Tumbes, Peru
This is the story of how I got scammed, while fully knowing what was going on…only when it was too late. Continue reading
Easter Island
This is the third unplanned detour in my trip (after Antarctica and Rurre), and my second out of South America (Easter Island is part of Oceania, though it belongs to Chile) – coming this late, it meant sacrificing a bit of my original plans (northern Peru), but after seeing an extremely cheap flight from Lima, I just had to take the opportunity. Yes, it’s cheaper, almost half the price to fly internationally to Easter Island than to fly from Chile! I even saw Chileans on my flight.
I met up with Tor and Mikkel in the airport, and we shared our experiences from the last two weeks – I had known in Rurre that they would also head to Easter Island, on the same days that I was considering at the time. (I waited to enter Peru before buying my ticket just 10 days before the flight, a risk that paid off as it was far cheaper.) Seems as though we have a very similar itinerary. Continue reading
Lima, Peru
The bus ride from Cusco was 27 hours, mostly comfortable, but uneventful. We reached the Pacific Ocean again, my first time since my transfer in Antofagasta ages ago! Seeing the Pacific always brings me a flood of feelings – a few thousand more kilometres up the coast, and it’s home. Only having two weeks left in the trip…that makes home seem a lot closer.
Silvia and Óscar have been planning to head up through South and Central America to Mexico, and I seriously thought about joining them to Colombia, at least. I’ve had such a pleasant few days with them (and Marlies and Flo) that I really wanted to just keep going with them! (Marlies and Flo ended their trip in Lima.) Knowing that Lima would be my final two days with them, after almost six weeks- half my trip!- of intermittent contact, made me quite depressed. So I spent the bus doing some Colombia research, resolving to change my flights and work some magic… Continue reading
Sacred Valley, Peru
After a terrible (but cheap) bus from Arequipa to Cusco, I fell sick. Ack! The full cama was a lie – we didn’t even have semi. While Silvia, Óscar, and Flo ran off to plan out our passage to Machu Picchu, I hung out for the afternoon with Marlies (who also stayed behind at the hostel to sleep more). With a stomach bug, walking wasn’t very fun, nor was eating – I did run into Matt and Tess (Salta, Tupiza) though! Turns out they had just recovered from some food poisoning of their own…
Everything in Peru so far has been money money money. We skipped most of the churches and museums in Arequipa because they were asking for so much, but this problem was even more apparent in Cusco. (Wanna enter a cathedral? 25 soles…$10!) Covered in tourists of all types, and not just the backpacker – plenty of flag-waving Japanese groups, old Americans dragging heaps of stuff…these people are willing and able to pay for everything, which kinda makes things difficult for the budget-conscious. Continue reading
Arequipa, Peru
Other than a change of currency that I’m still not used to, and turning back the clock one hour (take that, Daylight Saving Time), the border crossing from Bolivia to Peru was uneventful and easy. Arriving in Puno (a bit of an ugly city, but known for its connection to the Islas Flotantes, an extremely commercialised and touristic but interesting detour that I opted to skip) for a 15 minute connection to my bus to Arequipa, though…hectic. After getting on the bus, people started openly complaining, which was a new and awkward experience for me – more than a few Peruvians were banging on the windows and stamping on the floor, yelling “HORA! VAMOS!” – and we were only 15 minutes late! Not a particularly great first impression of a country. They repeated their complaining everytime we picked up a hitchhiker.
Arriving in Arequipa late at night without a hostel, I teamed up with the only other backpacker on the bus – Joachim from Austria. Following our guidebooks, we settled in quickly and went to grab some dinner…Pizza Hut. Heh. Continue reading
Isla del Sol, Bolivia
Leaving Rurrenabaque well sunburnt, it was time for more sun – Isla del Sol, that is.
Having made the mistake of buying an open flight ticket with TAM for my return from Rurrenabaque to La Paz, then not using it (it was either wait two days and use it, or fly with Amaszonas, which is what I did), I needed to refund my ticket at the agency I bought it. Unfortunately, the opening time meant that I would miss the tourist bus to Copacabana, the access point to Isla del Sol. The more unfortunate thing? The refund was only 70%, so I lost about $18 for nothing but more hassle.
