Sunday 3rd February – Puno and the Uros
Islands.
The service provided by
Audley doesn’t seem as good here. Carmen didn’t seem very interested and Maria
(our guide on the trip to the Uros Islands) was actually taking part in the big
dancing competition between the local villages that was part of the Puno
Festival that afternoon, so she was in a rush to get back – so, no tip for her
then! We felt that all she did was the bare minimum, which was a disappointment
after our great experience with Silvia in Cusco.
We did, though, have more
surreal experiences…To get to the boat for the trip; we were taken in pairs on
local bike taxis and ended up being part of a parade of locals going to the
festival! At one point we were being filmed by other tourists!
The Uros islands were
interesting (and at least none of us got our feet wet, Graeme!!) but were a bit
voyeuristic as we were invited into people’s homes to see how they live. A
little uncomfortable - but we bought some embroidery and Rebecca even managed
to bargain in Spanish!!
In the afternoon, we caught a
bus for the relatively short journey of only six hours to Arequipa!
We were met there by Hernando
and taken to a characterful, but basic hotel.
Unfortunately we had to
complain about the coach trip as when she got on; Ellie’s seat belt was covered
in vomit… There was also no vegetarian food, so the girls had nothing to eat.
Monday 4th February – Arequipa to Tacna,
Peru and on to Arica, Chile.
We arrived in Arequipa in the
dark and left in the dark so unfortunately didn’t see much of this famous
“white city”!
A 7 hr. coach journey today
through desolate volcanic landscape down to Tacna. Hernando travelling with us
so at least we had a Spanish speaker. Still no vegetarian food though L
At Tacna Hernando ordered two
taxis for the 30k trip across the border to Arica in Chile.
Really nice hotel with
swimming pool and is right on the beach so we had an afternoon of well-deserved
R&R!!
Ate dinner in the hotel and
said goodbye to Hernando. No idea of who is meeting us in the morning or how long
the journey will be. Nesta’s not happy!!!
Tuesday 5th February – Arica to Santiago
and then on to Valparaiso.
Stressful start to the day as
when the driver arrived at the hotel to take us to the bus station we discover
that the journey time is 28 hrs. and the coaches here do not do vegetarian
meals.
Ian tried to phone the
Chilean contact number with no success and in the end phoned Mark in Peru who
tried to help get Fi and Ellie some food!
Kay in Bideford phoned five
minutes before the coach departed to say that Chilean coaches do not offer
vegetarian alternatives and could the girls perhaps stock up on crisps and pop
etc. during stops.
As it happened, some of the
food on the bus was ok – we managed to get our luggage on and off at the right
places and Nesta even managed to get some cigarettes!
It was a long journey through
1000k of the Atacama – but have to say the bit we saw wasn’t very interesting.
Wednesday 6th February – Still on the bus
to Santiago!
At 9-30 am we arrived at La
Serena, Chile and after a biscuit and a peach drink for breakfast, Nesta got a
smoke!
Back on the bus and
eventually arrived in Santiago at 4pm after 29 hrs. on the coach. We were met
by a driver who didn’t speak English but did have meat and vegetarian
sandwiches with him (thanks Kay?) drinks and, bizarrely, sweets!!
Another 2 hr. drive and we
finally got to Valparaiso and to the Ship!
The driver took the kids to
their hotel and actually waited for them to check in, have a shower, get
changed and then brought them back to the ship J He did get a tip!!
Had a nice meal with the kids
in the Veranda Restaurant and showed them around the ship. Sent them back to
their hotel by taxi at 11-30pm after a very long day and all slept well!
And so another cruise
finishes… Just found out that the ship will be 93% full for the next cruise, so
lots more people on this one. More queues but less shoving than at Christmas!
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