Well we finally began to travel again. We left the apartment in Arica on saturday morning to head to Tacna. It is the boarder town between Chile and Peru. We had to take a normal car like a taxi, but they are called colectivos. They fit 5 people in one then you leave the international bus station in Arica and drive to Tacna stopping along the way to go through customs and imigration. Once we got to Tacna, our driver was nice enough to find us a gentleman who helped us find a ticket to get to Ayacucho, so we thought. We bought a ticket that left Tacna at 6:30 and would have arrived in a small city called Ica, and from Ica, the gentlemans directions were to get off the bus at the gas station, cross the street and wait for a bus. Then from there we could catch a bus and head to Ayacucho and be there by sunday night sometime. So we walked around Tacna for the day, found the center, ate some lunch and bought some food for the bus ride. We got on the bus and started to head out, when the bus stopped about half an hour later, what do you know, its customs and imigration again. Everyone had to get off the bus, find their luggage under the bus, then go through an xray machine and then put all the luggage back on the bus, and head out again. This took about an hour and was more of a pain because some people down here are in such a rush to get absolutely no where. We headed back out on the bus finally, it was about a 14 hour bus ride to Ica, so we fell asleep and got some rest. At about 4 in the morning, Justin woke up, and what do you know, he got motion sickness. He was sick for the rest of the morning, and the better part of the rest of the day too. So we finally get to Ica, the lady tells us we are about to stop for us to get off, we pull over on the side of the road, in the center of town, and there is no gas station, like the gentleman in Tacna told us there was. So we asked the people on the bus about it, and they told us that in order to get to Ayacucho we had to take a taxi about an hour further north, and then catch a bus. So we asked if we could stay on the bus till then, and they said no, because our luggage tickets said we had to get off there. So we get off, find a cab in hopes of being able to at least get out of Ica at some point in time. The cab driver took us to 3 different bus stations, and finally after the first 2 said we are out of luck, the 3rd station had a bus that left for Ayacucho at 9 at night, so we bought the tickets. Only problem was, that Justin was a little sick still, and it was only 10 in the morning, and we didnt have a clue where we were. So we left our bags at security in the bus station and went to the center to get something to eat, and on the way back to the bus station decided that it was to early to spend the rest of the day there so we found a cheap hostal and slept for a couple of hours. On our way back to the bus station we stopped at a pharmacy and got some motion sickness pills for Justin though. Finally we made it back to the bus station around 7 and waited around. We got on the bus and took our 8ish hour bus ride here, and Justin didnt get sick again, woohoo. We got in to Ayacucho around 5:30 this morning and now we are here for another week and a half maybe, then off to Cusco. WeŽll have pictures up at some point soon though. Take care everyone.
|
