Tacna across the border in Peru is only 40km away. I decide to get a collectivo from the station. It operates like a taxi but you wai until the car is full before it departs. Its cheap €4 for the journey which I share with 4 others. We stop twice to complete border formalities, then the car speeds up the road to Tacna. We pass through more desert, a continuation of the Atacama. We reach Tacna.
This place looks to be a dusty ramshackle of a town. Its certainly not attractive. Already the people look different to those in Chile. Leaving the taxi the driver asks me if I´m going to Arequipe and I say yes. I intend to but not until tomorrow. One of my fellow passengers says he´ll show me the correct bus terminal as there are more than one here. I follow the guy across the road to the other terminal.
Five mins later I have a wad of Peruvian soles, a bus ticket to Arequipe and I´m dashing through traffic to a third bus terminal for a coach which is just about to leave any moment. Two Peruvians are shouting instructions at me as I run no doubt having a good old laugh at the smelly, flustered gringo who could well miss his connection. I was planning to stay here and rest for the day but events have almost run away with me. It happened so fast I have that culture shock feeling as I rush not knowing what bus I have to take.(A new currency, was I getting ripped off?, mental calculation,...no, I don´t think so. Bus fare, how much is that in Euros? What is the Sol to the Euro? I have to pay a departure tax... oh I didn´t know that. Where is the bus?..... What!!!! a third terminal?? Where?...... the bus is leaving!!! Run, Run!! Jaysus where´s this F***** terminal!!) I get the bus. When I sit down a guy with a cam corder comes down the aisle recording everybody onboard, just in case there´s a kidnapping!! I feel really secure know!!
A few minutes later we´re on the open road. There´s a nice cool breeze on this bus I relax. I don´t feel so uncomfortable now. I spend the time watching the countryside go by looking at whats on the tv. Any time we stop. People come onborad selling snacks, drinks and pastries of some sort or other etc. It becomes amusing to try and guess what the next set of vendors will be offering at subsequent stops.
The only big town en route to Arequipe is Moquegua. Here the vendors swarm around the bus, shouting at the windows, displaying their wares on prongs which can be raised to a passenger who wishes to buy. After Moquegua we enter hill country and pass through high ground until we reach Arequipe. Peru is two hours behind Chile at the moment and we arrive at 4pm in the afternoon. By now I´m tired. This last leg of the journey from La Serena has taken 32hrs. In the past week I´ve spent 90hrs on buses. I need to rest. I get a room in a cheap hostel for 15 Soles (€4). And it is cheap, not the lap of luxury by any means but I only need a bed to sleep.
I go out and get a bite to eat in a small restaurant nearby. Its 6 Soles (€1.50) for a 2-course meal. A bowl of soup and chicken and chips. The soup was gran but as I emptied the bowl an intact chickens claw emerged from the liquid. I didn´t try to chew on that. My first impressions of the people are that they´re not that friendly but I´m staying on the edge of town, 3km from the centre, beside the bus station, rarely the nicest of neighbourhoods. Its gets dark by 7pm here, a big change from Patagonia. By 9pm I´m asleep.
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