The journey began with a bus trip to London and an overnight stay with Peruvian friends, Johnny and his family. As usual my visit with them was really enjoyable and Johnny drove me to the airport early the following morning and it was great having someone with me who knew the ropes. In no time he had my baggage checked in and when he left me to go on to work I only had an hour to wait for my flight.
On the plane I had a window seat at the back and the two-hour flight was quite pleasant and soon we were arriving in Madrid. The next flight was a really long one and a much bigger plane. It would take 12 hours in total to reach Lima, Peru and it really did seem a long 12 hours. The last few hours we were flying over the Rain Forest and even at 30,000 feet you could see the rivers and greenery and imagine what it was like below. The whole day the sun was shining from the time we left in London at 7 am and into another time zone. With Peruvian time 7 hours behind ours you can imagine what a long day it was. I could feel the warmth of the sun through the window so it was hard to believe that the temperature outside was 45 below!
As we approached Lima I was so excited and enjoyed this landing even more than the first one (take-offs and landings being my favourite parts of flights). Coming down over the sea and then in to land at the port was awesome and it was still light - but only just as it gets dark quite early in those countries.
It was quite a slow process disembarking and going through passport control and customs and then into the airport itself, which was frightening. I had never seen such crowds and luckily holding up my placard Elva found me easily and shouted my name as I don’t think I could have found her in such a crowd.
So many people in Lima everywhere one went. From the airport we went by taxi to stay overnight at the home of one of her nieces and it was lovely to arrive in the relative safety of their home after driving through Lima, which would have frightened me to death if I had been alone. I doubt if I would have lasted two minutes and seeing it next day by daylight was just as bad - a real jungle of a place. For instance, the lengths people have to go to protect home and property from burglars. A 10-foot metal fence surrounded Yannet’s house, the top posts two spikes pointing in two directions and above that electrified fencing. And just to make sure all metal bars fronted the windows as well.
At the house we had a lovely meal and spent a very pleasant evening until bedtime. Next day after breakfast I was taken on a tour of Lima in a series of taxis to see a bit of the place as our bus for Ilo was not due to leave until 4 in the afternoon. We went shopping as well but I was like Erika’s shadow as I felt so nervous in such a hectic place. Even the air was hard to breathe - a strong mixture of dust and exhaust fumes, the roads horrendous and the traffic appalling. No rules of the road there - the first person through a gap won the space etc and people selling wares weaving through the cars, taking their lives in their hands, the driving being so erratic nearly all the cars were battered in the process.
Despite all this I did enjoy the visit that Elva’s niece Erika took me on. We had a taxi that waited for us and stopped wherever we wanted and we saw some beautiful sights, smart plazas with statues and fountains and ornate buildings. The police were very friendly - I asked one if a photo would be permitted near the palace and he seemed delighted to try out his English on me. Unfortunately we were too early to see the changing of the guard, as we had to get back to the house for lunch.
I bought coca teabags from a street seller and opted for the 100 bag box instead of the 25 he was trying to sell me - this being an effective countermeasure to altitude sickness that I would probably experience in Cusco and La Paz. Our final stop in Lima was an excellent area of shops selling Inka crafts and I bought some lovely souvenirs and saw more expensive items that I hoped to buy at the end of the holiday to take home, if I had enough money left. Also on our travels Erika bought some CDs at a shop selling downloaded mp3s of one’s choice onto CD. I was glad that I didn’t buy any as it turned out later that they could only be played on computers. I remembered the advice of my good friend Jacco not to buy any music until I got to Bolivia.
At 4 pm we began our long overnight journey to Elva’s home in Ilo, South Peru, and I was amazed at the sheer comfort of the bus. We were travelling first class - it was a double-decker bus and the ground floor held only 9 seats all of which reclined into beds. We had videos to watch and would be served an evening meal and breakfast next morning. We were greeted on board with a welcome drink and the journey although 16 hours was comfortable and excellent. We found it quite hard to communicate at first, with me having to guess at half what she said. Luckily we got friendly with someone who could speak both Spanish and English, who acted as translator quite a bit for us. Sleeping was no problem and I woke around 5.30 just as it was getting light and could see we were still driving through hills, around sharp bends etc - I would not have been so relaxed had I known that. Then as we went through the Moquegua valley, the scenery was awesome, a series of mountains, like a dessert and almost a moonscape. The first stop was Moquegua, the nearest bigger town and then just over an hour later we reached Ilo.
We arrived at 8 am on 13 June and Hugo had left a lovely welcome notice hanging in the hallway for me to see upon arrival. He was at work and I would see him that evening - Hugo being the one I had been writing to the past eight months as an email penfriend. We spent a relaxing day and Elva’s older son paid us a quick visit and a bit later his wife and children visited and then after that we went out into the town where I changed some dollars into soles, having realised already that offering dollars meant paying a higher price. Using Peruvian currency the prices were much more reasonable, although being a foreigner I was often charged much more - which was the usual practice there.
We went to the local markets and shops looking for the various spices and ingredients, as I wanted to cook a chicken curry for tea that evening. I loved the market with all the fresh produce, the friendliness of the sellers and although I didn’t know it at the time I was paid a beautiful compliment by one of the fishermen as I passed. I only knew it the next day when Elva was telling the story to one of her friends. Apparently he said my eyes were like two brilliant stars! I told them I wished I had known so that I could thank him and they laughed and said that if I had thanked him he would have pursued me!
