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The cathedral on the Plaza de Armas
Nearly every Peruvian city has a Plaza de Armas After just a night in Puño I was on the early morning bus to Arequipa. Arequipa is a big city in the southern parts of Peru & is famous for the Colca Canyon that is located relatively nearby. It is one of the biggest canyons to be found in South America & apparently makes a great trek. But after day in Arequipa I realised that my uncharacteristic lack of appetite was indicative of dark days to come. I suppose I should know by now that a bout of the worms is always followed by a gastrointesinal infection.....thought I was getting quicker at reading the signs.....so for those of you of the same disposition as me.....you know what to expect in the future. So I didn´t get up to much in Arequipa except lie in bed & feel sorry for myself......in between running to the toilet & wishing I was at home. However the first day there I was fit enough to wander around & it is a beautiful city....the Plaza de Armas has lovely buildings all built in a white stone. And not that far from the center is a park that has monkeys & birds in cages....yes I know it´s
A band on the street
As we journey towards Arequipa cruel but they are cute. The markets are worth a stroll too.....if not to buy anything but to get some popcorn to munch on as you take it all in. There are cake shops everywhere......so just as well I wasn´t in top form or I could have done a lot of damage.
One evening I decided that I was leaving.....I was sick of feeling sick & wanted a change of scenery that would hopefully bring a clean bill of health. So I took a local bus out to the bus station to get my ticket. Now the trip out there wasn´t so bad in that the driver didn´t try to break records in the amount of people he could fit in his converted Hiace van. But the journey back was a nightmare....sardines in a can doesn´t begin to decribe it. With each stop-start to pick up more passengers (because no-one ever got off) my tummy lurched & I felt I was that bit closer to puking up on the kids that were rammed up against me. They were so close that I think child-protection activists would have a problem with their proximity to me. Eventually I got off......thankful for
fresh air & it was straight to bed for me. It was the antibiotic that sorted me out in the end. Easy to get over-the-counter......just as long as you know what you´re looking for!!
So unfortunately I didn´t go trekking around Arequipa.....after 2 days in bed I just wanted ot get out of there. As I was leaving for the station the hostel landlord came to wave me down a taxi.....it´s not that I´d have difficulty finding one because there are literally millions of them bumper-to-bumper on the streets but apparently some of them are cowboys & will abduct & rob you. So I had confidence when I hopped in with Jesus, my taxi-driver......surely with a name like that I could trust that I´d get there safely. And I did. However my trip to Cusco didn´t start out as confidently. After we were finger-printed as we boarded the bus, I thought maybe I should have spent more on my ticket. Although the bus was a luxury-liner.....maybe they cut costs & only had one driver for the 10hr overnight journey. Maybe the reason the bus was new was because they crash them so often. So these were the thoughts going
around in my head as another man went around the bus with a video camera so that they had a visual reference of everyone on the bus. In case they needed to identify us. Needless to say I said a prayer or 2 before we took off & throughout the night. You see apparently there are a lot of road traffic accidents on Peruvian roads so they take these measures as a matter of protocol. So maybe my theory on the reason for such nice buses wasn´t too far off the mark!!
We did arrive there safely the next morning but I did vow to fly from Cusco to Lima instead of taking the nightmare 27hr bus-trip there. There is only so much stress & worry I can take.....& especially when you have no control over the situation I think 27hr is just asking for trouble. So I did my bit to add to carbon admissions & booked the short 1-hr flight to Lima.
But for now, Cusco. And the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.
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