The first time we had travelled by bus during the day. This time we didn't got for one of the ultra comfy buses and did rather regret it, although it was an eye openner! The bus kept stopping for no apparent reason and people would jump on board to try and sell food and drinks, we had to keep a close eye on our luggage to make sure noone was unloading it and 'borrowing' it! Poor Mili did not have a good journey, the man sitting in front of her became obsessed with looking at her. He was in his 60's and the whole time was turning round and blatantly staring. Jo and I were trying to stare him out but to no avail and again it was a pain not speaking the language to be able to tell him to stop. In the end she had to lie on Jo's lap covered in a blanket for the whole of the jouney! (as can be seen from the picture)
Most of the eight hour journey was desert and waste land but suddenly there was an amazing oasis, where it was so green and lush. It is a shame to see all the rubbish everywhere, in the middle of nowhere plastic bags and junk.
We found a hostel OK and it is basic but seems to be fine. We have also bought our bus tickets for tomorrow night, so we are going to check out the market here tomorrow which is supposed to be pretty amazing, with the biggest shamanic market in Peru!
The plan for the next week or so is as follows..
Tomorrow (Thursday) evening to take an overnight bus to Chachapoyas which is in the Andes. We plan to stay there for two or three days and take a couple of trips out to see the third highest waterfall in the world and Kuelap, which apparently is as amazing as Machu Picchu but has very few tourists visit. We will then find a bus to take us to Yurimagus which is where a tributary to the Amazon begins, it may take us a couple of days to get there. We then will have to find a boat to take us to Iquitios which seems to take anything between 2 and 5 days. We have arranged to meet Ross in a bar in Iquitios on November 7th at 4pm and I have said if we are not there to try the same place the following evening. I have written all these details because this bit of our journey is pretty remote and off the tourist trail. We will probably find some internet access along the way but in case we fall off the radar for a couple of weeks hopefully someone will send out a search party!
Certainly for me this is where the real exploring of Peru begins, girls not feeling quite the same, so hope we are still speaking at the end of it!
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