My apologies for not having contacted everyone earlier, for not calling and for not posting anything. But we have an hour before the bus leaves for cotahuasi canyon so here we go. My impressions so far have been wonderful, this country or what we have seen of it has had its fair share of earthquakes which continues to transform each city we have visited. Everywhere we go they are rebuilding. I cannot not blame the crumbling store fronts, the churches, the houses of almost every street that are in need of repair. It seems as though everytime these areas reach a state grandeur a terremoto rumbles and washes these beautiful buildings into a crumbly mess. These restoration efforts must be tiring yet they continue to rebuild and restock and turn these buildings into museums full of artifacts of mummies, pottery, textiles, books, and religious artifacts of the catholic spaniards. And so I will try and tell you all a little more about our trip.
In Lima we rode these awesome little camas around the city. They look like a mix between a bus and a van. They slow down at intersections and the money collector yells out the destinations of the cama from an accordion door. The destinations are also painted on the side. Each company has its own colors and routes, so you must pick where you want to go and which company you want to ride with. We stayed with a red, orange and yellow cama that would bring us to the plaza or to the shopping areas. I hope to get a picture of these buses later. The same bus system exists here in Arequipa but we have been walking a lot to strengthen our legs for the canyon and havn´t used them.
The bus trip from Lima to Ica was one of the more surreal experiences I´ve had. It was a mix between being excited about a trip, amazed at the starwars like landscape we were driving through, and being astonished and almost in disbelief at the complete poverty that thousands of people surrounding Lima must live in. I almost couldn´t belive that the shacks, cardboard or tin that we were passing were houses except that there was no other explanation for what those areas were. It puts the lack of recycling or trash maintence in these cities into perspective, there are clearly other things to worry about. After driving though the desert all afternoon we arrived in Ica after nightfall. It was an awesome flat little desert city where horn honking takes a whole new level. The taxis and other vehicles honk at intersections, at people they find attactive, at each other, and at people they think might need a ride. They honk when other cars are honking, they honk when they are tired of waiting behind another vehicle and they honk when they see a pedistrian passing in the middle of the street as if to warn them they are coming. It goes all night this honking and I think it is the most fantastic thing ever, it makes walking down the street humorous. I don´t think I can imagine all the reasons they honk all I know is that it doesn´t stop not even in Arequipa.
Once in Ica we rented a little room for a night, we also rented from the same place when we got back from the oasis. It was a dive hostal at best but the rooms were private and they had a TV with which we could watch spanish speaking Simpsons. I know Andy mentioned the toilets but it is another level to understand that not only the public toilets you pay for lack seats but the hostal you spent the night in lacks a seat for any morning ritual that might deem a seat necessary. To top it off, if you manage to get anything done without a seat all paper used must go into a waste bin and not in the toilet. Amazing and kind of humiliating at first but one gets used to it after awhile. We also have gotten better at picking places that give us seats although the paper situation does not change anywhere.
We began eating the street food in Ica and it was delicious. You can get street pineapple slices, fresh squeezed orange juice, street breakfast sandwiches with egg, chicken or french fries, roasted nuts, tamales, street rolls, and more. These tasty little street snacks cost roughly 30 cents American and can be found all day. We also got into the fixed price meals that can cost from 3 to 8 soles and come with a pear juice drink, homemade soup either chicken noodle or beef veg soup and a plate of deliciousness like fried fish with rice and veg salad or chicken with fried potatoes or a mixed beef dish with vegetables and potatoes and rice. I think we are going to start taking pictures of these yummy dishes that we usually share and come out to about a dollar or two american. It also came to our attention after the Pisco and wine tour that beer is way more expensive then any of the food and way less inspired then the mircobrews in the US.
It has come to my attention that we will probably not make the bus tonight so Andy and I are going to go get some dinner and then finish up our posts later and take the bus tomorrow to the canyon. I love you all and hope everything is going well!
No comments:
Post a Comment