the effects of Altitude.   We are told that Coca leaves are helpful with altitude sickness, so we do consume these in tea and don't have the desired effect.  We learn later that you must chew a lot of these for a time to get relief.

 The Plaza has a western feel to it with all the usual amenities of western fast food.   I do have to confess that I needed a decent cup of coffee and succumbed to the allure of Starbucks coffee.  We take a few short tours, one through the Catholic cathedral, a gaudy, ostentatious showpiece of Spanish conquest.    The numerous alters were cedar wood overlaid with 22 carat gold.  Difficult to incorporate this lavish display of greed and opulence when the population, especially indigenous, is so poor.  There was no sense of humility here.  There was some attempt to incorporate the indigenous culture with a cuy pig as the centerpiece in painting of the last supper.  We heard later that the stones used in building the Spanish cathedral were actually taken from the destroyed Inca temples.    I am done with the paying tribute to evidence of Spanish conquest.  Our best tour in Cuzco was a walk through the Museo de Plantas Sagrada, Magicas Y Medicinales.  This was a fascinating history of Peruvian plants both used as medicine and used in sacred ceremonies.

Next to Machu Picchu ....