I then took a local bus to Copacabana, which costs less than the tourist bus…but considering that I needed to take a taxi to the bus company (in a dangerous area, no less), I ended up having to pay more. And the bus took an extra hour too, whoo! It was an excellent ride though, hugging the coast of the stunning Lago Titicaca, one of the largest high-altitude lakes in the world. The road was mountainous as is normal for the Andes, which made for plenty of great viewpoints of the lake. Little communities, farms, random crops growing right by the water, boats… Continue reading
Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
After hearing recommendations from other travellers (Andrew in particular, way back in El Chaltén, Argentina), I decided to make a three-day detour to Rurrenabaque, at the edge of the Amazon basin. The options? Bus for 24 hours (more on that later) or fly. Fly it is!
Well, I messed up a bit – my flight was at 3 pm, and I thought to myself to get to the airport at 1:30 pm, since the ticket says to arrive one hour early. What I DIDN’T read on the ticket was which airport – I ended up at the international airport, not the military one! Oops. With only 30 minutes to spare and a giant traffic jam, I grudgingly shelled out the extra 50 Bs to shuttle me there, just in time.
Except the plane wasn’t on time – we didn’t even board the plane until 4 pm. And zero semblance of security either! Well, a dog sniffed our bags (but not our carry-ons). Whoo. Continue reading
La Paz, Bolivia
That’s what the city’s shaped like, from altitudes ranging from 3100 m to 4058 m. And maybe that’s why all the cholitas (indigenous women) here wear bowler hats instead of the ones you see in other Bolivian cities. (Ba-dum-shhhh.)
All the good stuff is downhill in the center. The poorer you are, the further uphill you live. And these hills are bruuuutal. At least there are micros that run super-frequently everywhere and every which way, costing only 2 Bs. Continue reading
Sucre, Bolivia
“Quick, go go go!”
There was a strike in Potosí, preventing me from the normal option of leaving town by bus. Strikes of any sort are extremely common here, and bus routes to major cities are often blocked for hours or days. Antonio beckoned me into a taxi at 7 am, after I had woken up early (begrudgingly, as I was fighting a cold from walking around Potosí in the rain the previous day) due to his warning the previous night. “Maybe you can get around el bloqueado.”
I was lucky, and I did – after detouring around one protestor-made roadblock, immediately upon arriving BEHIND the bus station, the taxi driver pointed out to me a private car heading to Sucre. Unfortunately, it would cost me 6 times the normal cost – 60 Bs ($9) instead of 10. Ah well, worth the price of an extra day. Continue reading
Potosí, Bolivia
Due to lack of time, I did something I normally wouldn’t do – take a night bus arriving in the middle of the night. I bought a bus ticket from Uyuni to Potosí, leaving 7:30 and arriving past 1 am for 35 bolivanos ($5, 3 hours)…but was jittery enough that I bought another one for 6 pm, arriving at midnight, for another 30 Bs. Tried to get a refund on that 35, but was unsuccessful. Was told to go sell my ticket on the street…I just gave my ticket back to the woman and told her (in bad Spanish) to sell it again without paying me. She was confused, but after much hemming and hawing, accepted. Seriously though, hesitating over free money?
The bus was an experience. Bumpy bumpy bumpy. Also, despite being seated, there were plenty of people standing in the aisles for at least an hour – turns out we were making local stops. After arriving in Potosí at midnight, I caught a taxi for my hostel. I was really quite paranoid at this point – I’ve heard too many stories about people getting taken to random places and having money stolen. But that taxi had a radio, and the lighty thing on top – I was alright. We randomly picked up another woman though.
I took a taxi, my first since Buenos Aires almost 7 weeks ago, since I didn’t want to walk 20 minutes to my hostel late at night. But that ride took over 30 minutes…since the driver and the woman weren’t able to find my hostel! That was a bit of a headache… I’m glad I can communicate relatively okay now in Spanish though, or I would have been freaking out. After many circles, we found my hostel… a block away. Oops. Continue reading