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Mussoq Taki performing at the Peña
Our night bus arrived in Arequipa at 6.30am and we got a taxi (who over-charged us) to a hostel. We agreed a price for a room and went to bed to sleep.
We slept for most of the day but went out into town in the afternoon for a look around and book the bus to Chile the next day. We had orginally intended to go to Colca Canyon but as I was not well we decided to head for Santiago as quickly as possible to see a Doctor. We took advice from the Lonely Planet and went to an agency to buy bus tickets. The commision they charged was less than the taxi fare to the bus station so it was the cheapest and easiest way to organise them. We had lunch in Govindas (again) and walked about - Arequipa seemed really nice, I was sorry we were unable to stay longer.
We had decided to go to a Pena in the evening which is a club that has live Andean music and dancing. Despite our intension we hadn´t been to one on our whole trip so were very keen to go before leaving the Andes. The club also did food so we decided to eat there and make an evening of it. We arrived at the club at 8pm and were the only people there, despite the fact that an Andean band were playing their hearts out. The band was called Mussoq Taki and they were blooming excellent! They consisted of a group of 5 lads ages 17-20 and were seriously talented. They played Perivian pipes, the banjo, guitar, drums, wooden flutes and they entertained soley us for a good hour until more customers arrived. We even bought their CD.
We were delighted to find Ocopa on the meal which is an (vegetarian) Arequipan speciality. As it was the first time we´d found a vegetarian local dish we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it. Ocopa consists of a cold boiled potato served with a mild spicy peanut flavoured sauce and a few slices of fried cheese. Weird - yes, great tasting - not really, but it was pleasent enough especially accompanied by several Pisco Sours.
As the evening progressed more customers turned up and more took to the dance floor. We were really enjoying ourselves but as we had to get a bus at 8.00am the next day and were still tired from travelling all night we decided to do the sensible thing and left for bed at about midnight.
The next morning I was furious to discover that our hostel manager had written in the book that we had to pay 68 soles for the room as opposed to the 45 agreed. 45 was expensive as it was and we had only taken the room as we were too tired to trapse around looking for somewhere else. We now had a problem because the boy behind the desk had to follow his bosses orders (though he didn´t think that changing an agreed price overnight was fair either), but I didn´t want to back down. In the end I spoke to the manager on the telephone; he was utterly rude and offensive and didn´t listen to a word I tried to say. Time was ticking and we had a bus to catch so in the end we met him in the middle. As we were locked into the hostel and didn´t want to miss our bus we really had little choice, but I was really really annoyed!
Things went from bad to worse when we got on our bus. We had been scammed by the ticket agency as he had agreed to get us tickets for a decent standard bus and to charge us 5% commision. What he had actually done was put us on the cheapèst oldest bus, crossed out the actual price and taken over 50% commision. We were not impressed because the bus had no leg room whatsoever (not good for a 6´2¨Geordie) and no toilet (not good for a 6 hour journey) as well as being, dusty and boiling hot.
Immigration out of Peru was a bit of a mare. Noel and I both had our luggage searched and the whole process took ages. Finally we were back in Chile and heading for Arica. Hooray! We were both really fed up of being ripped off in Peru and were looking forward to being back in Chile where on the whole people are much nicer and fairer.
On reflection we think ourselves lucky that we weren't robbed or mugged in Peru as most of the travellers we have met have been, though we do still feel we lost money through extortion and greed. Despite the fact that we did enjoy ourselves in Peru, of all the countries we have been to this is our least favourite.
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Eric
non-member comment
I find one part of your tory hard to believe...
I have been traveling south America for about 14 months now and Peru is by far my most favorite of all the countries. And while I believe the average person is out right a joy I have found some of the richer folk not so pleasant. Anyway, I pent two months in arequipa, the only over priced cab wa the one from the airport and that wa the price the bost on their bogus signs. No one else charged me more that 3-4 soles ($1-$1.50USD) I could not complain about that. I thought the city itself was absolutely beautiful. I may make a recommendation. When traveling it is not always best to go to the most places and see the most things but to go to a few places where you can really get a feel for the uniqueness of that land and culture. I believe in the law of attraction... have ages before the secret ever came out... and I can easily see how you frustration on worry over the timing you had to figure everything out in Arequipa to get to chile reflected the initial cab experience. I really hate it when lonely planet misleads... but then again, I guess that's why I never owned one. What was the fair to the station 8-10 s/? Again you could have let your anger and perception of the taxis fuel the experience at the agency. I am about to make the same trip from arequipa into chile by bus in less that a week. My motto, arequipa wa beautifal last time for two months... why not this time as well for two days. :) All the bet, I hope things picked up in chile Chau!