Border woes, camera thief and shivering in Tacna

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We arrived in the bus terminal in Arica to embark on our trip back to Peru, after chatting to a few people we realized the journey would be better done via private taxi to Tacna, a small town on the other side of the border.

We loaded our gear in the car and our driver told us to pick up our border papers in a nearby office, the driver wandered off to chat to friends and John went to the office while I stayed in the car to keep an eye on our belongings, John arrived back with my papers and returned to the office to fill out his own, I was sitting on the right hand side of the back seat with my feet resting on the ground through the open right hand door, Something made me turn around and a well dressed elderly man had opened the left hand door and had Johns camera bag in his hand quietly slipping it out of the car, Immediate reaction, I saw red, I grabbed his wrist as he dropped the camera, closed the door saying I'm sorry I'm sorry, I wasn't robbing it, I screamed blue murder, now I can swear like a sailor but this really pissed me off so as he scurried across the parking lot each step he took was followed by me screaming, You son of a bitch, you f****r, you f*****g thief, B*****d, thieving arsehole, you get the picture, needless to say the other waiting passengers got the message, our lovely driver came bolting across to see what all the commotion was about, needless to say my Spanglish explosion was understandable in any language, The driver ran off to find the man but he had jumped on a bus that just happened to be leaving at that exact moment, looking back, old man or not I really wished I had punched his thieving low life chops, Lesson learned from this experience……when you are sitting in a stationary vehicle lock the damn doors.

With all our bits and bobs still in our possession we took off for the border, We arrived at customs and as John carries a computer monitor with him we had to declare it, It was purchased in Ecuador and the taxes on it has been paid, it is well over 1 year old and he carries all the relevant receipts for it, We had already crossed the border from Ecuador to Peru before and the officials there had gave it nothing but a cursory glance, here no such luck, We were asked to unpack it and after what seemed like an age with numerous custom men coming out and examining it they told us we would have to pay the fee of $350 dollars to bring it into Peru, now this would be ok but it is worth about this much, realizing that to argue was a waste of time we asked where the cash machine was, so I went to get the cash, no go here either the burly machine gunned armed security guards told us they were ding maintenance and it would be a half hour before it would be once again functional, An hour later…..no cash machine, the compromise, we keep your monitor and you go to Tacna a mere 35kms away, get the money,return, do the paperwork and we could be on our way, wonderful, At this stage our driver, bless his cotton socks was getting irritated, after all we had agreed to a price for what was to be a straight forward border crossing so off we went, We got money in Tacna, negotiated a further fare back to the border and returned to the customs, I sat in the car as John did the paper work, It was a joke, we wanted a receipt as we should be able to get the money back when we leave the country but no one seemed to know the procedure for this, 30 pieces of paper and the all important receipt signed we arrived in Tacna, the whole thing which should have been about 1 and half ended up 7 hours, no chance of getting to Arequipa tonight so we cancelled our hostel booking there and booked into Hostal Sud Americana which was really close to the bus station, we were out of pocket about $450 at this stage, we were not happy.

I needed a shower but when told we had hot water, a trickle of tepid water came from the shower and it was so cold in Tacna, I couldn't face it and opted for a box of wet wipes instead, We were exhausted after all the drama and crashed out but to say this would be incorrect, our bed had 1 blanket bearing in mind this part of the world is going through an unusually cold spell, so we spent the night shivering, It was still early when we went to bed and the shouts and hollers of staff and guests alike could be heard until about midnight, The whole place is tiled and everything echos so it seemed like the people were in the room with us, we eventually fell asleep only to be woke numerous times during the night by the doorbell ringing, This bell was so loud, you could have put it in a facility for the deaf and on each ring they would have jumped out of their skins, If we woke up once we woke up 20 time, eventually giving I braved the tepid shower and realized it was 5 in the morning, lets get to feck outta here.

Getting our stuff together we got to the nearby station and after a particularly delicious egg sandwich we got on a bus, trust my luck it was one of those seats that has moved and left zero leg room, I am claustrophobic and this was not good but eventually we arrived in Arequipa, praise all that is good!, We booked back in to the hostel we had stayed before, Hostel Cacique and were welcomed like old friends, I am sitting on the roof looking at snow capped mountains and the beautiful volcano Misti, Oh how I have missed Peru, I can even understand the spanish, The Chileans just like us Irish use so much slang that I could understand nothing, Sorry for such a negative blog but it was such a crap couple of days and its good to be comfortable again…………Viva Peru and today 28th July is Peru day.

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