Week 21
Tuesday. 5am! Today was a day of travelling! A speed boat, 2 taxis, a flight, and an 8 hour bus ride ($17 each with CIFA) transported us from the Galapagos Islands to Máncora in Peru!
We have enjoyed Ecuador! The country has so much to offer - much more than just the famous Galapagos Islands. A one week adventure turned into 3 here. Now, onto Peru!
Wednesday. 4am. The border crossing was again a stress free affair and conveniently both immigration offices were in the same building. Once we had our exit and entry stamps sorted we got back on the bus and travelled another 3 hours to Máncora, Peru.
We stayed at Kimbas Bungalows and thankfully they allowed us to check in early which allowed us to get some much needed quality sleep! Afterward our nap, we took a little stroll along the beach (5 minutes away from our new home) and then had a very delicious lunch at Sirena Cafe Bar!
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| Kimbas Bungalows - our home for 3 nights |
Máncora seems to be a popular beach destination with South Americans. While drinking our first Pisco Sour, we chatted to a group of girls from Chilli. Apparently Peruvians hate Chileans because of a dispute over sea and land territories .
Feeling a little merry from our cheap cocktails we headed out to a fish restaurant for dinner. I had the most amazing ceviche which is a native dish originating from Peru. Roland had a perfectly cooked tuna steak (86S including 2cocktails)!
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| Birds chasing fish scraps |
Thursday and Friday. We enjoyed being by the sea and spent the rest of our time here strolling along the beach, relaxing and eating lovely food!. There are so many good restaurants here with amazing seafood. I really didn't expect this in Peru! I thought it would be all empanadas and roasted guinea pigs.
We did have a little incident though. Annoyingly I managed to walk away from an ATM after getting some money out, leaving my card in the machine! Grrrrrr! Luckily we have backup cards!
Friday to Wednesday. Friday night we started our mammoth trip to Cuzco - eventually arriving on Tuesday! This took a little longer than expected. And when we couldn't get a connecting bus to Cuzco in Lima on Saturday, we decided to pop over and visit Arequipa.
During the 92 hour adventure :
We covered 2644km
Spent 52 hours sat on our bums
Spent 3 hours in Lima
Spent 33 hours in Arequipa
Walked 4 hours with our heavy backpacks.
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| Posh bus! |
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| ... even gave us food and drink! |
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| Peruvian pacific coast |
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| Passing through a `sorry looking town´ |
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| Messages made of stones in the mountains |
As part of a travelling adventure about 11 years ago, I visited Arequipa. It was interesting to see how much the town had changed, mostly due to tourism. Back then you were lucky if you saw another traveller and anyone who spoke English. Now, there are sightseeing buses (which we went on), a Starbucks, a Burger King and a large number of travelling agencies offering English speaking guided trips!
Monday. On our bus journey from Arequipa to Cuzco, the bus came to a standstill opposite a bridge in a small village, which was 1 hour from our destination. The villagers had blockaded the bridge ahead of us with tree trunks, rubble and broken glass! And after 2 hours watching them protest with banners, chanting and setting tires on fire we were told that they were not moving until the following morning! This was not good as we had a flight booked, leaving Cuzco in the morning. With no other choice, we collected our bags along with 10 other travellers (all from Chilli) and started walking the route towards Cuzco!
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| Setting car tires on fire! |
Even though we didn't plan to do this hike, it was lovely to walk among the Andean mountains and pass through small villages - each one had prepared their own blockade making it impossible for vehicles to make their way to Cuzco. On some occasions we were bombarded with water balloons or attacked with water guns by the children taking part in the protest!
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| View when crossing the bridge |
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| Fellow travellers. |
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| More blockades ... |
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| Sports day! |
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| Much needed rest after 2.5 hours walking! |
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| With no other choice, I had to go to the loo with some spectators! |
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| Women washing and drying clothes by the river. |
After about 3 hours walking, we came to the last village before Cuzco and luckily for us a Taxi was passing by (I have no idea how it got through the blockades) and had enough room for 2 bums - as we had a flight to catch the Chileans suggested that we go. The taxi took us as far as he could in Cuzco (more blockades) and after another hour walking we finally made it to our hostel. We were absolutely knackered!
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| Much needed hot chocolate!! It was cold in Cuzco at night! |
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