Today was such an exciting and crazy day!! Woke up around 8:30 or so (TOTALLY been sleeping in way longer than I usually do) and went down for our "free breakfast" with Magdalena (26) from Prague, and her two friends, Carolina (24) and Augostina (23), both from Argentina. They both speak Spanish (obviously) so they are great to have around! Same thing for breakfast: toast and an egg, and I drank the juice again. I´ve decided it must be fine and it always tastes SO good!! After breakfast we changed in to swimsuits, packed a little bag, and headed for the beaches in Punta Hermosa, about an hour south of Lima. We also picked up two other girls staying at the hostel around the corner, Polly (23) from the UK and Erin (25) from France. (Just putting ages on there so you all know that I´m not the only crazy young girl who travels through foreign countries alone!!)
Okay I just have to throw this in here while I'm thinking about it...did you guys know that NO ONE freaking shaves down here!? I mean seriously...it´s so disgusting! Erin has more hair on her legs than any man I´ve ver seen...AND she doesn´t shave her armpits!! UGH...SICK!! The other girls don´t shave there legs either...and I think it´s gross if I don´t shave for like 2 days!! Weird...
Okay, so anyways, there are 6 of us, and we need to take a taxi down to the "bus station" to catch a bus to Punta Hermosa. After exchanging our own currencies for Peruvian soles from some guy on the street corner (it's legi down here - that's how you do it I guess), we did some bartering (done by the Argentenian girls) and all piled in to a little taxi sitting on each others laps for the short ride down to the "bus station." Cost us a whopping 1 soles each (3.5 soles is about $1).
Turns out the "bus station" is on the side of the road underneath a bridge along the highway...un-freakin-believable. So we get down there and yes, there are buses all with one guy hanging out the side yelling out whatever place they are going to. I can´t even describe how crazy it was!! I mean a bus stop on a busy highway under a bridge with people yelling!?
Then one guy comes up and grabs us and says he will take us wherever we need to go...in a taxi! WAY better than the smelly old packed-to-the-windows bus, so we agreed, for 6 soles each (the bus was only 3 soles, but come on, we´re talking about less than $2 here and it takes much less time in a taxi). So in we pile again...Carolina and Augostina in the front seat, Erin, Magdalena, myself, and Polly sitting on each other in the back seat. It wasn´t too hot yet and we had the windows down so it really wasn´t that bad.
After about half an hour or so, we went through a little check-point kind of toll station thing. And as soon as we got through it, there were cops standing all over in the middle of the highway stopping random cars for searches. And OF COURSE the cop stands right in front of our car (as our driver is trying to get in a different lane to avoid him), sticks out both of his arms very forcefully and points to our car, and then directly to the side of the road. LOL!! I guess that is how they pull people over in Peru. I´m pretty sure I would´ve just kept driving because he was on foot and there were cars everywhere but our driver reluctantly pulled over. So I of course instantly get out my camera and start snapping pictures of the angry old cop walking up to our car. Turns out the situation got a little more hostile - and getting pulled over in Peru isn´t quite as fun as I originally thought it was going to be! He literally walked up to the drivers door, opened it, and yanked him out by his shirt. Okay, kinda freaking out now, but definitly still have my camera out! So he yells at me (no idea what he said) for taking pictures, and Carolina translates for me ¨you better put that thing away or it is going to be his¨. So in the bag it went and the smiles quicly came off of our faces...haha. The cop made the driver get all of his paperwork and licenses and all that stuff out, and he started yelling at him and showed him a number on the paperwork that showed how many people were allowed to be in the car legally and asked him what it said. Driver said quatro (4) and then the cop yelled something to the effect of ¨and how many pepole are in your vehicle right now??¨ Siete (7) was his response. So the jerk cop makes all of us girls get out of the car and stand on the side of the busy highway. The driver is literally almost in tears now because I guess the cop threatened to take his license away and not let him drive and we were all going to be stuck on the side of the road. NOT good. So what do we do!? Well we´re in Peru so we pay off the cop of course!! And you´ll never believe this!! Guess how much we paid him off with to let us go!? ONE SOLES EACH! The dude got about $2 and was happy enough to let us all pile back in the car illegally in front of him! It was the weirdest thing ever, but whatever!! I´ll pay that any day to avoid being either stuck on the side of a busy road or in a Peruvian jail anyday!! :) So what a start to the day, huh!? And what a good story...we paid off a cop in Peru to get through a checkpoint...LOL!!
So we finally get to Punta Hermosa, which turns out to be a complete shit-hole just like Lima. Just filth and trash and dirt and stray animals everywhere (sorry Dieter...don´t hate me for trash-talking your home country!) The driver just dropped us off on the side of the road where we couldn´t even see the ocean. Thankfully we had Carolina with us who pretty much did all of the talking all day. We set off on foot down some little dirt path through little shacks towards the beach ... supposedly.
