RTW: Exchange in Chile

Santiago -against all odds

Despite all the great things I was waiting for this, arrival to Santiago. Tomorrow it all begins with orientation days and all. I feel like a freshman.. Just hope I get my apartment issues sorted out soon to really get started on the exchange studies part. Yep, might not feel like it but I will study. At the very least 3,5 months! Ok, there might be some other activity as well so stay tuned..

Anyway, last times in Peru were again interesting. I had planned to go to Puno, a city beside Lake Titicaca to get a look on their floating island and the lake itself. Everything was booked and looking good for my timely arrival to Lima just hours before the plane left. Then became the day of the trip. We started late (which is pretty much the norm) and stopped by at a tire shop to change a tire for the bus (but of course you do it with the passengers already on the bus!). At this point I was estimating that the visit to the Islas Flotantes might be shorter than expected, as I still had a bus to catch in Puno.

Then, some 30 kilometers up the highway in the Andes, in the altiplano with no living thing in sight, the radiator broke down and we stopped the bus close to a stream. However, we couldn´t get off the bus. There was no signal for the cell phone either, and I was starting to worry about the whole visit for the Islas. However, we continued what I estimated 1 hour late of schedule. Then something else broke down and we stood again for some 30 minutes, still remeining in the bus. People were getting quite pissed off.

The journey continued with a speed of 10-35 kilometers per hour depending on whether we were ascending or descending, and still nobody was let out even as we passed some small towns. When we got to a toll booth people were hanging out of the windows and screaming to the cop to pull us over. It was not like he had to make an effort, as the toll booth was in an ascent.. As we got out of the bus I am sure the driver was scared for his life -and actually it was good to have the police there at that point. As a cool, calculating Finn I was already worried that I'd miss the connection bus to Lima at that rate which would mean missing the flight as well. I went to talk to the driver and asked about his plan, and he said, all sweating, that "just up the hill and we cruise down to a bigger town" (Juliaca). That was enough. I had the map and I knew it was at least 150 kilometers away while he insists that we are "almost there" at 20 kilometers per hour. I used all the street skills from previous encounters with the Latin law, threatening him with the Finnish embassador who supposedly is a close personal friend and their army of lawyers who will have him fired in no time and.. as I was screaming for my rights as a paying customer and the overall lack of respect and service skills from their part, I got the rest of the foreigners to join (what a lawyer the world loses in me) and eventually the cop had to cool things down by stating the obvious that it would be best to keep on going until other buses pass/we get to some kind of a town and that the complaint will be taken to the police in Juliaca to sort things out. And so we did go on in the bus, at running speed. Eventually we got to a small town where all of us in a hurry chartered a small bus (at 1 USD per head) to drive us the remaining 100 kilometers to Juliaca.

By the time I arrived in Juliaca, I had missed the connection bus 2,5 hours ago in Puno (an hour away from Juliaca) and was desperate to get to the airport in Juliaca t get a flight to Lima or had that been impossible, a bus straight to the Chilean border as there would then be no means to make it to the flight to Santiago. Cathcing a taxi to the airport I saw a bus for Lima -the same company as I had reserved my seat from to the Puno-Lima connection! They had technical problems too, and I caught up with the bus and got to my nice royal class seat (they can be almost turned into beds..) and traveled happily to Lima. I never made it to Lake Titicaca and never got my 7 USD back for the shitty bus trip, but I got back on schedule just as miraculously as I slipped out of it. Lake Titicaca I will have to visit from the Bolivian side later.

Curiously, on the way to Lima they did not accept dollars in the mountains though they were good everywhere else. So I ended up living some 50 hours with 2,5 liters of Inka Kola, a local beverage that tastes like candy, and the few sandwiches served in the royal class bus. Coincidentally, I had not been to a MacDonald's yet in Peru and upon my visit to one in Lima I must have tasted the best MacBurger(s) ever.. On a separate note, they had home delivery (I thought that was supposed to happen in very few MacD's in the whole world?) and also a great and free salsa bar. BicMac was at 9,5 soles (2,18 euros) and a meal for 11,5 (2,64 euros).

And as this was not enough, 30 soles (about 9 USD) was stolen from my front pocket in the parking lot of Lima airport. Good thing I do not keep more money there at a time.. Maybe it was the bitter taxi driver from whom I bartered a cheap ride to the airport. I did not think about it much, I was just glad to have made it there on time.

So on a total, Peru offered memorable moments..

Best national beer tasted: Cuzqueña
Best national dish: Saltado de Alpaca
Best experience/sight: Machu Picchu seen from the Caretaker's hut. Wow.

posted by Kassu @ 1:26 PM