Wednesday, October 15, 2008

18 & 19th September - Journey to Arequipa

I'm writing this first entry in my blog whilst sat in the upstairs lounge of Luz's parents house in Arequipa, Peru. The time is now 6:43pm and it has now been dark for about 30 minutes. Being this close to the equator means that the length of days fluctuate by only around 85 minutes with the sunrise times varying from 5:32 in November to 6:29 in July and sunset times from 17:49 at the end of May to 18:40 at the end of start of February. The longest day in Peru is around the 21st December when it is 12 hours and 50 minutes with the shortest day being around the 21st June at just under 11 hours and 25 minutes. Compare this with the data for the adopted home city (near enough) of Amsterdam with day lengths varying from 7 hours and 40 minutes to 16 hours and 48 minutes.

Just before the sun went down I went out for a short walk around the area of Socabaya, the district of Arequipa in which Luz's parents live. I tooka few nice photos of the surrounding volcanoes (El Misti, Chachani (2) and Pichu Pichu) and other mountains as the sun was starting to go down which meant they were covered in quite a strange light. They really are a very spectacular sight and certainly very different from the view I have out of my window at home!

The journey to Peru actually started at just before 4 o'clock yesterday morning (Amsterdam time) when we had to be up ready for the taxi to take us to Schiphol airport for the 2.5 hour flight to Madrid with Iberia. I had not gone to sleep until around 1:30am due to a mixture of excitement and apprehension over the long flight ahead. I still don't really enjoy flying too much although I certainly don't get as anxious as some people can get. Anyway, the flight to Madrid left at around 8:50 after a delay of around 45 minutes due to there being problems with one of the landing wheels which had to be replaced. We still got to Madrid with plenty of time to spare for the Lima flight however. The flight was very smooth with no problems at all but even though I was sit next to a window it was unfortunately very difficult to see much due to heavy cloud for most of the flight. There was some very nice patchwork quilt type landscape just prior to landing in Madrid though but I was unable to get any good photos of it.

Madrid airport's new Terminal 4 is a very attractive, modern building even following the bomb attack which took place there in December 2006, shortly after it had opened and the day after we had flown back to Amsterdam following our previous trip to Peru! It is also one of the largest airport terminal buildings in the world with an area of 470,000 m² (Hong Kong´s Terminal 1 holds the record at 570,000m²) and we had to take one of the high-speed trains to get from the arrivals section to the departure gate we needed.

The 12 hour flight to Lima, also on Iberia, took off on time at 12:40 and as we were travelling with a small child it meant we could bypass the long queue waiting to board the plane. Of course we then had to wait for someone to take his push-chair to put in the hold just before we entered the plane so many people overtook us anyway. There were also a large group of nuns on the plane which also seems to happen whenever we fly for some reason. Still, at least it would make you think the plane had some added protection, if you believe in that type of thing. Of course, Madrid airport suffered a terrible crash last month which led to the deaths of 154 people so we could have done with all the protection we could get!

This time we were sat in the centre section on seats and so it was virtually impossible to see anything out of the window although the flight-path meant that there probably wouldn't be an awful lot to see anyway apart from the Atlantic Ocean and the Amazon rain-forest. There were a number of films and short documentaries shown during the flight but I didn't fancy of them particularly not the terrible new Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull which is totally full of inaccuracies about Peru which can only mis-inform all the tourists which were currently been flown there. Other films included the more children orientated Kung Fu Panda and Nim's Island plus some other one which I missed the name of but which Luz and a girl from Trujillo who she was sat next to and became quite friendly with quite enjoyed. I just read a few of the many books I had brought with me or tried, unsuccessfully to sleep. Matthew handled it pretty well despite being uninterested in most of the stuff we had brought for him to play with on the plane. But with a combination of sleep, a couple of sticker books and some colouring we managed to keep him sufficiently occupied for the 12 hours or so. The first 8 hours passed quite slowly with a few short patches of mild turbulence but for the last 4 hours it was virtually non-stop turbulence which, despite being not particularly rough, was very uncomfortable due to its length. Due to not being able to sleep properly I was already not feeling particularly well and this constant wobbling about led to me getting quite a bad headache which meant I was lacking any real appetite for the snack that was served shortly before we landed in Lima. We were able to watch the landing on the video screen due to the camera positioned in the tail of the plane but it mostly comprised of seeing the plane drop through the heavy cloud covering Lima. It was only shortly prior to landing that we finally dropped below the cloud just in time to see that we were approaching the airport from the sea and had just reached the coastline. Lima airport is not actually in Lima at all but in the neighbouring city of Callao, an important Peruvian port and it was possible to see many ships and boats dotting the coastline as we flew overhead. The actual landing was very smooth and attracted quite a large amount of applause from the passengers, some of which I had noticed to appear quite worried by the turbulence on my many trips to the toilet. The time was now 17:05 Peruvian time on 18th September or just after midnight 19th September Amsterdam time.

Again having Matthew with us literally open many doors for us and we were ushered through the very long customs queue into a side desk which probably saved us about 30 minutes of waiting. But then we had to collect our baggage and it took more than 30 minutes to finally appear on the carrousel by which time it had been surrounded by the many other people, and their troillies, who were also waiting for their baggage and blocking the path for anyone behind. We did eventually manage to collect everything though and then went across to the money exchange desk across the baggage hall were we changed our euros into Peruvian Nuevo Sols.

We weren't flying on to Arequipa until very early the next morning so had decided to stay overnight in a hotel close to the airport. Therefore we took our large baggage to the storage facility so that we didn't have to carry it with us.

We then left the main airport building to get one of the many awaiting taxis to our hotel. It was only a short distance, about 10 minutes, but the minimal fee was 30 sols, or about 8 euro which was a bit steep but there was nothing we could do about it, it was the regulations.

