And the winner of the Pèruvian Election is ..... the corrupted.
It seems that Alan Garcia is the new president of Perù. I saw him on TV, and I have to say that he knows how to speak. He is a brilliant public speaker, and did probably skip the initial course at Toastmaster. I heard the news on my way to the bus station Sunday night, when the entire town of Nazca was silent to the point to heard a Condor flying. Then, suddenly, his name poped-up on all the Peruvian TV and it was .... nothing more than just a big silent. Actually the answer came later when I ask a guy at the bus station. Peruvian don´t care anymore about politics. For him both were assasin and corrupted. So what´s the point of voting then, except avoiding to pay a multa.
But the funny thing was hearing the Peruvian anthem hymn in the street at the end of the winner annoncement. It´s the French onw but in Spanish. THEY STOLE IT. They stole everything, uncluding a national anthem !!!
Anyway, I took my overnight ¨business¨bus to Arequipa, and spend 10 hours in a chiken bus full of Peruvian, no Tourist at all, stopping every other hour refuelling the ones who manage to escape from the bus when the bus slowed down. I finally reached my destination, totally broken, sleepless and I have a real reason, now, to hate buses. I am strating to publish officially my fisrt rule of the pre-Inkas trip: When transit, if it´s more than 7 hours of bus, take a plane or cut the bus trip. We will see how long I can stick to it. The sad thing was even if I managed hardly to secure a windwon seat, because it was an overnight bus, I could not see a thing outside, just felling a lot of turns and seeing the stars. At sunrise I discovered what I missed. A spectacular desrt like view and some amazing panoramic shots.
My bus trip was worth the pain when I dicovered the town I arrived. Arequipa is a university town in the middle of the Andes. The city has a colonial speen and due to the volcanique region it´s been developped in, the city is all white. Not only it has everything a tourist like to see around (bar, food, restaurant, shops, ...), but also its has the most amazing treeking trails you can think of. An American couple that I talk to, just came back from a 2 days trip to the Misti near by at 5822 meters. I won´t do it just by looking at their face, but if you want to have a good torture you can find something that will suit you.
I just spend the last 2 days in town recovering from my night bus trip, and get use to the altitude (2.300 meter above sea level - 7500 ft). I feel now the soroche, and drink a lot of water and Coca-Mate tea. It has a light green tea savor, and help you to heal the symptom.
I also booked a 3 days and 2 nights trip to ¨El Canon del Colca¨. I hope to tell you more about my trip when I am back. I booked as well my flight to Cuzco (55 minutes as opposed to 15 hours bus), and just follow my fisrt rule of the pre-inkas bible (see above).
Arequipa is so far the best city of Perù I had the chance to be in. Hope I have the time to post some pictures soon.