In Pisco, Peru

After landing in Lima, it took us over an hour to clear Immigration. Whenever I travel, I really miss the efficiency in HK. After we finally got our baggage and went outside the airport, we were supposed to be greeted by our taxi driver, but we saw no one, so we took another taxi to get to our hostel. It{s really weird to visit a place where you can{t speak the language. It{s my first time travelling in a place where people would speak no English or Chinese. I was pretty much mute and deaf despite having attended about 8 Spanish classes.

After spending a night in Lima, we took a walk around the hostel the following morning. It was really sunny and dry. Then we took a 3.5hr bus ride to Pisco. It was apparent that we were located in a desert. The ride to Pisco wasn{t very scenic, though we could see the ocean all along to our west, and hills and mountains of sand to our east.

When we got to Pisco, we were greeted by tour guides who were probably both trying to help and also to make a living. They were friendly people, but we wanted to do our own research first so we declined their offer. We only found out after we got to downtown Pisco that an earthquake of Richter scale 7.9 took place last August and pretty much everything is Pisco was destroyed. It was apparent when we walked around town. It{s sad. But people here remain very friendly. So far my impression of Peruvians have been nice and friendly. A few of them have reminded me of better putting away my camera and belongings to avoid being pickpocketed. They are polite and cheerful. I don{t see the chaos that I expected from a rather less developed country full of petty crime.

Then we went to the Plaza de Armas to look for tour groups and are now booked for the next two days. We{ll be going to the Bellestas Islands (Galapogos of Peru), Ica for the sand dunes, and then spend a night in Nazca tomorrow. We had a pretty good dinner as well, though we should control our spending because expenses have been higher than we anticipated, partly due to the weak USD, and I don{t really know what the other reasons are. But when everyone else (mostly Canadians!) says Peru outside of Lima is really cheap, I hardly find things particularly inexpensive here.

Anyways. Today is only my real first day here. Let{s see how things go in the next two weeks. It{s the experience that counts. BTW, my Spanish today has already improved a bit. I{m enjoying the experience of not being able to communicate much in an unknown place. =)