Firefighter reunion



A real Oasis in Ica, Peru



One of the most beautiful drives of my life, up the southern Peruvian coastline



Shite-town, Peru



The Elqui Valley, Chile




So, Lydia and I survived the marathon bus ride from the middle of Chile to the middle of Peru in only 46 hours. Stage 1-We left La Serena at 8pm for Iquique, arriving 18 hours later. Had a little picnic lunch on the grass overlooking the harbour for 2 hours, then got back on the bus to Arica (stage 2), arriving at 8pm, only 4 hours or so. We then ran out of the bus terminal to find a collectivo to drive us the 40km across the border into Peru before it the border closed. Thus began stage 3. We got held up at the border since I hadn´t received a tourist card entering Chile at the airport, and the other couple in our collectivo got detained as they had no passports. We walked across the border, put our bags through the x-ray machine, and waited around for an hour impatiently for the cabbie to get his papers signed. There were fights breaking out in the cabbie line, jostling for position. Finally we were on our way to make it to the Peruvian border town of Tacna. Our hopes to make it out of Tacna that night were renewed when we remembered the 2 hour time change backwards. We made it into Tacna at 10pm, and caught the only bus out, which wasn´t to where we wanted to go, but would have to do, to Ariqupa. Stage 4, we left at 10pm and arrived at 430am into the bus station, warming with homeless Peruvians asleep on the benches. We then looked for a bus to our original destination, Nasca, and found one leaving at 515am. We got ´gringoed´, paying the full fare to Lima, twice the distance, but seemed to have no choice, it is so corrupt here. Anyways, Stage 5 begun at 515am, with the 10 hour ride up the coastline to Nasca. Finally, we arrive at 4pm, am get settled into a hostel. It was a total shanty town, not quite what we expected. We thought we were meeting Kopetski there, but turns out he was in Ica, 2 hours away. So there was a bus leaving for Ica in 20 minutes, we buy a ticket, run over, grab our stuff, and and off we go, the last stage, only 2 hours, thank goodness, to Ica. Finally, we get there, find the hostel Eric is at, and hook up with him. It is a rent by the hour place, though you only save $1.50 by renting an hour, as opposed to the whole night. They blare megaphones and honk horns perpetually right outside the window, as we were close to the main square, all night long. So we had a nice evening out on the town, hit a few bars, and finally slept in a bed. The next day, we caught a cab out to an oasis in the middle of the desert near Ica, and are hanging out here for a few days. It is a pretty sweet place. We hiked up a huge dune last night to watch the sun set, it was beautiful.

Some more good news, I got an interview for med school at UBC 3 days after I get back to Canada, so I am pretty stoked about that.