Peru

22 February 2008
Tumbes, Peru
                Back on the bus we had a short ride to Tumbes.  We got off the bus and met a gentleman in a Bus shirt asking where we needed to go.  “Lima.”  We replied.  He told us that we needed to by our ticket at a different office.  Furthermore it was a long way away and dangerous for us to walk.  We knew that the later was false; we’ve just come from El Salvador and Colombia and were fine.  But in the interest of trying to get our tickets quickly we agreed.  He brought us to the station and sure enough they were sold out.  Then he brought us to a second station…sold out.  Then a third station…sold out.  He said that was every bus station there was. 
                We knew that we were going to need a hotel for the evening and to take a bus tomorrow.  We asked which bus station had the earliest bus.  He took us to a fourth station and they had a bus leaving in about 20 minutes.  Furthermore they had one seat left.  If this guy had brought us here first we probably could have had tickets to Lima tonight.  Thoroughly frustrated we bought tickets for the next day.
                It was off to a hotel next.  We picked the Hospedaje Don Richard, a border line dump that gave us a room with bath for around $8.  We took our first real showers since Tena around 4 days ago and settled in for the night.

23 February 2008
Tumbes, Peru
                The bus was to leave at 11:00, it was now 7:00, and we had a few errands to do.  Waiting about an hour and a half, lounging, watching some television, we walked out the hotel to find internet.  After walking about 6 blocks we found internet.  Doug hooked up the laptop to update the website.  The computer didn’t comprehend the connection.  We left this shop, in search of another.  Walking another block, there were two internet shops but they were not opened yet.  There was a small café overlooking a square, we decided to have little breakfast. 
                During breakfast one of the shops opened up, and Doug took the laptop again.  The connection didn’t work at this shop either.  We weren’t getting a little worried.  The bill was paid for breakfast, and we started to walk back towards our hotel.  There was one more internet shop to try, right next to the hotel.  It wasn’t open when we first walked by.    Coming up to the shop it was open.  We walked in, Doug hooked the laptop up, and it worked.  The guy running the shop locked the door to the shop, because he saw we had a nice laptop.  It was nice to have a little security.  And the website was updated.
                It was now 10:30, and we needed to go to the room finishing packaging, and go to the bus station.  Luckily the station was only 2 blocks away.  We waited about 20 minutes, loaded our backed into the luggage storage, and got onto the bus.
                20 hours later arrived in Lima, around 7:00 in the morning. 

24 February 2008
Lima, Peru
                20 hours later we arrived in Lima around 7:00 in the morning.  We needed to now catch a bus to Cuzco.  There were several bus companies within a few blocks of where we arrived.  After doing a little research we found out there were no buses going out that morning.  The first bus was to go out at 3:00 pm; we decided to go with the company we had used to get to Lima.  The bus was scheduled to leave at 4:00 pm.  It was now 8:30 am, we had 7 ½ hours to spend in Lima.  Luckily the bus station had luggage storage, so we stored our bags, and began walking.
                According to our map there was a park with a museum in it a couple blocks away.  Walking up to the park we found the park & museum were closed.  This was a little odd, a completely fenced park, with hours.  However it was going to open at 10:00 am.  We began wandering around to look for a place to get some food.  Being on the bus for such a long time, we only had snacks. 
                There was a little café selling sandwiches and fresh juice.  We both ordered chicken sandwiches, pineapple juice (Anna), and orange juice (Doug).  The sandwiches came solely with shredded chicken, on a bun.  The waiter brought some mayonnaise on a plate and a bottle of mustard.  We then asked for some cheese.  Unknowingly we accidently ordered an additional cheese sandwich.  We just put the cheese on the sandwich, leaving the bun.  This wasn’t the most exciting meal to speak of, but it cured the hunger.
                Walking down the street, we make a couple of phone calls to our families, being that it was Sunday.  Further down the street there was what we thought was a mall, but it was just a large store.  The store included a grocery store, clothing, and electronics.  We wandered around the store, purchasing some necessities, and snacks.  
                By now it was after 10:00, and we walked back to the park.  Inside the park there was an art museum.  And because it because it was Sunday the entrance fee was only 1 sole.  1 sole each; this came out to be $.75.  This was very exciting, and CHEAP. It was interesting to see some of the Peruvian art, and read about some of the history.  Although only some of the exhibits had English translation.
                After the art museum we explored the park.  There was a loud whistle going off very frequently.  We soon found out the whistle was a park worker telling people to get off of the grass because no one was allowed on it.  We then found some ice cream and a little pond that people rented paddle boats.  The water for the paddle boats had ducks and fish swimming around.  We spent a couple of hours hanging out at the park. 
                It was now 2:00 pm and we had 2 hours to kill.  There were about 5 little cafés/restaurants near the bus station.  We picked out a place for lunch, and ordered.  Being the majority of the meals are served in high quantity, we decided to share a plate.  The fried chicken and rice dish came about 20 minutes later.  Doug cut into the meat, and found the chicken was still raw inside.  We sent the meat back to be further cooked.  The dish came back 10 minutes later looking fine.  We ate our meal, and went back to the bus station.
                At 3:45 we loaded up or bags and got on the bus. 