The hotel (http://www.hotelcaribeperu.com/english.html) was in a not particular nice part of Callao but it was close to a main street with quite a few different types of shops we once we had booked in and rested for a short time we headed out for a quick look around and to buy a few bits and pieces. We were also feeling rather hungry by that time so we stopped in at a Polleria (chicken shop) on the way back to the hotel for a quarter of roast chicken breast, chips and a salad all for 7.50 sols (less than 2 euro). The whole place was totally dead when we first entered, apart from one bored looking guy sat waiting at a table. But as soon as we made our order the place suddenly sprang into life we another 4 staff members appearing. The salad was covered in some strange tasting sauce so we didn't eat too much of that, or many of the chips, but the chicken was OK and filled us up sufficiently. We were the only customers though and the fixtures and fittings hardly looked spic and span so I'm not sure exactly how much custom the place usually gets.

Once back in the hotel we finally had a chance to try and relax after a very long tiring day. The hotel seemed to be like one of those which usually charge by the hour rather than the day with heart-shaped headboards and shower areas and mirrors all around the walls (but not on the ceiling it must be said). There was also a sliding glass door leading out to a balcony which Matthew tried to walk through when it was closed giving him a nasty surprise, a small bump on the head and a few tears. The door didn't look and I was a bit worried Matthew might wake up during the night, open it and get out onto the balcony so we drew the lace curtain across and placed a chair in front of the bit where it opened and this worked fine. The hotel also had the full cable package but apart from a few cartoons for Matthew, a short snippect of a Mexican soap for Luz and some football highlights for me we never really watched it and decided to go to bed at around 9pm due to our very early flight the next morning. We had booked a taxi for 3:30am to take us to the airport and had arranged a call to our room at 3 in order to wake us up in time. Int the event both me and Luz were unable to sleep particularly well - me due to the bed being quite uncomfortable with a very hard pillow and Luz due to being worried about not waking up in time. This meant she woke up just about every hour to get me to check my watch. Matthew slept fine though.

When our early morning 3am call arrived we were already up and dressed and then had to wait around 30 minutes for our taxi. The short trip back to the airport proved to be quite eventful with the driver having a particularly unique method of driving which meant we were never entirely sure exactly which side of the road he would drive on at any point or whether or not he would actually break in time to avoid hitting vehicles in front of us. Fortunately though we, and the taxi, manage to reach the airport in one piece although without Matthew´s pushchair which we had managed to leave in the hotel. We´d now have to buy another one.

After picking up our luggage and checking in we proceeded to take the 4:45 LAN flight to Arequipa. Of course it was dark when we set off so despite managed to swop my seat across the aisle from Luz and Matthew with a window seat I was unable to see hardly anything apart from a few tiny lights far below for the first 45 minutes or so. Then, once the sun started to rise I was able to make out a very spectacular Martian-like reddish landscape with huge volcanos, mountains, ravines and gullies. This landscape was mostly very barren but it was dotted occasionally with a few green river valleys. Shortly before landing the sun was shining almost directly into the plane window making it very difficult to see much but once we started to descend into Arequipa airport the surrounding mountains blocked out the sun making it a lot easier to see things. The landing was slightly heavy and the braking a bit hard but nothing too worrying and we were soon able to leave the plane and enter the small Rodriguez Ballon terminal building waving to Luz's family as we did so (or at least Luz and Matthew were, I was just waving in their general direction due to not having my glasses on). Whilst waiting for our luggage the girl in front of me managed to drop her very long thin case onto the end of my foot which was (and still is) very painful.

Shortly afterwards we were able to meet up with Luz's family and exchanged many hugs, kisses and cries in Spanish of "look how big he/she is" and "isn't he/she beautiful" in the direction of both Matthew and Lucia. The 7 of us (me, Luz, Matthew, Luz´s parents, sister and niece Lucia) then had to squeeze into a taxi along with all our luggage plus the driver for the 30 minute drive to Socabaya right on the southern border of the city of Arequipa.

During the drive it was interesting to notice once again how many types of shops are collected together in one street or area. We passed through streets that seemed to contain only ladrillerias(brick shops), vidrierias (window shops) or shops selling nothing but bananas. It was also impossible not to notice how mad the majortiy of the driving was here in Peru with the hundreds of little yellow taxis whizzing around with barely a gap between them.


Once we had arrived at Luz's parents house in Socabaya and settled in we took one of the small minibuses into the centre of Arequipa to buy amongst other things sunglasses for me and a new pushchair for Matthew. The part Luz had brought us to was apparently quite dangerous with quite a few robberies and other crimes but I saw nothing untoward and didn't feel threatened at all. Still, I did decide to remove my watch on Luz's suggestion just in case. Although it was only a cheap one which I had bought last time I was in Peru it could still have caused some pain if someone had pulled it from my wrist. I always find it interesting to see the various goings-on in the streets and markets of Arequipa with all kinds people selling all kinds of things, sometimes poor mothers trying to scrape a living with their very young child on their back. We found a market which sold pushchairs and bought one at a very reasonable price as well as some "Gucci" sunglasses for 10 sols and a space-hopper bouncing ball thing for Matthew and Lucia to play on.

Afterwards we went to a very nice cafe where we had pork sandwiches and ice-cream (Lucuma for Luz, something called Black Forest for me which wasn´t anything like the expected Black Forest gateaux but still nice). Then we got a taxi back to Socabaya which was probably even more hair-raising than our trip from the hotel in Callao to the airport with a number of near-misses.

Tomorrow morning we will be going on a 4 hour bus trip around Arequipa which was bought for us as a present by Luz's parents and should be very interesting. You can read all about it, and see the photos, in the next few days! Bye for now!