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Articles Tagged ‘Peru’

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Coca in Cuzco

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

Ola! After about 38 hours on local buses from Quito to Lima (which cost us $27 each), Fred and I decided to fly into Cuzco direct from Lima ($143 including taxes, each). An hour flight over the Andes on a bright, sunny morning, was much more appealing than another 8 – 10 hour bus ride at that point. After a hassle-free flight, we took a taxi and checked out a few hostals before settling on Rikchariy (translates to Wake Up) Hostal on Tambo de Montero street. Great views over the city, cable TV, hot showers, very clean sheets and room, with breakfast, and Wi-Fi (when the owner has his computer on), all for $40 night. Rates for double rooms in Cuzco go for real cheap ($20) up to over $200, so $40/night is a little more than we are used to paying ($30), but it’s in a safe and quiet neighbourhood.

Upon arrival, the first thing you’re given in Cuzco (population @ 330,000) is Coca Tea. Apparently, it helps with high altitude sickness. Coming from Quito, we didn’t think we would find it much of an adjustment, but we noticed the change in altitude right away. After a short walk uphill (Cuzco is in the mountains so everywhere is either up or down hill!) I was having chest pains and Fred was feeling very weak and dizzy, similar to the feeling when you haven’t eaten for awhile. So, we popped in the nearest drug store and got some HAS (High Altitude Sickness) drug similar to Diamox (which I tried to get the day before we left at the pharmacy but I needed a prescription from my doctor for it so I just didn’t bother). After taking one morning and night, the next day we seemed to have adjusted to the 3,400 m. altitude. No need for the coca chocolate, coca leaves, coca toffee, coca candy, and not to mention the coca in its narcotic form. They say the Incas have always used coca for the altitude as it acts as a stimulant to increase your oxygen intake.

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It Could Have Been Worse…

Monday, September 29th, 2008

Well….we made it to Lima…after a 12 hour bus ride from Quito – Huaquillas (they said it would take 9 hours), and a 19.5 bus ride from Tumbes – Lima… 31.5 hours on local bus transport.

Fred and I left Quito on Friday at 6:45 p.m. and arrived to the Peruvian border at Huaquillas at 7 a.m. We wouldn’t have known to get off the bus had some locals on our bus not pointed it out to us. A friendly local guy was there right away, speaking english, and started picking up our bags and showing us where to go for the passport stamp, etc. He then hailed us a taxi to take us to the border (only $1 each) but he came with us too… We don’t mind tipping these locals a buck for their help but this guy was over the top. A better guide book at this point on this particular border crossing would have been much more helpful (we just had Foot Prints which is not as detailed in this regard as Lonely Planet).

Once we got out of the taxi to the “bridge crossing” we were swamped with money changers. We had been warned about changing money in Peru and brushed them off. Anyway, he walked with us across the border. It would have been difficult to find independently since the Sunday market was on and there were detours down back alleys and of course, no signs. Anyway, he then hooked us up with this independent taxi driver and another “guide” to take us to the border control for Peru (which was not right at the border, you have to drive for about 5 mins which is very weird), then take us 24 km to Tumbes. There was no lineup of yellow, metered taxis of course, only tuk tuks like in Bangkok so we agreed to this old beat up “collectivo”. The Ecuador guy said it would be 50 Soles (about $20 more or less, which we agreed to) the taxi man didn’t speak English, but another guy from Peru jumped in who spoke some English. They drove us to the passport place, then 24 km to Tombes to the bus depot. Enroute, he offered to stop at the bank machine ATM, which we wanted to because we had no Soles and everyone there wants to be paid in Soles. After the bank, then they wanted payment. Only now, the payment was 400 Soles!!! Can you imagine! Like $120 US! It was supposed to be 50 Soles! Needless to say, an argument ensued, only we are on some back alley street now, they have our luggage in the trunk, there are 2 of them, and they wouldn’t drive us to the bus depot because they said it is unsafe to show money transactions there. So we told them to take us to the police station then (to plead our case for this extortion) so of course they wouldn’t do that. It was the Peru guy in the passenger seat that was the real hustler who spoke some english. But not enough to really converse with and conveniently he couldn’t understand english and tried to make it out like we didn’t understand the agreement.

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