Tacna Peru

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Well, this one is short coz there's not a lot to write about in Tacna. We decided to leave Iquique by plane, a mere 30min flight up to Arica near the border. From here we took a taxi across the border and on to the 1st town in Peru, Tacna. This jaunt cost more than the flight!! On arrival to Tacna we tried to get a bus out to Puno, the the 1st one leaving was at 7.00pm.

Tacna gave us our first taste of Peruvian poverty. There's not a lot going for this town, surrounded by barren, wind swept desert. The housing is very slumish, mostly incomplete, although some "richer" housing was seen up on the hill. The majority of vehicles on the road are taxi's of some form (bashed and rusted), which continually cruise the streets beeping their horn looking for custom. The beggars were out, and poorer one's searching the rubbish bins for scraps of food. It was pretty sad really.

The bus ride to Puno was not a good one. 11 hours on the windiest, bumpiest, narrowest road in a bus with no heating! We went from sea level to 3800m, and the condensation on the inside of the bus window's iced up!!!!!!! Brrrrrr

We arrived in Puno this morning at 6.00am just as dawn was breaking over Lake Titicaca. Found ourselves a hostal and went to bed.

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Photos

Tacna
Typical street scene

Tacna - the hill above the town
Advertising like this is common in places that lie below huge hills.