A Moment in Arequipa, Peru and on to Tacna and Arica, Chile

We saw our first good film on a regular bus during the trip from Lima to Arequipa - the only other decent film was during the more expensive VIP-service bus, which was the only option from Piura to Lima and most of the other films had been B-rate movies from the 80s. With lots of crashes and bangs. None of that this time, we saw "The curse of the ring", which turned out to be a story formed from the various tales related to the German stories of Sigfried and Brunhilde (the most famous one perhaps being the Nibelungenleid). It was really good, although rather confusing to see a story that we'd studied in German being performed in English with Spanish voiceovers.

Additionally, we were surrounded by adorable children. When the bus was delayed for a few hours in the middle of the desert (there had been an accident on the road ahead that resulted in enormous lines of waiting cars for miles in each direction), did the kids cry or complain? No, they played imaginative games with each other the whole time. One was named Jade and another (ridiculously adorable) girl was named Jessica. I wanted to adopt Jessica, but I suppose her family wants to keep her... Oh well.

It turned out that the 15-hour trip turned into an 18-hour one, but even so, upon arriving in Arequipa we were ready to push on forward towards Chile. We had 2 hours between buses, leaving us plenty of time for lunch before returning to Tacna, where we were rushed to find a car leaving for the boarder before it closed at midnight. We made it (by about 3 minutes), went through customs, and spent the rest of the night in Arica on Chilean soil. The next day, on to Valparaíso!

Southern Peru and Northern Chile