A Website All About Jo

The Journey Back to Lima

Wednesday 11th December 2002
Once we’d got through customs we were taken to San Pedro where we dumped all our stuff in the tour office and went in search of a bus to the North of Chile. We booked tickets for that night and then proceeded to try and kill a few hours in San Pedro which was remarkably difficult particularly as we didn’t have all that much Chilean money and Chile is a very expensive place compared to Peru and Bolivia. We managed it though but were glad when the bus arrived at 8.30 to take us to Arica in the North.
After one bus change we finally arrived in Arica at 7am the next morning very tired and feeling pretty scummy! We had been considering spending the day in Arica and going to the beach but when we got to the bus station in was cloudy so after hanging around the bus station for a few hours we got a taxi across the border with 3 other random people. The driver did disappear with our passports for a while but apparently this is normal and he did bring them back.

We got to Tacna at 9am Peru time (2 hours behind Chile) and booked ourselves on a posh bus to Nazca for that evening. In the mean time we had the rest of the day to try and buy some clothes as we were slowly running out of clean clothes. We managed to get shower at the bus station and felt much better after that and then headed into the town.
We’d been told that Tacna was really horrible and we shouldn’t spend much time there but we didn’t agree. Maybe it was spending lots of money on new clothes and CD’s that were all about ¼ of the price we’d have had to pay at home or finding an internet café which actually worked at a normal speed but we actually liked it.

That evening we started our next 12 hour bus journey which was half comfortable as we had seats at the front top of the bus but we were still knackered when we got to Nazca at 7am. We got picked up at the bus station by a rep from a travel agents who took us to a very nice hostel with posh rooms for rich people and less posh rooms for scummy backpackers like us. Still it had a nice garden area with hammocks.
I manage to get myself booked on a Nazca lines light about an hour later so we headed off in a minibus to the airport where we had to wait about 30 minutes before I got on a flight (Judith doesn’t like flying much so didn’t join me). The plane was a little 4 seater and the pilot kept turning around while we were flying around to point out which lines we were about to go over on a map – very reassuring. The flight over the lines took about 15 minutes and the lines where quite amazing. In order to get the best view of them though the pilot had to bank quite a lot so we could look out the windows and take pictures. While we were looking at the lines it was fine but once we were on the way back to the airport I started to feel a bit sick and was very glad when we got back on the ground. Glad I did it though and amazingly it’s possible to see the lines in my pictures.

The rest of the day was spent chilling out in the hammocks in the garden enjoying the beautiful weather and shopping. After searching for ages for food that Judith could eat (she’d been feeling a bit ill for a few days) we found a little pasta restaurant run by a very sweet old man and his wife. We chatted to him for ages and he was asking us about lots of things he’d seen on the TV and on the internet. The food was lovely as well but we never saw his wife as she apparently was quite happy in the kitchen!
After a very chilled day and wishing we could stay longer in Nazca but knowing we’d get really bored we headed off the next morning to Pisco where we found ourselves a pretty good hostel and booked ourselves on a boat tour to the Islas Ballestas. The salesman had obviously had English customers before as while we were booking our tour he assured us that there were not going to be any “fat mingers” on the boat with us. Very reassuring. With that all done we went shopping and in search of food to use up the rest of the day.

The trip to the islands was quite impressive. The first stop was to look at the Candelabra which is a huge drawing in the side of the coastal hills and no one knows who put it there. From there we went round the islands looking mainly at the sea lions which were everywhere mainly sleeping although there were a few swimming and a couple were fighting. We also saw some penguins which is supposed to be quite rare. There were loads of other birds too but I can’t recall any names but do remember that there are huge platforms set up where the birds are encouraged to go to the toilet and there is enough of it for it to be commercially exploited for fertiliser all around the world. It certainly smelt quite bad.
Once we’d got back from this tour we got on a bus to Lima our final stop. When we got to Lima we found ourselves a taxi and tried to find a hotel. Unlike London though the Taxi drivers in Lima seem to require no training and the one we chose didn’t seem to know where he was going so we ended up in a totally different hotel to the one we’d hoped for. Luckily this wasn’t such a bad thing as the hotel we picked was very posh and after seeing our faces when he told us the price the nice man on the desk then halved it and we decided to stay. We did pretty well as unlike most places we’d stayed at the showers were always hot and we had fluffy towels and a TV with many channels.

The next 3 days were spent doing more shopping including lots of last minute present buying and lots of time was spent sitting in restaurants and cafes generally chilling out. My last day was Friday 20th December which also happened to be my birthday so Judith treated me to breakfast as my present and we did more shopping and I spent a couple of hours trying to fit all my stuff in my rucksack.
Finally left the hotel at 9pm and left Lima at about 1am after getting bored at the airport for a while. They did try and search my bag but the lady decided to trust me as I don’t think she thought my bag would ever close again if she tried to open it. My first flight took me to Newark airport where I was soon on my connecting flight to Boston. Unfortunately when I got to Boston I was too early to check in and there wasn’t really anywhere comfortable to sit so I had to wonder around for ages. Until they let me queue for my flight. At this point we were told that the flight was delayed so by the time I eventually took off I had been travelling for about 24 hours since I’d left the hotel and hadn’t had much sleep. Luckily I got a bit on the last flight so I was actually pleased to be home not just grumpy from lack of sleep!