I paid Peru very short visit, 9 days only. I had to cross the whole country within 64 hours in stuffy and sweaty buses, from the coast of Ecuador, where I worked in a travel agency to Arequipa, where I planned to see my friend whom I met in the hostel in Ecuador and we decided to travel together following 4 month.
I was sitting on the beach in Puerto Lopez, sipping fresh juice, and continued to discuss our plans with Pawel. I planned to join him in southern Peru or in Bolivia, much later, at the end of August. I had a strong desire for a camping/hitching life, and I wanted to try myself in hiking – alone I would not do it. He told me that in couple of days he will go for a trek in Colca Canyon – and I decided to join him Right Now! Between other reasons Colca Canyon seemed to me a best place to start my trekking and hiking career (treks there are very easy) before heading to high altitude mountains of Bolivia.
I never went for any hike in my life, and to be honest, an idea of climbing the hills with a heavy backpack in the heat, rain or snow didn’t inspire me. Put a tent in the forest? With my great outdoor skills I could easily put it directly on a sleeping bear. What to eat, how to survive without hot shower? Typical excuses because of ordinary fear of trying something new.
I like to walk a lot, and a heavy backpack has been my good friend for many years, but I have never leave the city. More cities I’ve seen with their modern streets and coffee-to-go, bars and parks, more they seems boring to me.Whether the mountains, so beautiful, so enticing … I have to try.
At night I got to the terminal. My backpack stuffed with bread and cookies, hardly fit between seats. It would be long, long ride… By morning I reached a larger city, Guayaquil, where I faced a problem – there was no direct connections to Lima. The only one, Cruz de Sur, does not really count, because the prices for this bus are extremely high.
After consulting with various companies, I bought a ticket to the first border town in Peru – Tumbes. The border we passed quickly and easily – in South America for Russians visa is not required in most of the countries, passport is sufficient to cross the border.
It was already dark in the town. I had to stop by money exchange and find a cheap bus to Lima. The smart-ass taxi driver tried to screwed me over, asking for two bucks for each segment of the journey. I wanted two bucks for everything. I jumped into moto taxi with all my stuff and soon I exchanged the remaining “ecuadorian” dollars for peruvian soles. Remained ridiculously little money in cash. I haven’t seen any ATM on the way and I did not want to look for it at night – Tumbes is not the safest city in Peru (as well as many border cities in general).
We went to search for a bus. “Cheap bus” – I clarified, showing the crumpled papers that I got from the exchange. But the guy brought me first to the nearest terminal of mentioned above Cruz de Sur. I looked at him. He understood without words and brought me to another company – all the tickets were sold out. In the 3rd place I got the last place. Bingo!
The taxi driver started counting how many 2-bucks-ride we had made and how much I owed him, but I handed him the remaining $ 1.5 and a chocolate bar – sorry, bro, but I don’t have more. He did not get mad and wished me good luck.
And again a long long ride… Next day we stopped at one of the restaurants on the road.
Everyone, except me, ordered dinner. I would also eat something with pleasure, but I did not have a penny left. I made a face that russians are never eat and continued to read the book at the entrance, while Peruvians chewed their meals. Soon the old lady called me and invited me to her table. I tried to refuse, but she insisted. She ordered me a yummy chicken soup, saying that all people should eat well. How can you not like the whole world after this?
And here it is, Lima. Northern terminal. My race to the offices of bus companies gave me a disappointing result – buses to Arequipa are leaving 1) not from here 2) not today.
I found a restaurant with wifi, and began to ask my friends in Lima and on the couchsurfing where I can find the bus. A guy from CS came to the terminal and helped me to sort out the insane transport of the capital, walked with me to the several terminals (many bus companies in Peru have their own terminal and can be located in different parts of the city) and helped to get a ticket. I was lucky.
I needed somehow send message to my friend about time of arrival. Finding wifi in Lima was not easy. We walked around dozen restaurants and bars, but they just shook their heads – no internet. I had to do the trick and enter one of the hotels, asked wifi saying that we are waiting for friends and want to settle in this hotel, and we only need to send our friends a message… It worked.
My bus to Arequipa was six hours late. It was the 3rd day of the journey. The road in the mountains was blocked by strikers. I was mentally preparing to rush again through the night city, look for a wifi, after to look for my friend … At the moment when I pulled a heavy backpack at the Arequipa station , someone touched me by the shoulder. Pawel! He waited for me six hours!
It’s so important when someone is waiting for you. When he (or she) meet you at the station with all your heavy backpacks, tired and exhausted by the road, handed a sandwich and coffee and take you home. And everything becomes so good …
Meet your loved ones after the journey. Maybe it’s uncomfortable, it’s a waste of time, and they know the way home very well, but this is a very important way to show your attention. People need to feel that they are welcome, they they are needed.
In Puno, on our last day in Peru, another nice story happened to me.
We went to the station late at night, planning to immediately take the night bus to Bolivia. But it turned out that the border was closed at night and buses would leave only in the morning. We had to sleep at the station – a cold long night. The woman who sold us tickets, asked where we will spend this night. “Here” – we answered, looking around. “It’s winter now, very cold,” she said. She thought a bit and continue: “You can stay at our office until morning, there are charges and you can put your sleeping bags on the floor, here at least it is not that windy”.
If you backpacking for many months around the world, you know what does it mean to sleep lying down. Even on the floor in somebody’s office, but without exhausting sitting all night, shivering from the cold, falling into a dream and waking up almost falling to the floor.
In the middle of the night a very grumpy Pawel woke me up. “Do you smell anything?”. The room terribly smelled like toiled and, apparently, Pawel didn’t want to enjoy it alone and he decided to shared his experience with peacefully sleeping me. The smell came from the buses behind the wall, where they clened toilets.
I continued to sleep. Shit is a shit, but I wanted to sleep. My friend all the following trip remainded me stinky Puno. The journey began. Traveling the world is difficult, tedious and far beyond the comfort of travel for vacation for a couple of weeks.
But kind people make this experience unforgettable. It worth it.
Anything is possible 