Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Day 3: 3/7/12
We Woke up a few times in d middle of the night- still on Irish time! We were lazy then when it came to getting up- spent a bit of time on Facebook and texting. Chatting to Shell- hi Shell!! Muir was in the phone too and a fella popped his head in the door- obviously looking for someone. I sat up on the bed and knocked one of the timber lats out! Muir was laughing at me! But we fixed it again- so all good.
Had breakfast then and organised a taxi to the bus station. The owner in the hostel was really helpful. Then we needed money so we went to a bank and I got some money out in an ATM and Muir changed her dollars with a woman on a street corner. It seems to be the only way to change your money. There are massive queues for the banks and guards at the doors deciding when you can go in. We checked the currency rate on the phone before Muir handed over all the money- so all was good!!
Went back to the hostel and dossed for an hour before the taxi came. We got to the station easily enough, even though there was more mad busy driving!! Seemed to be rush hour, according to the guy in the hostel, at 1pm.
The Cruz del Sur station was mad busy- people everywhere! It was like an airport. We had to check in with our printed voucher and get our tickets. We then had to check in our rucksacks where they were weighed and sent off with stickers on them. We were watching them closely, of course, to make sure they put them on the right bus!! Going on the bus then they checked our passport, looked in our bags and scanned us with a detector thing- all very official!
We were downstairs on the bus, which seemed to be the VIP section. It was class- big wide cushiony seats with a leg rest, a pillow and a blanket for everyone, a tv, a guy announcing things like an air host and serving us lunch- pasta starter, rice and meat dinner (not clear on what kind of meat it was- so we didn't chance it! Thought it was chicken but it was pink in the inside, so not good!) and a little tart thing for dessert! Definitely bus eireann need to raise their standards!
I had a full time job trying to watch out both sides of the bus and watch the telly! We saw cirque de soleil and a few jus for laughs episodes on the telly. The guy behind us was in convulsions laughing at the pranks! He kept us giggling!!
The countryside was very varied. On the outside of Lima there were huge kinda shanty towns on the hills, a complete different side to the city from yesterday's bus tour. Then there were lots of areas jus covered in sand that seemed to go on for miles, with nothing to be seen. Every few miles there were more shanty town things. The houses were all tiny- some were brick, some wooden and some made of straw stuff (like the 3little pigs!). There were lots of elictricity wires going into them, so obviously they had elictricity but it looked like they had nothing! Now again we passed fields where things were growing, don't ask me what! There were people working in the fields and some people ploughing- it looked like with a cow- can you do that? There were a load of cows in one place. Muir was wondering what they would feed on as there was no grass but then we passed a whole pile of bags of feed! There seemed to be a few mines, or perhaps quarries along the way aswell. On the right hand sand all the way down, we could see the sea. In some places there were gorgeous beaches, but nothing on them only a few empty buildings. All the places looked derelict and there was a lot of rubbish and rubble, but you could see washing and random peole walking around- so there were definitely people living in most of these places. We know there was an earthquake a few years ago near pisco so we don't know if the earthquake affected their living conditions or was it always this bad. You can see some of the photos anyway!
We weren't sure what kind of a place we would be let off in! It was kind of a straw shack with an information area and a baggage collection area. We got our bags anyway! There were a few men standing around that looked like taxi drivers so we headed towards them and one asked us where we were going. The two eyes were standing out on his head- they both looked like glass eyes, bit I doubt it- he could see well where he was going. He told us to wait for our hostel to collect us but sure we hadnt arranged a pick up, so we asked at the information desk and we were directed towards a taxi.
The hostel was only a few minutes away. It looked exactly like the pictures on the internet, so thats good! The woman that checked us in was immediately trying to sell us a tour to ballestas islands but we have it already booked- were well ahead of them!
The hostel is lovely- we have a twin room with ensuite. The last hostel was clean bit this is even cleaner and much brighter! There's very little nearby. A few more shacks! It was dark when we got here and there doesn't seem to be anywhere within safe walking distance so we went straight up to the room. There's no bar or restaurant or anything in the hostel. I washed my clothes, just for something to do and of course Muir was asleep by 8 o'clock!! Don't worry, I won't let her away with this every night!! This place doesn't seem like one you'd venture too far in in the dark- well Suss it out tomorrow in the day time!
- comments
DEE you have sean hooked on internet nom WELL DONE
mgt brannelly sounds ye are enjoying the experience,there is definately a book in
Mary Cradock Really enjoying the blog which is keeping us up to date on your travels: Can't wait to get up each morning for the next update- disappointed this morning! Were ye out on the town?