RTW: Exchange in Chile

Peruvian peculiarities

To arrive to Cuzco was not as easy as it seems on the map. When I heard the travel time in bus I was a bit amazed: "What do you mean 600 kilometers in 21 hours?" But once in the bus I did realize that the Andes are still today quite difficult to go over. And in addition, no other mountains come even close to their beauty.. Well, that being the ones in Europe, the Appalachians, the Rocky Mountains and the Blue Mountains. My ears popped about 50 times in those 21 hours and arriving here at some 4000 meters I did have trouble breathing. Here is one of the views from the bus..

In the few days in Peru I have noted some peculiarities. First one being what I already mentioned, they try to rip me off more than anywhere else. Now I just answer straight up: "No, I am not a gringo; si, si hablo español and no, I do not want your help or service." I got fed up with their ruhtlessness so I decided to drop the mr. Nice guy act -and it helps! But that is not the only strange thing.. For example, in Lima there are no beaches though it is right on the coast. There is a 50-100 meter drop to a motorway that rus right next to the ocean. They seemingly do not like tourists, or what? And they go further with ads than I have seen even in America: their main road splitting the city is decorated with huge floral plantations that are atually company ads. First thing I see heading for downtown is an amount of roses the size of a house greeting me with Deloitte's logo. Also, this is the first place on my trip where I have noted that speaking to a cell phone is actually illegal while driving (for those that do not know, that is the case in Finland).

The lengthy busride to Cuzco was quite nice though there had to be the obligatory one screaming child that just would not shut up. They offered us food and beverages and topped it all off with a plastic bag, that was introduced as the emergency bag. At first it seemed funny but as we got up high in the mountains a couple people in the bus demonstrated what it was for. Once again I was lucky as I did not get any altitude sickness. Then, riding through the small pueblos in the mountains, the kids amused themselves and all passengers of the bus that had their window open (like me) by throwing water balloons at the bus. So I got quite a rude awakening and the Peruvians a good laugh. Later I saw young people throwing them in the streets at each other and once I finally asked about it in a grocery store the salesperson just said that it's very common in Februry (the carnaval month) to do that -and aimed one at me from behind the counter! Lucky again, I am not as old as I seem to be and was able to dodge it. I think I would prefer the carnaval habits in Rio, however..

So much for the peculiaritiues for now.. Cuzco is a quite nice mountain town: it is about 10 times prettier than Lima even with all the half-houses around. It hides a very long history, as there are still parts of the city that are built on Inca ruins (the one in the pic is a spanish church built on Inca ruins). The people here are more tolerant to tourists and have some respect whereas in Lima they are just plain rude -like bugs you can not just brush off. Overall, the Peruvians I have talked to eventually seem to be very polite, open and nice people. That is, once you have bought something from them.. Anyway, I am stuck in Cuzco (which is not actually all that bad) for an extra day thanks to a strike of the public transports yesterday. Stupid labor unions, what good ever came out of them? ;)

posted by Kassu @ 12:04 PM