Travel by Bus

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Let’s see. A lot has happened and a lot has changed the past few weeks. I was in Santiago, Chile for almost 2 weeks. It’s a great city. It felt like home here. Even after just a few days here, I felt like a local. The train was easy to follow, great neighborhoods to visit and great food to eat. Of course, I have been counting my pennies since I started my travel so I try to eat-in instead. There are many great museums to visit and parks to wander around. We stayed with a great family in Barrio Brasil who took us in like a family. Ricardo and his family barely spoke English but we barely knew Spanish too. We drank wine and beer almost every night and talked about everything from politics to Wushu. Oh yeah, even got to practice Wushu for the first time. Ricardo is a master. Of course, I seven shared my cooking skills with them. They were a really great host. We also stayed with a couple, Ines and Tito, who had literally just came back from a year and a half of travel around the world. They’re located in a nice, quiet Las Condes neighborhood. We shared stories of our travels, shared ideas and took in some of their recommendations for Santiago. It was really great to have stayed at their place.

In between stay in Santiago, I decided to take a few days to visit Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. I stayed in Vina del Mar for about 4 days and took a day trip to Valparaiso. My host in Vina suggested places to do and things to see. The city is very beautiful and the beaches are great. I walked around for countless hours enjoying the city landscape and the view of the Pacific Ocean, while feasting on local food. I stopped by at two international arts and crafts fair that was going on at the time of my visit. Of course, I enjoyed the company of my hosts, Cynthia and her boyfriend Rolando, at a bar in downtown Vina. We feasted on a huge chorrillanna with a bottle of beer. Unfortunately, we would have stayed a lot longer if it wasn’t for the blackout. It was good time nonetheless. I must say that I enjoyed Valparaiso a lot. I went with Rolando since Cynthia has to care for her father. It’s funny, my conversations with Rolando consisted of using our own dictionaries whenever we were stuck. We carried our own because we couldn’t understand each other very well. But it was all fun. I enjoyed the view of the city from atop Cerro Polanco and Cerro Concepcion via an elevator that was built if you want to avoid walking on steep hills. We walked around Cerro Alegre and Concepcion, great neighborhoods, and I think the best of it all was visiting the museum house of Pablo Neruda, a famous Chillean poet. The house was very interesting to say the least and the view of the city was unbelievable.

Before Santiago, Kristen and I stayed in Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt. We stayed with a host who I think live at the border of these two cities. Armando was quite a character and his passion for social work was very refreshing. To get to his place, you can either wait for a bus or hitchhike. Guess which one we did? It was an incredible experience to be hitchhiking which I thought I would never do in a million years. Of course, we took buses too. During our time here, we went camping in Chiloe. We hitchhiked our way there of course. Unfortunately, the park was closed when we got there so we only stayed for one night. Our campground was located on the other side of the park where you have to take a small boat to get there. It was pretty cool. The following day, we tried hiking but that didn’t work out. Instead, we visited the Pacific Ocean beach before heading back to Castro in Chiloe. The view was just amazing and I literally felt I’m at the end of the world. When we got to Castro via bus, I contacted a host that accepted my request. Anna Maria was a very gracious host. She welcomed five couchsurfers at one time and we had an amazing dinner with her and her family. Even for just one night, she took all of us in.

Right now, I’m seating on a bus on my way to Lima, Peru for scheduled 2.5 days of travel. It’s an exciting way to travel, just not including the pain and suffering that I might encounter. All I saw was an open land. I started to see desert. I learned that the northern part of Chile is all desert. I really wish I had gone to San Pedro de Atacama. But of course, there’s always next time. I haven’t had any big complaints so far during this bus trip. Besides the occasional baby crying and puking, children screaming and Spanish speaking movies, it’s not bad and this is just the first day. The bus was semi-cama, which means that it’s an incredibly uncomfortable sleep. They gave us food in the beginning, not great though. I forgot to bring a book to read and I left my ipod back in Chicago. But I think I’ll survive.