We literally walked through a landfill...seriously...and a little checkpoint with cops standing there to get to the beach. It was worth it though!! Beautiful beach with warm water and lots of sun! :)
We (the other five girls and myself) just hung out on the beach and got FRIED the rest of the day. I´m as red as a tomato! Even the tops of my feet...everything hurts. I even had sunblock on, too...which is rare for me! ;) Might be the worst sunburn I´ve ever had...wait, no, nothing will ever beat Cancun in 2006, but this has got to be a close 2nd! The sun down here was just so powerful and we were out there ALL day. I eventually put on my wet-suit top and board shorts because I could feel myself burning all over. Got some great pics on the beach...it really was beautiful! Polly and I were hungry so we ordered the only thing we could identify on the menu that wasn´t seafood - somthing that looked like french fries - for lunch. They turned out to be big pieces of half-cooked potatoes just covered in grease, but they were edible and I was starving. Snagged a bag of doritos for about 15 cents too...I love this place :)
The taxi driver that dropped us off in Punta Hermosa said he would come back and pick us up at 5:30 and take us all the way back to our hostel in Miraflores (versus the ¨bus station¨ downtown) for 7 soles each. Done deal for us. So we hiked back up the cliffs and threw the rotten smelling landfill (seriously can´t even tell you how bad it smelled in the heat of the day...we all were gagging) and waited on the dirt road for our driver to come. All along I thought it was crazy that he would come back and get us and risk getting in trouble again, but Carolina (the leader of the pack since she speaks the best Spanish and English) was just sure that he was going to come. Well, at about 6:15 we had convinced her otherwise...the dude obviously was NOT coming back for us and it was getting dark. Option B: THE BUS! WOW...that´s all I can even say about that experience!! Okay not really...I´m sure I´ll write a novel about it because it was SO CRAZY!! We crossed the road and immediately a crappy little run down bus pulled up and Carolina went to the guy hanging out the side of it yelling...it was apparently too full for her liking so despite the yelling man trying to grab her, we followed her about 5 feet to the next bus...they literally just come one after another after another. This one wasn´t quite as full and it had a man yelling ¨Lima Lima! Vaminos! Lima Lima!!¨ as he pounded on the side of the bus. It honestly didn´t even look like it was going to make it to the end of the road, let alone LIMA over an hour away, but we all followed Carolina on anyways. I sat down RIGHT by the door because I tend to get motion sickness very easy, especially on hot smelly packed buses. Polly sat right behind me (she´s my new BFF ;) ) and the other four went to the back. Not that it was a big bus or anything...by the back I mean like 6 feet away.
So I´m thinking this isn´t so bad...I´ve got my window open and it isn´t packed at all...and it was only 3 soles (less than $1 to get us back to Lima) Well that lasted about 1 minute. We stopped about every 200 feet or so (for real) and the guy would swing open the door and hang out and yell the same thing over and over ¨Lima Lima! Lima Lima!! Vaminos¨ as he just beat the crap out of the side of the bus (right by my head) to attract all the people to get on his bus...LOL! I seriously think I´m going to hear that in my dreams tonight! So this continues...for almost TWO HOURS. All the while getting more and more packed with old smelly men getting off work and babies crying and you name it, they were on there. At one point (more than one actually) he bus was SO full that he couldn´t even shut the door...literally...he just kept pulling people on and shoving them in and he would just hang out the door. Craziness I tell you. The heat and smells and sounds were all just too much...talk about a sensory overload! I eventually got out my little video camera and started recording the guy hanging out the bus yelling and banging. I just can´t even describe it - the people all staring at me and Polly when they got on (the only two light skinned, light hair and eyes on the bus) was bad enough. Well...it was all I could handle...and yep, I puked as soon as we stepped off the bus from hell underneath the bridge on the side of the road. It was just too much for me...probably lack of food and water and heat exhaustion played a roll...but the smells and sound of it all was absolutely insane!! I felt fine as soon as that was done.
We grabbed a taxi back to our hostel and I hopped in the shower. You know how bad it hurts to take a shower when your skin is on fire!? Haha...it was the quickest shower I´ve ever had!! The front of my legs and my butt are just completely fried...seriously. The guys here at the hostel are now calling me ¨lobster¨ :)
The girls (minus Erin) and I just went out for dinner at this really cool area in Miraflores like two blocks from our hostel. It is one road just lined with little bars and clubs and restaurants. The people working totally gravitate towards us because they know we are tourists and practically yank us in to there restaurant. They offered us everything from free beer and sangria to free dancing with some guy all night...haha! We eventually found a place after Carolina´s bartering again and shared a pizza.
The clubs looked SO fun so I think we are going out salsa dancing tonight! I can´t wait... I decided to just not sleep tonight because I am leaving at 3am for the airport for my 5:30 am flight to Cusco. Thought that would be easier than trying to sleep at all. That being said, not sure what the internet access will be like at the next place, so I may not be emailing for a few days. (Yes mom, I will still send you a text every night to let you know I am okay!) I have a crazy little plan that I am hoping works to get me to Maccu Piccu. Since I am on a tight time schedule and the trains from Cusco to Aguas Calientes (access to Macchu Piccu) once a day, I am going to try to take bus (you´d think I would have learned my lesson about busses after today) from Cusco to Santa Maria, switch busses there and head to Santa Teresa, take a cable car across the river (I heard it´s totally scary!), hike for two hours to the electric plant (only thing out there I guess) and then follow the run down train tracks for another two hour hike to Aguas Calientes. Sounds like a plan, huh!? So that is why I´m not sure where I will be or if there will be internet access. This trip has just been so easy-going so far that I thought it was time to throw some excitment in to the mix!! :)
Alright, that´s it for now... I´m off to dance the night away!!
TK
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