Last full day in Lambayeque.

Tags

Bus, Hotel, Lambayeque, Museum, Peru, Sipan, Taxi, Transport, Travel

I think the lack of translation has forced me to sit back and relax for a bit, before the flights home in a few days. The hotel pool is a little too dirty to float in, the staff are usually missing from the bar or front and there’s no compelling sightseeing to be had around town. It’s a good thing to enjoy the end of a trip, instead of mad rushing.

This morning it was time to hit up the Sipan museum – the reason I chose a hotel in this town in the first place. 10 soles to get in and it took a good 2 hours to see all the artifacts on display. Very well laid out and interesting, but a lot of exhibits are the same. There’s no photography allowed in the museum, so nothing to post and a lot of the larger exhibits are representations. It’s certainly not worth a visit just to see the museum, unless you have a strong interest in artifacts of the era and even then, there are often better examples in the major museums of the US and Europe (mostly, because we claimed all the good stuff).

Took another brief walk around the main square for a few pics of the ‘hood, before heading back to the hotel, via a pastry shop. Picked up a couple of sodas and random cakes, of which all except one, tasted like stale synthetic sponges. Tried to book the Cruz del Sur tickets online in the reception but the browser is so old, that it just kept dropping errors when processing the credit card payment. Just going to have to try and book something tomorrow morning while at the bus station, or first thing when arriving in Trujillo.

The guy at the front desk is getting more helpful and along with the Google translate widget, we negotiated a taxi for 5:30am tomorrow to Chiclayo, which should enable us to book and catch a 6am bus to Trujillo. We also paid up for the room and are currently awaiting the 10 soles change and receipt for payment. Nothing to do for the rest of the day except chill. It’s going to be a fun day acquiring tickets tomorrow.

Climbing to Puno.

Tags

Alpalcas, Altitude, Arequipa, Bus, Condor, Cruz Del Sure, Language, Peru, Puno, Taxes, Travel

It’s time to leave Arequipa. I’m getting used to this cheap and plentiful way of living and would really like a few more days to explore some more of these colonial exhibition of buildings.

It’s easy to forget why you travel when living a normal life but now I’m here and moving, remembering is so easy – exploration is an integral part of the human makeup and the more different the culture, the more it feeds the soul. I’m also reminded yet again how communication is never something to restrict life and despite my complete lack of any good Spanish vocabulary (outside of some basic keywords), I’ve been able to point, gesticulate and hack together similar words to get the message through. Unlike a lot of people I’ve seen on this trip, I don’t expect Peruvians to translate for me; I’m in Peru and work the language to their benefit, not mine.

After making the most of the fantastic fresh breakfast at the hotel and uploading a few more pics, it was time to check out and ask the guy at the front gate to hail a taxi.  15 minutes and 6 soles later through completely unfamiliar streets, we hit the bus terminal.

After checking in, it turned out we had to pay a departure tax of 1.5 soles per person but I’ve no idea why. There’s nothing mentioned on the website or tour guides about this, outside of departure tax for flights, so it’s lucky we had some change available.  The bus finally headed out, ten minutes late and with lack of internet this time.

It’s a slow climb out of Arequipa, into the mountains that catch the eye when in the center of town. Odd scenes scatter the start of the journey and I see a dead animal laying on its side in a field, with a local throwing rocks at it from a distance. Buildings started to get fewer and less developed within 30minutes and eventually passed into the distance, leaving only the occasional stone hut with straw roof at seemingly random points. It’s such extremely similar landscape to Arizona and New Mexico that you couldn’t tell the difference if there weren’t a few signs in Spanish.

There’s more ground wildlife here than I’ve seen so far, with Alpalcas plentiful, the odd group of sheep and the more rare sight of three Vicuña. It’s hard to photograph anything while moving, as the journey is bumpy and the animals are the same colour as the landscape. Hopefully there will be more chance to get up close and personal with some of these things later on, once we’ve stopped. I’ve also had the privelege to see a couple of Condor but nothing too close as yet. Perhaps the most unexpected sighting was of flamingos in a lake up here. Bearing in mind we’re at around 10,000ft, I didn’t think they were altitude dwellers.

The high elevation is starting to kick in a little. I did take a pill this morning to counter the effects but I was supposed to start 24hrs before and didn’t, due to the consumtion of alcohol last night. If it hasn’t already kicked in, I should feel the benefits before the end of the day. I have a lightness of breath, slight head pressure and tightness in the chest but otherwise well. Feet are cold and going occasionally numb but moving gets the circulation going. No headaches, dizziness or becoming distant yet – the fact that I can put together this blog means the brain is still functional.

Peru bus bookings.

Tags

Arequipa, Bus, Cruz Del Sur, Cusco, Lima, Nazca, Online Ordering, Peru, Ticketing, Travel

Originally, I was going to pick up the transit tickets either upon arrival in Peru, or hopefully via arrangement with one of the hotels I’m staying at. As Cruz Del Sur has an online ticketing option and they also have an English translation, I opted to try and get the three tickets necessary for the transport to Puno from Lima. I’m still thinking that doing this trip in the reverse order to what is common (Lima to Cusco by bus, instead of flying to Cusco and bus back) is causing more planning difficulties online than would be normal. Of course, the concept that this should be easily available online is amusing enough to me and shows my western failings and assumptions of technology.

Anyway, after registration for the online ordering, I was able to easily order the Lima to Nazca after some issues with the credit card authentication. Without going in to too much detail, the ‘verified by visa’ code wasn’t accepted and I was then locked out of my actual account. After getting the account unlocked, I was then able to complete the seat purchase but only when using Internet Explorer – Firefox just gave me a blank page and wouldn’t process the order. Some kind of oddness about the ticket ordering came apparent over the next two days when I tried to order the next tickets and kept getting a ‘Denied’ message. I’m not entirely sure why I get denied for successive tickets but 24 hours after one purchase, I was able to make my next purchase; three days for three ticket purchases.

One area that Cruz Del Sur could be more clear about is the (even approximate) transit times for all routes. The common routes look to have a timetable, but, some of the section routes, such as Nazca to Arequipa, (which is part of the Lima to Arequipa bus) fail to post an arrival time or duration. A couple of Emails via the contact form confirmed the approximations that I had seen travelers post on-line but really, what effort would it take to include this on the booking timetable itself?

Now the ordering is complete, it should be a simple case of picking up the tickets on arrival, although with a 9pm flight in and bus departure at 7am the next morning, it will be interesting to see how smooth the collection goes and whether I can get them on arrival or the next morning.