25 February 2008
Cuzco, Peru
                After 24 hours on the bus we arrived in Cuzco around 3:00 in the afternoon.  The manual said we had to buy our train tickets at this specific station.  We took a taxi to the station, and began looking into train tickets for the following day. 
                To get to Machupicchu there are two ways to get to the ruins.  The first and easiest way is to take a train to a city called Aqua Calientes, then either walk up to the ruins (It is about a 3km walk, 2km is straight up some very steep stairs), or take a bus which costs $6 each person, each way.  The second option is to do the famous Inca trail.  There are a couple of trails leading to the ruins, but the original Inca trail is closed during the month of February for maintenance.  And since we are on time constraints, we had to take the train.
                At the train information desk, the attendant told us we could get the “backpacker” rate to Agua Calientes ($48 each one-way).  But to get back we would be dropped off short in a city called Ollantaytambo, and then we would have to take a bus back to Cuzco.  This second ticket was $43, because they had only first class available.  After purchasing our train tickets we were not happy.  The total was $182, just for the train tickets to get to the ruins.
                We weren’t sure how to get to the hostel, so we took another taxi.  Thankfully the taxis in this town were only about a $1.33 a ride, so we weren’t very put out.  We arrived at the hostel, Doug checked out the room, and the lady said $20 soles per person.  We then countered saying the guy at the bus station said it would only be $15 soles per person.  She then said, “Well it has cable TV.”  Doug’s response was, “We don’t need cable.”  Anna said no to her price, and she finally conceded to $15 soles.  The total for one day would then be $30 soles, only about $10 US.  This was the first time we had to negotiate for our room.
                After settling in, and taking a much needed shower, we set out to find some food.  We didn’t realize that Cuzo is at over 10,000 feet.  No wonder the air was a little thin.  Looking for a restaurant we found a place to sell us bus tickets to Copacabana, Bolivia.  We bought our tickets, and soon found an Irish Pub to have dinner at. 
                We enjoyed a couple local beers, some vegetarian nachos, and a pita bread pizza.  It was nice to have “normal” food for once.  After dinner it was early, but we had just done a lot of bus time.  We went back to the room, watched a little TV, and fell asleep. 

26 February 2008
Cusco, Peru
                The alarm went off at 5:30 for us to get ready to see Machupicchu.  Thankfully the train station wasn’t too far and we could easily walk to there.  We boarded the train and shortly afterward it left the station.  We traveled about half a mile and stopped.  We waited for about 20 minutes and then backed up and waited some more.  About 45 minutes after we left, we actually left Cusco and made our way to Agua Calientes. 
                Once the train stopped we were greeted by a mob of tour agencies there to collect their clients.  We pushed right past and into a sea of vendors selling all the usual tourist products.  Making it past them we worked our way to ticket office to buy our tickets into the park.  To our surprise the ticket price wasn’t the $23 USD we thought it would be.  Instead the ticket price was around $40 USD.  Furthermore they wouldn’t accept USD (despite every place else around the area would).  The $23 USD ticket price was for students.  Doug had an idea and pulled our military ID’s out.  The ticket lady looked a little confused but accepted it and charged us the reduced rate.  However she said, “show your ID at the gate.” 
                While waiting in line we met a Cuban American couple named Danny and Thais who said they would walk up the hill with us.  With new friends in tow we set off along the river to begin our hour of stair climbing to around 7500 feet.  Needless to say the hike up was quite a workout and we were all pretty tired upon arriving at the top.
                At the gate sure enough they asked for our student IDs.  Doug once again pulled the military IDs.  The lady seemed to accept Doug’s (the new fancy looking ID), but while looking at Anna’s (the older style ID) she thought maybe we were trying to pull something.  She sent us to an office where we tried the same.  They weren’t buying it and we had to pony up around $40 more USD to enter. 
                Finally entering the park we came to the spot that gives the classic view of Machupicchu only to see it was almost completely obscured by clouds.  Having paid $182 for the train, plus $80 for admission and then having to walk an hour up stairs to avoid paying an additional $24 for the bus only to not be able to see the ruins was a little disconcerting.  Thankfully as time went on the clouds started to burn off plus Danny and Thais were in such a great mood we quickly cheered up.  We toured around the ruins for a while and then began our walk back down the hill.
                Back in town we said our farewells to our new friends and set off for some food.  After ordering some bad pizza and Anna having to return her piña colada we spent an hour or two checking out the touristy shops before leaving on the train.
                Once our train stopped we were happy to discover a “collectivo” (a van/taxi) that was taking people back to Cusco for about $3.50 each.  Oddly enough this is cheaper and faster than taking the train.
                The collectivo dropped us off in the nearby plaza and after a little mis-direction we made it back to our hotel.

