southbound

GETTING THERE

Our busride from Lima to Arequipa was a thing to remember. It startet as usual – we got on the bus, ate dinner (the service on long distance busses in Peru are similar to the one on an airplane), startet to watch a movie and soon I fell asleep.

I woke up because the busdriver hit the breaks very hard. A moment later we were standing in the bushes. That was shortly after midnight.

A long night followed. We got evacuatet out of a window by the firemen because the door did not open. Somebody told us that a taxi crashed into the bus (on purpose, according to the policemen, with the intention to rob the bus). What the people in the taxi did not expect was that the taxi driver died in the “accident”. None of the bus passengers got hurt though.

As a group, we stood outside in a light rain, illuminated by the firemen’s spotlight and surrounded by more and more little cars stopping over. Anna Maria, the head of the policemen, invited us “gringos” (there were two more traveller couples on the bus) to be brought to the police station nearby after three long hours of standing around when more or less professional journalists with camcorders showed up and interviewed both bus passengers and peole from the taxi crew of which some were drunk and therefore aggressive.

It took the replacement bus from Lima until 7 am to get to the place somewhere between Ica and Nasca and the policecar came to the station to pick us up. We had been spending the time chatting with the others and trying to get some sleep on the wooden benches.
Bene helped to move the lugguage from one bus to the other, then we continued our drive and arrived in Arequipa at 9 pm.

!! That doesn’t happen on each and every bus drive in Peru. We were just unlucky (and at the same time lucky that nothing severe happened) !!

AREQUIPA

We spent three nights in the “white city”, sleeping in after our day on the bus, meeting up with one of the two other gringo couples and walking through the steep streets in 2800 m altitude. Our hostel had a nice roof terrace, where breakfast was served and from where we had a great view over the city.

CHIVAY

On march 26th we drove 4 hrs to the small town of Chivay in the Colca Canyon, a canyon even deeper than the Grand Canyon.
In 3800 m of altitude we took long walks into the fields and the canyon, bathed in up to 85 degrees celsius hot springs and enjoyed the tranquility of the mountains.

It gets very cold in the mountains at that time. Rain time is almost over (of four days we had two with afternoon rain showers) and as soon as the sun went down, we wouldn’t walk around without a winter jacket and beanie. They also don’t heat any rooms, even in restaurants you usually sit around with what you’re wearing outside. The only thing that gives you back some warmth is a hot shower (if the hot water is working), otherwise you just hide underneath all of the woolen blankets you can find and your sleeping bags.

BUT the landscape was beautiful, the people were warm hearted and we basically lived on the food from the market, prepared by the old farmer women that care about your hunger as if you were their grandchild.

CUSCO

After four nights we left that gorgeous place to spend two days in the ancient inka capital Cusco, where – again – we hat a room with a beautiful view over the old town. We arrived on monday before easter, which is a big thing in southamerica. The plazas were crowded with people and from the roof terrace we saw a huge parade walking through the streets.