Ica, Peru

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We left Huacachina on the 6th to head for Arequipa. When we arrived back in Ica to book our bus ticket for that night, the bus had already sold out. So we were going to be stuck in Ica for the rest of the day and most of the next, as it is an overnight bus to Arequipa.

So we found a hostel off Tacna that had the water pressure of a leaky faucet and gave me the creeps because I was pretty sure we were the only people staying there... Still pretty sure we were. Our initial plan was to head down to the Plaza de Armas and walk around looking for a hostel but our cabbie informed us that if we don't drop our bags first, we will be robbed. So after dropping our bags, we headed down to the Plaza and walked around the little square, found a place to eat, and returned to the hostel as it was getting dark out.

Ica is kind of known for tourist robberies, actually, when we were booking our tickets to Arequipa, an older couple at the station had their bag stolen - they said they had their passports, hotel vouchers, etc. inside! So we weren't really interested in walking around after dark.

The next day we checked out and left our main packs at the hostel with the guy who was running the place, taking our day packs with us. We found a cute place for lunch and had the best piece of chocolate cake EVER! We were feeling pretty comfortable so we decided to explore the side streets outside the Plaza for something to do as there is really nothing to do in Ica.

We headed towards a church that we had seen from the hostel window, we stopped to check it out and then headed back down the street we had just come from. About 20 seconds later, I felt some water hit the back of my leg, my initial "sicckkkk" reaction was followed by Binnson noticing that he had also got some on himself too. Suddenly a lady rushed up behind us speaking Spanish about something from the sky and our packs. Binns turned and I saw what looked like the biggest bird poo ever on his bag. She said I had some on me too and was rummaging through her purse looking for kleenex to help clean it, she rushed us into this Chifa restaurant across the street saying we could use the bano's there to clean up. She was saying that one of us should stay with the bags while the other goes to clean up, it was really making no sense but alas, I went to the washroom to wash off what had initially hit the back of my leg. As soon as I did that, I could smell it - hair dye. I came out and there was now a man with the woman "helping" Binnson, basically frisking him saying that he had it on his pants, blah blah blah, while Binns was telling him that he was fine, it's okay, over and over. I grabbed my bag that initially had nothing on it that now did and took it to go wash it off. The pair left when they realized that their scandal wasn't working and we washed the rest of the hair dye off.

I had read about it countless times before. A local spills or throws something on the unsuspecting tourist and then while helping clean/causing a scene the flustered tourist blindly gets robbed. Luckily for us, we have locks on all the entrances to our bags and nothing in our pockets. I didn't even realize what was going on until after it was over.

Afterwards, I was done with walking the side streets like giant "rob me targets", I wanted to go back to the Plaza. As we rounded the corner back to the square, the one other tourist in Ica ran out of the restaurant that we had ate at the night before looking for the policia as she had just been robbed. I was totally done with Ica at this point. We sat in the square for a bit and then headed to a supermercado trying to kill a couple hours. Finally it was time to head back to the hostel to get our bags and head to the bus station.

After a crazy 12 hour bus ride, we arrived at Arequipa. Looking forward to getting out there and exploring!!!

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Comments

[zuzuzu72]

Ica suffered a huge earthquake a few years back and as a result many families were left homeless, poverty often drives people to do things they may not normally do as a result Ica is especially dangerous and a no no at night, Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip Arequipa is gorgeous.