Of all thirteen months of traveling, this bus experience may have been the biggest test of my faith in bus ticket agents. When I bought my bus ticket, I was under the impression of a getting on a bus, crossing the border and arriving in Cusco. Maybe one transfer at the border, but that is all. What happened was twenty-four hours on and off three buses. At each transfer was a different bus company, so there was a risk that I had a bogus ticket for a non-existing bus.
A small van took me and ten people at the Arica bus terminal, drove us across the Chile/Peru border, helped us with some of the paperwork and lines through immigration and dropped us off at a town called Tacna. All in all, a quick couple of hours. We waited a couple of hours at the bus terminal before transferring on to another bus.
Following my normal routine when entering a country, I make a beeline to the nearest ATM machine to get the local currency. In Chile, I got used to ATMs that would spit out the ATM card before I can get any cash. These Peruvian ATMs are not that sophisticated. After I got my Peruvian soles, I ran back to the ticket window to pay the bus driver the cargo fee for my bike. Within minutes I realized that I did not get my card back. I ran back to the machine, but of course, there was no card to be had. Fortunately, there was an internet cafe at the bus terminal and I was able to go online to tell my credit union to cancel the card.
After all that drama ended and a one hour wait, I boarded the bus for a six hour bus ride to Arequipa and another two hour wait for an overnight bus to Cusco. It seems fitting to complete the voyage by ending where I started it all. It felt good to be back to what I called 'home' for a couple months. I still remember many of the streets and routes through the city. The hills were intense, just as I remembered them. I did forget about the nighttime chill of being high in the mountains at the beginning of winter. Good thing I had my alpaca wool sweater to stay warm.
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| this is how I roll |
The main purpose of going back to Cusco was to sell my bike. My bike has been the constant friend during this whole voyage- minimal amount of breakdowns that were easily fixed by myself or local mechanics. Before I parted with my bike, I had to take it out on a few more journeys. I went out to some old trails outside of the city that brought back some good memories.
I also went to visit an Inca site that I did not go to last year. Tipon is about 30 km southeast of Cusco on a well-paved road. There are many canals that channel water from the nearby mountain down to the towns.
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| Cusco dogs wandering around in sweaters |
After selling the bike and spending almost all my money on souvenirs, it was time for one last overnight bus ride that took me to Lima - the first and last city on my South American Tour. It's time to start acknowledging the many "last..." things I'll do or see in South America.
The last overloaded truck with cargo:
My last ceviche in Peru - fish, calamari, octopus, shrimp and lotsa shallots
My last wacky traffic/street/signal/sign in South America.
My last sampler of Peruvian sauces
And special acknowledgement to these cheap speakers that I bought at Radio Shack in Cusco in the first few weeks of living there. Many times I considered getting rid of it to save space/weight while traveling around the continent. Many times I was happy that I kept them.
And so ends a 13 month journey that started in Peru, went back and forth through Ecuador and Colombia, zipping through Venezuela, winding through the Amazon in Brazil to the Atlantic coastline, down to Argentina, back to the Andes Mountains via Chile and ending full-circle back to Peru.
I WANNA DO IT AGAIN!
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