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Published: April 16th 2011
And so does shape. To tell a llama from an alpaca you have a look at its ears and its bum. Banana shaped ears curving inwards and you have a llama. A low set tail that demurely covers the nethers and you have an alpaca. Llamas are also normally larger. for us, size is an issue mainly in relation to distance or, more specifically, distance between places you want to visit. After months in Europe, the UK and Central America the size of South America is taking just a little getting used to. Not that Peru, for instance, is really that large. It is just very long.
In no country is it possible to get to every place you want to see or experience. That, for us, has been one of the rules of travel. Perhaps it is more of a parameter than a rule but there is no need to be picky for the moment. South America may force an amendment. No, you still can't get to see everything but here you will also need to allocate mucho travelling time or, I guess, a grande travelling budget. Large travel budgets are as hard to find as time to spend
getting from one place to another, so any mechanism that provides for a little efficiency needs to be utilised.
And that brings us neatly to the issue that has been exercising my mind and my nether regions (and perhaps they are not that far apart really) - overnight buses. What a joy they are! I have seen them in Australia, normally at some outback roadhouse where bleary eyed people stagger off, first to the toilets and then to the fast food, climbing back on with resigned and rather desperate expressions. There, of course, I climb into my own car and head off down the road sitting happily behind the biggest set of spotlights that can be found, air conditioning going, music playing, leaving the bus in my wake. Here, we have joined the ranks of the great unwashed – and after 20 hours on a bus you are most definitely unwashed.
One good reason for taking an overnight bus is that it leaves you both the day you leave and the day you arrive to do things. Trouble though, is that, at least for the latter part of the day you are to leave, you become increasingly mindful
of the need for bladder management. This can have a significant effect on the way you might choose to while away the hours after the thing that kept you there has been finished and before the bus leaves. Many overnight buses in South America have toilets but a much smaller number have functioning toilets. And, if they have a toilet, functioning or not, they do not stop – at all. After a night of sleep broken by customs checks, police checks, border crossings, bus changes, neighbourly snoring, children crying, passengers getting on or off, added to a lack of sufficient priority to bladder management, anything you want to do the next day is going to receive half hearted attention at best.
Obviously I just love overnight buses but, to sensibly make it down this west coast of South America without taking all the time we have for the entire continent, we have to take them, sometimes at least.
Our overnighter from Cuenca, Ecuador, to Trujillo in Peru was a mixed experience. In Cuenca we picked a company that had a good reputation according to the BLP (used to be the Lonely Planet but has now a more or
Hand lines for sale
On the jetty at Huachacoless permanent adjective affixed). The Pullman Sucre was a good enough bus with more or less comfortable seats but we still had the carry-on of forever seeking short haul passengers. I can easily forgive this practice where the passengers get on and stay on but trips of just 10 km in a 10 hour bus ride is beyond a joke.
Almost every blogger who talks of the buses in South America as well, of course, as the BLP, tells stories of air conditioning turned to absolute freezing and movies screened at mega decibels. Well I say bring it on! Since we have hit this continent – and I will admit that it was different in some of Central America – no driver has been able to find the on switch and, if they do get the a/c to happen, it is so weak that you barely know it is there. What is it that people have against a cooling breeze? I know it can ruffle your hair but for crying out loud, who wants to get off a bus after 10 hours looking like you have just come from the hair stylists? I am coming to the conclusion that
Wedding photos on the beach
The horse was available for anyone to hire all of those who have gone before have ruined it for people like me who can sleep quite happily in a howling gale, with a little sleet thrown in if necessary, but really don't like stuffy, overheated conditions one little bit.
