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The South American Odyssey
  • The Craze for Travelling
  • The Craze for Travelling

The South American Odyssey

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
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    Arequipa

    18 November 2017, Peru ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We reached Arequipa after dark and decided to find a place near the bus station to sleep as soon as possible. There's not much to do in Arequipa so the plan was to sleep till late, go around the town center half a day and then proceed to Arica in Chile by the night bus.
    We woke up at around 10 am. After freshening up and having a quick breakfast meal in a nearby canteen, we went to the bus station to check the buses to Arica. The bus station like the others in Peru, was a buzz of activities. There were lots of counters selling bus tickets to everywhere in the country. There were sellers and sub-contractors all shouting different destinations trying to attract customers. After a while, we figured that there was no direct bus to Arica. We'll have to go to the border town of Tacna and from there take the bus into Chile. There were quite many buses going to Tacna so we didn't book any tickets and decided to go to the town center and then just take the next available bus when we come back.
    We checked out of the hotel, left our bags there and went to the town center. There, we gave our clothes for laundry and then stopped by at a lovely cafe with nice decorations and fantastic cakes and juices.    Baca lagi

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    City of white volcanic stones

    18 November 2017, Peru ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    The buildings in and around the main square of Arequipa are made from the white volcanic stone Sillar. This stone is typically between the basalt and granite varieties of lava and is generally from the andesite lava eruptions. Arequipa is surrounded by 3 volcanoes and Chachani volcano is the main source of this stone. All the buildings are from the colonial era and use sillar extensively.Baca lagi

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    Arequipa Plaza de Armas

    18 November 2017, Peru ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    The main square at Arequipa is a continuation of the white Sillar stone theme. Even the main cathedral is made from the same stone. The square has a lot of flowers and trees with some lovely fountains. One can climb up the bell tower of the Cathedral but there's a ticket for it and has to be bought along with the museum ticket. The Cathedral itself was closed and was to open at 5 pm.Baca lagi

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    A taste of India & Scandinavia

    18 November 2017, Peru ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    While walking around near the center of Arequipa, we came across an Indian theme shop. We went up to check it out. It was a lovely cosy setup, almost like in Rajasthan in India. We started chatting with the owner. She was about 70 years old German lady running the shop. It was a very interesting life story she told us.
    She had come to Puno (Peru) as a youngster and fallen in love with a German engineer working there. She had planned to travel around in Peru for 3 months but they fell in love and she remained in Puno all the time. After her visa expired, she returned to Germany where her later to be husband visited her. Then she moved to Puno again and they got married and then moved to Guatemala. About 4 years of struggle in a new country didn't work out as planned so they moved to Arequipa (Peru). They had 3 kids by now and her husband expired. Left with nothing at all in Peru and nothing to go back to in Germany, she decided to stay. Initially, she opened a German restaurant which didn't do very well so after struggling for a while, she found a keen interest in Indian traditional stuff amongst the well to do Peruvians of the city and decided to open an Indian goods shop. She visited India for the first time that year and since has been going there every year for the last 18 years. The business did quite well and now she is a proud grandmother with all the kids raised with the help of the shop. Along with the goods to buy, she makes and sells Indian Masala chai and some snacks. It was a lovely inspirational meeting.
    Quite near this place, we saw the Scandinavian center with the Swedish flag flying right in the middle.    Baca lagi

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    2Anoushka Cafe with the Peruvian, German and Indian flag
    2Anoushka Cafe with the Peruvian, German and Indian flagCentral courtyard

    Buildings with central courtyards

    18 November 2017, Peru ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    An interesting feature of the old colonial buildings around the city center was they all had central courtyards with a water feature, typically a fountain. Most of them have been taken over by shops and restaurants that are cashing in on the space it provides in the center.Baca lagi

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    2Arequipa Cathedral at night
    2Arequipa Cathedral at night2Having dinner1Shops ready for ChristmasTacna bus stationTowards Chilean border