Back at the house we got busy preparing the meal and Hugo surprised us both by getting home from work an hour early and it was fantastic to meet him at last and give him a big hug. Shortly after his arrival home, his sister Nora and her husband Lucho arrived and then their son Willy, his wife and two daughters aged 2 and 3. We enjoyed the meal together along with various alcoholic beverages - a delicious aperitif drink from Tacna, beer from Cusco (Cusqueña) and an excellent liquor made with apricots and pisco to their Mother’s own recipe - brilliant it was too!
The following day was great as well, making me realise how very lucky I was to have found such wonderful friends via the Internet. After an excellent breakfast Lucho arrived and drove us to El Algarrobal to visit the museum of the Chiribaya. It was a nice drive through the desert, hills and valley and our actual visit in the museum was incredibly interesting, and an excellent representation of life in Ilo 700 years ago. There were even mummies of a chief, and the actual tombs of both adults and children. The children were buried inside ceramic pots. The textiles were unbelievable - many shirts and other clothing almost intact and the ceramics very interesting too. After this excellent tour we went into a nearby restaurant for beers and all enjoyed an excellent chicken soup for our lunch.
From there we went back to the house and shortly afterwards Elva and I went for a walk all along the seafront towards the point where we could turn into the centre of the town. I enjoyed the warm sunshine and the variety of sea birds especially the flock of pelicans that we found on the beach - I took a photo of that. We then proceeded through the market and I bought some pears, which proved the juiciest I had ever tasted. The fruit there was unbelievable and the choice incredible - many varieties never seen by me before and I loved everything. The yogurt drinks in various fruit flavours were fantastic too. In fact the food was wonderful - I tried so many new things and loved everything and feared it would be impossible not to go back as fat as a house! I loved the Peruvian cooking more than any other I had tried in my life.
After our tours of the markets and other shops we went home and just had time to cook something for Hugo’s return from work and then we went out again by taxi as we had been invited to Lucho’s house that evening, their home being a grand one provided by the company where Nora and he both work - the same foreign company where Hugo works. We spent a very pleasant evening there and enjoyed nice snacks and drinks and they played some lovely music, which I enjoyed so much they promised to make a copy. Also during that day Willy had borrowed a video from the school where he teaches, which I watched part of then and part next day of various Peruvian dances and we took it to a shop where they would make a copy for me. Whilst at Nora and Lucho’s house, Lucho’s brother arrived and was telling me about the grand canyons a few hours distance from the other side of Arequipa and this fired my imagination so much that I wanted to go there. The canyons there are more than 1000 meters deeper than the Grand Canyons in Colorado and definitely a sight worth seeing.
That evening they invited me to come back to Ilo to celebrate my birthday with the family. My flights had already been booked for Cusco on 20 June, La Paz on 26 June and arrival back in Cusco on 3 July so I would be flying back to Ilo around 6 July and probably staying another week with Hugo and Elva. Depending on the cost it was a possibility that I would treat Elva to a few days excursion to the Colca Canyons.
The following day Hugo finished work early and we went out, first to a Travel Agency to confirm my flight to Cusco on the 20th - if flights are not confirmed in Peru 2 or 3 days prior to the day of travel they will be cancelled. Whilst there I made enquiries about a trip to the Colca Canyon but unfortunately it worked out too expensive but even worse nearly all the 4 days was spent travelling in a bus with hardly any time at the actual canyons. With around 13 hours each way travel by bus, this journey broken en route at Arequipa with one night there, I decided in the end that it was not worth it. I also enquired about flights to Trujillo from Cusco and was dismayed and very disappointed to learn one could not fly direct to Trujillo, neither was the journey feasible by bus. The only way was via Lima which doubled the cost - the four flights costing 246 dollars plus taxes - making it way too expensive for a visit of just two or three days. I was really sorry that I could not after all visit Johnny’s family there but felt sure he would understand once I explained.
I enjoyed walking through the town with Hugo and Elva and looking in the shops. Hugo bought me a video of the 2001 Carnival in Oruro, Bolivia which we later watched part of at home after dinner. After that we went to meet the bus from Arequipa as their son Hugo Jesus, aged 17, was coming home for the weekend. He was in his first year at the University of Arequipa. Whilst waiting for the bus to arrive we made a few enquiries about bus travel and learned that Cusco was feasible by bus - a 16 hour journey costing 35 dollars and that La Paz was only a 9 hour bus journey away. I also learned that Arequipa airport was a 40 minute taxi ride from Arequipa bus terminal, which made me regret deciding to fly - going by bus would have been better. To get there in time for the 7.45 morning flight meant catching the 10 pm bus the night before, arriving at the bus terminal for 3.30 am, then the taxi ride which would be quite expensive, then a 4 hour wait until the plane departure. With all that lot a 16 hour direct bus ride would have been much preferable - and cheaper. The flight ticket purchased in England cost 101 dollars there but would have only cost 59 dollars if purchased in Peru - I was certainly learning a lot of things to safeguard against on my next visit.
When the bus arrived it was great to meet Hugo Jesus whose English was perfect - he actually spent a year and graduated in the United States and both looked and sounded like an all American boy. It was pretty late by the time we got back to the house so we all had hot drinks and a chat sitting at the kitchen table before going to bed.
