tacna

Back on to the bus for a 6 hour trip south. I was particularly amused to see that boarding passengers (including me) were filmed by the ticket inspector with a hand held camera. Not sure what that is all about. Maybe it is part of Peru's very own bio-metric security apparatus. This humilation was soon put right as once the bus got moving, a game of bingo was in full swing with the nasty ticket inspector calling the numbers. I couldn't play though as I can only count to twenty in Spanish! Boo hoo!

Oh, en route, there was also the small matter of being caught with contraband at a motorway checkpoint. My backpack went into the scanner, I was ordered to open the bag and hand over the offending items. All I could do was say in my bad Spanish ' No lo se fruitas prohibito!'. Yes, I was guilty of possesion of two oranges and an apple. These were promptly confiscated. How will I ever live with the shame of being a fruit mule!

I arrived in Tacna at 11.30pm which is a time I do not like to arrive anywhere. But all was fine once I had found a place to stay and got my bearings. There is not much to Tacna. It was seized by the Chileans in the War of the Pacific in the 1870´s and only returned to Peru in1929. It is a fiercely patriotic place. It's claim to fame is having a church designed by Eiffel. He should have stuck to pointy, metal structures.

It was a nice enough place though to while away some time. Catch up on some chores like laundry. Also, by the time I would leave Tacna and make my way to the Chilean border I would be into Day four of my alcohol free rest. Figured it made sense to dry out the liver and also rein in my spending for a little while.