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.

arequipa

Save for crashing, I really thought it couldn't be possible to have a worse flight then the previous one. It was an air pocket rollercoaster. Again attributable to the Andes and its jagged, high altitude terrain. People were screaming, the granny next door was praying, there was a vacant look in peoples eyes. Curiously, the chap with the laptop calmly continued working. Heavens knows how he managed to use the keyboard never mind stroke the right keys! Maybe he knew something I didn't. I was trying not to show it but I really scared. Jacky was scared, everyone I could see looked scared but not the laptop man. I concluded that he probably makes the flight a lot and knows that it involves a lot of 'heart in the mouth' time. I was certainly happy to think that this would be my last flight for a long time. It is strange but the more I fly, the more anxious I have become about it. But flying in places like Cambodia, Laos and Peru probably does that.

So Arequipa second time round. Another opportunity to properly see the place. My last visit was quite rushed and quite drunken too. It was Peru Independence Day after all. So we checked into a beautiful colonial era hotel with a fantastic balcony overlooking the Plaza. I revisited some places again, the covent and the ice mummy. On both ocassions we joined Spanish language guides and I knowingly smiled and agreed with every said along with the odd raised eyebrow or look of astonishment. It was fun to trying to see how long it would be before they realised I didn't understand a thing that was being said.

Another thing about Arequipa last time was I felt the Colca Canyon visit was far too brief. So I took a two day tour. Hardly any condors took to the sky but it was very nice to visit local indigenous villages and see some new things. Although I wanted to bash some Dutch blokes face who happened to be part of the tour (with his missus and mother-in-law). He was 'Mr Photography'. I have no problem with that but giving a young girl the equivalent of 20 cents and then taking dozens of pictures up close from numerous angles while saying such things as 'bonita', 'hola' and 'rico' was too much for me. I would cringe for the poor children. I took to asking him whether he was familar with the words 'moderation' and 'responsible tourisms'. This implied criticism was lost on him. So I took to expressing myself out loud in an attempt to shame him with such things as 'Jacky, how much do reckon he gave the women for taking those fifty photographs? Must have been at least $5!'.

All good things come to an end and so it was soon time to move on again. Say goodbye to my month long campanion. She will be sorely missed. I admittedly spent quite a bit of dough on nice meals and nice hotels but I figure that it was entirely worth it. Rest assured, I didn't finance the travel costs as well. But it was a very nice time and if it did cost me more than if I had travelled solo then so be it. I do not subscribe to the backpacker notion of 'hardcore' travel being about varying degrees of discomfort. From time to time I'll spend the mullah and if I share the time with another than fair enough.