There was no other way to describe the second day bus trip but with one word, frustration. Imagine 50 people in a bus and one third of it were children. I finally learned the baby in front of me who wouldn’t stop puking, her name is Angelina Jolie. I don’t really know her real name but seems to be having fun, minus the occasional outburst, but didn’t have a clue of what has happened the past few hours. The view of the northern part of Chile was pure desert. There were no trees in sight but the Pacific Ocean. On our way to Arica, just before we were to cross to Peru, the conductors informed the passengers that the bus will be stopping at the bus terminal in Arica for about an hour and half for some much needed maintenance. The toilet clogged and the bus stunk really bad. I barely understood Spanish but I could make out a few words that one of the conductors was explaining to the passengers, “Don’t flush toilet paper in the toilet.” We arrived at the terminal and the wait took longer than what everyone had anticipated. It was the start of a long night.

The bus was gone for 2.5 hours. All I did at the bus station was basically walk in circle. The bus started its engine and began to drive away from the terminal on our way to the border control. It took only 15 minutes to the border control and the parking lot was filled with buses and cars. Long lines have already formed at the window. I learned that most of the people leaving Chile are actually Peruvians who were heading back to Peru for vacation. We were at window 8. People started to line up and documents were pulled. First person in line went smooth, the second person wasn’t so lucky. He was pushed aside and waited his turn. I wasn’t sure what the problem was but it wasn’t the end of it. A family of 4 had to wait also because one of their kids had visa problem. I wasn’t sure what the problem was but I believe the family just had improper documents and the mom started to make a scene. Oh yeah, another one, a Peruvian citizen, who was going back to Peru for vacation also had trouble. I watched these people pushed aside as I wait for my turn. It only took me 5 minutes to process my papers through. Wow, I was so glad. Though, the girl sitting next to me in the bus started making fun of me for having a US passport. To say the least, after about an hour or two, everyone was able to leave. The bus couldn’t leave anyway without everyone. But guess what happened next. Our bus was held for improper documents. I wasn’t sure what was happening but we thought we had to go back to Arica or even to La Serena, which was like 12 hours away to get the proper documents. Everyone also thought that the bus was going to be impounded and the passengers detained. I thought about every scenario that I could think of to leave this mess. I couldn’t go back to Chile since they already let me out. I thought about calling a taxi to take me to Tacna and then take a different bus company but I would have had a problem at the Peruvian border because I was already registered with my original bus company. It was very frustrating because our original arrival time in Lima had changed dramatically. I was very worried because I didn’t want to arrive at the terminal very late. I heard it’s in a very dangerous part of town. In addition to all of this mess, everyone in the bus was hungry. I didn’t bring a lot of snacks because I thought we were going to be given food. It didn’t happen.

The sun came down and the night sets in. The bus was finally let go around 11pm. Everyone erupted in loud cheers and chanted “Cena.” We had one more stop at the Peru border control. The process was the same just like when I entered Chile. You go through customs with your entire luggage to be scanned. Almost everyone passed through with flying colors, except one family where 4 of their bags were opened and inspected. I thought we would have to wait even longer but only took one hour. We finally passed the last hurdle and to everyone’s surprise, we were driven to a restaurant just across the border and after all of this frustration, we had a good dinner. We finally drove away after a big hearty dinner. The rest of the night just became a blur. We were very exhausted.

The following morning, the bus continued to drive on this winding, narrow, mountain side road to Peru. I must say it’s a little scary. On some parts of this road, you’re only inches away from falling onto the rocks. But it was a very nice view of the southern part of Peru. It’s all desert. But if I knew how to surf, I probably would have asked the bus driver to stop so I can soak in the wave. Parts of this vast desert were amazing beaches. It was unfortunate that on this sunny day, there’s barely anyone in the water. No problem the rest of the bus ride. The bus stopped for a little bit in Ica for lunch. Then finally arriving in Lima around 7pm. Here, it’s eastern time. Now, 3 days in Lima before I head to Trujillo for another 9 hour bus ride. It’s a travel adventure.

So far, I have to say that it has and continue to be an incredible experience. I have seen so many great places and met so many great and interesting people along the way. I still couldn’t believe that I’m going to these places that in the past I’d just dreamt of going. But, of course, during this travel, I also learned so much about myself, for better or worse. I realized that I had to change a lot of things about myself. I guess, in hindsight, I needed those to come into light to help me realize that to be successful in something and be a better person, I needed to make some changes. I’m not a big fan of change. But this time, finally, I have a better idea of what I want.

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