27 February 2008
Cusco, Peru
                Today was going to be spent exploring the town.  We started off by going to a nice non-profit bakery (probably the only thing not turning a profit in Cusco) for breakfast.  Then we set off for a nearby ruin called “Saqsaywaman.”  When we arrived at the entrance we discovered that we needed to buy a tourist card that cost over $20 USD each to enter.  We decided to pass feeling sufficiently put out from the day prior.  Thankfully we ran into John and Ann, a nice Canadian couple.  We walked with them back into town and had a cup of coffee, chatting about a number of things.  One touristy item they did mention was the nearby Iglesia Santo Domingo.  They said it was a few bucks to get in but worth it.  We said our farewells and headed off for the church.
                The Santo Domingo was quite beautiful.  It was the richest of the Inca temples and had some good translations that made self guiding easy to do.
                Next stop was to do a little shopping.  We picked out a couple things and headed to the post office only to discover we would have to pay around $60 for our two packages to be sent home.  We decided to not mail anything and bring the packages into Bolivia where the post office was cheaper.
                With more time to kill we went to the main plaza to do some people watching.  While sitting on a bench, a local came and sat next to us.  It was his hour break from the nearby restaurant where he was a cook.  He didn’t speak a word of English but was absolutely fascinated with how much everything cost in the US.  He wanted to know prices from beer to beach houses in the US.  We did our best to play the international version of “The Price is Right” before leaving to go warm up.
                After getting Anna some nice wool gloves for about $1 USD we found a used book store and stocked up on new books.  Then it was back to the Irish pub where Anna had a huge bowl of soup and Doug had a surprisingly good Philly Cheese Steak.  Next stop was the bus station.
                Once we went to board our bus we started noticing something was wrong.  First the picture of the bus we supposedly booked was very high end.  This bus while decent was not the ultra plush one we paid for.  Then we found out this particular bus didn’t even have a bathroom (a standard on every long distance bus we’ve travelled on for the last two months and a “nice to have” for a 20 hour bus ride).  Anna decided to go ask some questions only to discover that this “direct to Copacabana bus was not direct at all.  Instead we would be dropped off at a town and how we were getting to and through the border was a little hazy.  A lady that worked for the bus tried to offer assistance but they only thing she could do was change our seats so now we sat together.  Furthermore when she gave us our new tickets we discovered that lady that booked our tickets also treated herself to a $20 service charge for our $30 tickets.  Despite every urge to not take the bus and wait until morning to greet the lady that sold us our tickets with something large and blunt or something sharp and metal, we took the decided we needed to leave Peru.

28 February 2008
Bus ride through Peru to Bolivia
                Our bus had a flat tire around sunrise but after about an hour they had it patched up and we were back on the road.  A couple hours later a gentleman came and said we would be getting dropped off with him at a town called Yunguyo.  Then we would take a van through to the border and then another to Copacabana.
                We were dropped off and loaded into another collectivo and headed to the border.  After getting stamped out of Peru we crossed the border into Bolivia.

Bolivia Journal

28 February 2008
Bolivia/Peru Border crossing on Lake Titicaca
                The Peruvian border guards handled us reentering the country very well.  They looked at our little tourist cards we had just turned in and gave us some new stamps and sent us on our way.
                We caught a taxi back to nearby Yunguyo where we caught a bus to Puno.  We started looking for a “home stay” in our book only to find it had been leveled for a brand new church.  Back near the center of town a gentleman came out to greet us and show us his new hotel.  We got a very comfortable room with scolding hot water for around $20.
                Next stop was an internet café to find out if the Bolivian border guards were trying to rip us off or not.  Our research turned up that as of 1 December 2007 Bolivia changed its entry requirement for US citizens requiring the purchase of a 5 year Visa to the tune of $100 USD.  Apparently this is in response to our governments’ recent change to the entry requirement for Bolivians (which we think is about $134 USD).
                Our next destination was dinner.  We found a nice little place that cooked up a mean chicken kabob.  Then it was off to the bus station to get our tickets towards Chile.  Unfortunately all the buses that got us near the border weren’t leaving until the evening, so we purchased morning tickets to Arequipa (second largest city in Peru). 
                On the way back to the room we stopped for some desert before turning in.

29 February 2008
Puno, Peru
                Up early we headed off to the bus station.  We caught our bus and 4 or 5 hours later made it to Arequipa.  There we booked a bus to Tacna that would be arriving around 10 pm.    We had some lunch/dinner and then jumped on our next bus.
                We arrived in Tacna and booked a taxi to get us across the border.  These taxis wait until they have five passengers before departing.  We had to wait for near an hour before we were joined by a Chilean couple and a Peruvian girl that was really anxious to go to Chile to see her boyfriend. 
                On the ride we were treated to some of the best of the 80’s dance hits including: Footloose, Eye of the Tiger and If you think I’m sexy and you want my body…
                The border crossing was the most modern and official looking crossing we have had yet.  The Peru immigration officials didn’t give us any static about have an exit and entry stamp on the same day and waved us on through to Chile.

Chile Journal

Back to South America Journal