There were a few other passengers and, as it turned out, plenty of other drivers doing the same thing. Apparently this is actually a taxi service not something dodgy, but we did share a few nervous glances at eachother during the process. We were dropped at the bus station in Tacna, Peru and shuffled into a bus agency for a transfer to a bus to Arequipa.

All things went well until about 3.5 hours into the trip when in the middle of the desert, half way up a mountain and with no mobile phone reception and no water, the bus stopped. We sat there for nearly an hour while our bus driver donned the overalls and proceeded to venture into the engine bay of the bus to fix it while the passengers looked on. The best we could make out was that there was some problem with a drive belt as there were plenty of spares hanging from a hook inside the rear hatch. Noone mentioned anything to any of the passengers about what was going on and we only found out when we decided to get off the stifling bus to sit in the sun and breeze and have a look for ourselves. We both wished that Gaz was here with his deisel mechanic skills.

The bus being fixed - with supervisors

View from where our bus broke down

We made it to Arequipa and through some Bangkok like traffic and crazy taxi drivers in tiny cars we arrived to the stunning central Plaza de Armas, Wow. We had planned to spend some time here to get some more aclimatisation and do some tours of the surrounding region but after a short walk around, we think that we might possibly stay for a while...

Our hotel room has a balcony with a view to one of the volcanoes covered in snow that surrounds the city, city centre, cobblestone streets and stunning colonial buildings.

View from our hotel room

Carrot art - served with our omlette

We can´t wait to have a coffee at a second story restaurant overlooking the Plaza and people watch tomorrow morning.

ciao ciao
Cath & Andy.

written by  Cath & Andy on April 12, 2007 from Arequipa, Peru
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
Send a Compliment

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Hello,
Wow, very jealous. Fantastic blog, can't wait to see what Andy eats next.
Happy trails
Ruth

written by  Ruth Chatterton on April 12, 2007

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Andy should eat at least one example of a local animal in each location. If there aren't any for sale anything you can catch will be fine.

written by  Kerry Alpaca on April 13, 2007

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