    To Chile

    19 November 2017, Peru ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    After having enjoyed the views from The Balcony, we realized it was already about 7 pm. We went and picked up our laundry which was done by now. Then we had our dinner at one of the American/international corner for a change. It was almost 8:30 pm by now, but we decided to walk the 3 kms back to the bus stop since we knew there were buses to Tacna till 10:30 pm.
    Back near the bus stop, we picked up our bags from the hostel and caught the next bus to Tacna at 9:30 pm.
    We reached Tacna at 4 am. Here we found out that the bus terminal for buses to Arica was just a few meters away. We walked over there and tried to figure out what time the buses would leave for Arica. There were a lot of touts selling tickets for collective vans for S/ 20 per person. They all were telling that the buses would start at 6 am. Hristo went around to check out if there were other options. The guard at one of the exits told him that there was a bus at 5 am and it would cost us S/ 12 per person.
    We decided to wait for it. As was informed, there was a bus for Arica at 5 am and all the locals were on it. We too got on and soon the bus was off towards Chile border.    Baca lagi

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    2Our bus
    2Our busPerú and Chile immigration offices side by sideChile Peru borderBus station AricaOur rooms at Hostal San Antonio opposite the bus terminal

    Reached Arica

    19 November 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Interestingly, the ride was North to South but the time in Chile was 2 hours ahead of Peru. So, we left Peru at 6:25 am and about 10 min later entered Chile at 8:35 am.
    This part of the journey was in total desert environment. Some places, we could see that water had been provided and in the middle of the desert there were some plantations.
    We reached Arica at 9:30 am and decided to take the hostel outside of the bus terminal so that we could sleep and recover as soon as possible. We found one at a reasonable price of 10000 CLP per person just opposite the bus terminal and decided to sleep off after checking in.    Baca lagi

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    21 May (main street) in Arica2Cathedral San Marcos2Morro de Arica

    Arica at night

    19 November 2017, Chile ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    We slept about 6 hours straight and woke up in the evening. We decided to walk to the beach and from there to the city center, a total of about 4 kms. We reached there at about 9:30 and found it quite deserted. Even the food shops were closed with hardly anyone around. We ate some food and then headed back to the hostel.Baca lagi

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    2Paila huevo
    2Paila huevo

    Search for the SIM cards

    20 November 2017, Chile ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    After a lazy morning, we decided to go search for a SIM card since we would be in Chile for some weeks. First we tried at the mobile counters in the bus terminal. Every SIM card we tried failed to work on the our device. We tried all the operators as well but nothing seemed to work.
    After that, we went to the city center and tried at a few operators. Here we were informed that due to a recent legislation, the SIM cards would work only with mobile phones bought in Chile. We tried all the operators with no success. One old SIM seemed to work on my phone. It wouldn't connect calls or SMS but there was data available on it but with a max of only Edge connection 😑    Baca lagi

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    Cathedral San Marcos

    20 November 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We took a break from the SIM card search and went to the San Marcos cathedral near the main square. Its a nice wooden cathedral with nice colors painted on giving it a gingerbread cookie house kind of a look 😁Baca lagi

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    Mobile phone registration

    20 November 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We decided to go to the mobile phone registration office to get our phones registered to work in Chile. We weren't sure if that would work but one of the agents on one of the mobile operator shops told us about it. The building was right next to the coast. The office was on the 5th floor. There we found out that they had closed for the day and would open at 9 am the next day. It was 2:30 pm, so we decided to have some food and plan our next few days.Baca lagi

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    To Morro de Arica

    20 November 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We had our lunch at the local shops and then decided to find some operators to take us to the valley of Azapa and Lluta to see the geoglyphs on the valley hills. We couldn't find a single tour operator in the city. Finally, we decided to walk to the tourist information center. On the way, we saw our 1st tour operator of the town and negotiated a tour of the Azapa, Lluta valleys and the Anzota caves for 20000 CLP per head.
    After that, we decided to go to the Marro del Arica viewpoint on top of a small hill next to the city center.    Baca lagi

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