The Pullman Sucre, sans air conditioning (but with windows that could be forced open with a bit of effort), took us from Cuenca to Huaxil near the border. We pulled up at the Immigracion Officina – nowhere near the border – on the outskirts of town and had our passports stamped. We were then switched to another bus, Cifa this time, that had pulled up on the side of the road behind our original bus. Here we had to squeeze in a bit with the pretty full load of passengers already on board but then it did let most of its passengers off in Huaxil. On to near Tumbe and Peru Immigration, again a fair way from the actual border. Stamped again. Then off in a pretty shitty bus to Piura. But there the whole exercise changed dramatically. There we caught an Ittsa Bus. Charming lady to sell us tickets. Baggage checked on like at the airports. A
The guests
waiting for the photos to be finished. Huachaco Beach. waiting room with seats and clean toilets. Proper flash double decker bus. Plush 'sofa cama' seats. A hostess with food. Quiet. And very well organised. A very good trip to Trujillo. At 4 hours long just a little too short for a really good sleep
Trujillo is one of the largest cities in Peru. It is laid out on the standard Spanish plan with a nice Plaza de Armas and a nice easy grid pattern of streets. Safe and comfortable but actually not a hell of a lot that we wanted to do about the place. The Hotel San Martin is a big and pretty dull hotel but with good staff and it is clean and OK. The major attractions are Chan Chan, an ancient city built completely of adobe and the beach. A little unfortunately, adobe left alone out in the weather tends to diminish over time and this place, while it had once housed some thousands of people, was now reduced to pretty much lumps of mud. Well organised and all but mud just the same. We took the trip out to Huachaco, the beach, for lunch and that was nice. A pretty relaxing day or so.
Ceviche for lunch
The top plate was the chicharone version To be fair, Trujillo is not really about tourism. It is a working city that strikes one as probably being easy to live in. Not far from the centre are some nice restaurants and, just a little further, a very modern and up market shopping mall – a little like Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast for those who know the place.
Election posters cover Peru at the moment. The first round of the presidential, congressional and, I think, local elections occurred on 10 April. To become president you need 51% of the vote. On the first round no candidate made that cut off so there will now be another vote, I believe between the 2 that received the most, in June. We, or rather Adam with his excellent Spanish, have been doing a bit of a survey of taxi drivers, hotel people, waiters and anyone else who will enter a discussion to see who might make it through. There is a lot of support for the candidate described as 'left', Sr Ollanta, and he did receive the highest count. Unfortunately for him, and it seems quite a number of taxi drivers, the remainder of the candidates could
Adobe is not forever
What is left of Chanchan, a pre-Inca city built of adobe, near modern day Trujillo apparently loosely be described as 'right' and, in the run off, you would have to conclude that their votes will coalesce around one candidate.
The elections occur just once every 5 years and voting is compulsory. People clearly take it seriously although, as in Australia, there seems to be a reasonable level of cynicism about all politicians.
Another Ittsa Bus took us into Lima. Another over nighter but this time a nice and well organised bus, without continual stops to pick up and let off passengers. That is twice in a row. This company gets top marks. They are a bit more expensive though.
We stayed in Miraflores, along with many other tourists. This is a pretty nice and relaxed area of Lima which seems to be really just another large city. Walking around Miraflores is much like walking around any other shopping area. Not a lot of difference and not a lot of interest either. A large, very flash shopping centre, along the lines of port developments in other cities, has been built into the cliffs at Larco del Mar although there was no port there originally. The place is full of designer type shops and
There's an election coming
Street at the edge of Trujillo flash brands. None of your knock offs here.
The Museo Larco is rated as one of the better museums in Lima, which lists museums and churches as its principal attractions. It indeed was a very good museum although, at 30 Soles each, it seemed at the time to us to be a little expensive. Well presented though and and well worth a visit with some interesting material. Predominantly Inca and earlier ceramics and jewellery really, most of it of very good quality given its age.
The centre and Plaza de Armas of Lima is large, yellow and otherwise not particularly notable. We also had a little look at the more bohemian area of Barranco. A good lunch where I had what seemed like a pretty good ceviche. This is a dish of raw but marinated fish served cold. This just demonstrates that taste is not really a good indicator. I was crook for a couple of days thereafter.
The next stops are the real reason for our visit to Peru – Cuzco, Macchu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and then on to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. It is all go on the road.
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Sarah
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Chicharone...mmm....