So Sunday (5 julio) I spent the night in the airport, awaiting my very early 5am flight out of Santiago. I landed and poked around the small surf town of
Arica for several hours, awaiting the arrival of my friends (friend from program, Phuong and chileno, JuanJo) who took the 28hour bus to get to Arica. But, surprise! Their bus was late (aka 30 hours total!!!), so they got in around 4 Chile time, and we hopped across the border in a very sketchy taxi as quickly as possible, and got right on a bus to Ariquepa, Perú. This bus ride was supposed to be around 8 hours, but it ended up being more like 10, so we got in pretty early to our hostel on Monday morning. [Note: night bus rides are a good way to save money, because you sleep on the bus and don't have to get a hostel... they are also a good way to save the environment, because you cannot shower.]
Monday (6 julio), we poked around Ariquepa, enjoying the small but really pretty city... resting from our travels, and just kinda soaking everything in (including the wonderful sun!) That night, after some really really delicious food, we got some news. Turned out that a national strike had been planned for Tuesday and Wednesady (6-7 julio) which would include all modes of transportation, and possibly continue indefinitely. Well, when buses are your main planned mode of transportation, a strike that makes it impossible for buses to travel kind of negatively affects your plans.
So we stayed in Ariquepa Tuesday. And we stayed Wednesday.
Wednesday night (8 julio), ONE company (out of probably 10) decided it was finally a safe time to drive to Cusco... so we took it. [Note, if nine companies still say it's a bad idea... it probably is.] At about 1:30am (when everyone on the bus was sleeping), we got stopped because of an "unauthorized strike" by the miners of the area. Around 7 and 8am, when everyone on the bus started to wake up (and needed to smoke), we saw that there were about 40 miners, SITTING on a pipe across the road, causing a blockade that affected probably 50 vehicles/ hundreds of people, many of which were buses or trucks delivering gasoline. So we continued to wait at this blockade (which we could have easily just driven toward until they backed down...) until 10am (9 hours) when the Peruvian President was evidently making a national announcement, which would determine whether the miners could stop their strike because they'd won... Well, I guess they lost, because at 10:30, we started to try to turn around (no small feat in a huge tour bus in a very tight line of trucks). After having turned around, we drove for another hour back toward Ariquepa, and guess what we found!?
ANOTHER blockade by "unauthorized strikers"... this time indigenous people who wanted who knows what (obviously the people on my bus had a lot of help to give them)...
So we had to wait at this strike for about 2 hours (which included some very heated white people from my bus who just wanted to get ANYWHERE), and eventually, for unknown reasons, the buses were allowed to pass (so long as the buses went across empty and the passengers walked across the blockade... so strange)... As incredibly annoying as it was, it was a really beautiful day, so we got to see some lovely Peruvian countryside...
So about 22 hours later, we get BACK to Ariquepa on Thursday evening (9 julio), and my friend Phuong and I decide that this is just not going to be the trip for us to go to Cusco/Machu Picchu. Sad, but I just really kinda felt like God was trying to tell me that this was not the time, and it just reallllly didn't seem like a wise idea since I had an unchangeable flight to get back to. Also, we wanted to be able to give the sight the time it deserved (not just one very rushed afternoon)... so we decided to just skip that leg of our journey, and head straight to Lake Titicaca on Saturday (and return later in life).
Friday (10 julio), we stayed in Ariquepa once again, and Phuong and I went rafting on the Chili River-- a grade 3.5 (out of 5) -- and it was SO fun
(even though Phuong doesn't know how to swim).
The river was ICEY, so we got to wear these awesome wetsuits and incredibly flattering red jumpsuits with our life jackets... so that part was awesome. We were in a raft with 2 Canadians and a guide, and it was just an absolutely beautiful river and experience, with great rapids. Sooo worth it!!
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