Tacna, Peru
All good and merry here. Just sitting in my classroom killing time before I have to work with the debate team at 4:30. It’s freezing today and the waves are huge. There have been search teams out all day because there is a missing surfer out in the water. I am 100% sure that he is dead but it is very unnerving that they have not been able to find his body in over 48 hours. I just pray for his family and all of his friends!
This past weekend I took a trip to Tacna, Peru and I’ll just begin by saying…it was very interesting. I left Friday morning at 7AM and took a taxi to the bus station where I had a five-hour trip up to Arica (the most northern part of Chile). I can sleep through anything, and I mean anything and I have NEVER, in. my. Life. Experienced someone snore as loud as this man did during the entire 5- hour bus ride. I do not know what pill this man took to sleep but he was OUT cold and he was louudddddddddddddddd! I should have known this was a sign for how the rest of the weekend was going to play out but I tried to stay positive and patient.
After arriving in Arica I felt like a sheep as I was herded into another terminal where I was overwhelmed with a million taxi drivers shoving tickets and papers in my face. Eventually finding a man that appeared semi-sane, I hoped into his taxi and I began my trip across the border to Peru. First we had to stop at the Chilean border where we had to show all of our travel documents and have our car checked. About fifteen minutes later we hit the border control of Peru where we all had to exit the car, once again show our travel documents, and put our bags through security clearance. Luckily, there were no problems and we were smooth sailing into Tacna.
I was then dropped off at ANOTHER terminal where I located a local taxi that would take me to my hotel so I could finally put all of my things down. 3 soles later (about 1 dollar) I arrived at “Hotel Premier” which is where I THOUGHT I would be spending my two nights in Peru. However, after talking with the receptionist it was obvious that there was some type of “miscommunication” and my reservation had not been confirmed! Well, great! I am in small town in Peru with nowhere to stay during a holiday weekend!
As a normal person may become extremely concerned during a situation like this, I feel like these problems happen to me quite frequently during my travels. So, I put my panic aside and set off for the street. After asking what felt like a million people, I found a woman who told me that she had a vacant room. Following her down the street and up a very sketchy staircase I was pleased to find a very basic, suitable room for the weekend and in total paid 40 soles which is about 15 dollars for two nights. Not too shabby after all.
The rest of Friday I roamed the streets of Tacna looking at all of the different markets and shops. It was a pleasant afternoon with a lot of sun and warmth and this definitely helped with my misfortune from earlier in the day. That night I took a nap until about 10PM, woke up, went out, ate cena (dinner) and then hit the town! There was a bar about ten minutes from where I was staying and there was live music all night! My friend Cat and I were getting tired of beer, so we decided to spice our night up a little bit by ordering ourselves a mixed drink. We kept saying “remember that time, in Tacna, when we drank “electric lemonades?” Yes, I do remember, and I remember how absolutely terrible those drinks were! The term “mixed drink” does not exist in South America. Typically, you receive a drink with straight alcohol and MAYBE, just maybe you will get a small coke on the side. If you’re not the hard liquor type of person it is probably best to stick with beer or wine.
The next morning I woke up with high spirits and was looking forward to the new day. In my free state of mind I decided that I would go to the hair salon and get my roots fixed! What started as a great idea, ended quite differently with orange roots and a Peruvian Mullet. Not going to go further into details but you should know…that it was bad, reallllllllly bad. I will post pictures on facebook later, and you will notice that I am wearing a headband in about 3/4s of all of them. This is to hide my pathetic, pitiful hair. BUT, when all goes wrong there is nothing better to do than to laugh and carry on. So, I spent the rest of the day shopping at the market and drinking beer. Turned out to be a great afternoon/night of practicing Spanish and meeting new people.
My last day in Tacna, I woke up with orange hair and thought “why not get the hell out of here so I can get home to Iquique and fix my hair before I have to teach on Tuesday?” So that is exactly what I did. I woke up around 10AM, packed my bags, and started my long, confusing journey back to Iquique. Hoping to switch my bus tickets from a 5PM departure to an earlier one in Arica I rushed to find a taxi that would get me back in time. BUT OF COURSE I arrived back to Arica 10 minutes too late and had to wait an entire 6 hours for my original 5PM bus. Really, I have no luck. Fortunately, my bus ride home was uneventful and I was greeted by my host family at the bus terminal.
That night I spent drinking chelas “beers” with my host brothers and friend Cristihian. It was a funny night with a lot of laughing and it definitely made up for the disappointing weekend in Peru.
My apologies for not writing as much (cough cough Aunt Carol)!! I have been feeling guilty and I promise to update more frequently! I hope that everyone is doing well back in the United States. I think about you all quite often. Like I’ve already mentioned, things here are still going wonderfully. I am super happy with every aspect of my life. My hair is fixed and of course all of my students have noticed the slight change. They all laughed at the fact that I had orange hair- they just don’t understand blondes here!
Miss everyone a lot,
Love,
Sarah
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