Tuesday 6 July 2010

The trip so far.

South America, a world so far away from my world and what I´m used to. Never before in my life have I thought that I would be travelling to this part of the world and yet here I am. It´s been a week so far and what an experience it has been. From surviving a 30 hour flight plus transits and sleeping on the floor of the Miami airport terminal to surving a 15 hour boat ride along the Amazon river, I have to truely say that so far, this has been a really eye-opening vacation. Right now, I´m in Lima and it sure is a very different place from Iquitos, Peru and Leticia, Colombia (where we were for the last week). Everything in Lima moves so quickly, especially the traffic. Travelling by the buses can be compared to a roller coater ride; you never know how fast it´s going to go, when it´s going to stop (or how suddenly for that matter) and when it´s going to swerve to the left or right. I found myself gripping tightly to the seat everytime I´m on a bus. A bus ´conductor´ hang out of the door yelling out the destination and if you hear the name of your destination, you can just hop on the bus (travel insurance not included).

Lima is a really growing city filled with old grand colonial buildings, but other than that, it´s pretty much just like any other cities; fast, crowded and noisy, not a minute goes without hearing the honking of vehicles. It´s still pretty cheap comapred to most European cities and every place can be conveniently reached. The best thing to do is to jop on a bus, which goes to places on the outskirts of Lima and you´ll be amazed at how different these places are and it´s very noticible now much more advanced Lima is.
Iquitios is a totally different story. I guess that I can compare it to some parts of Malaysia maybe 20-40 years ago, but the friendliness of the people more than makes up for it. I feel that that part of my travels deserves an entry of its own.
Tomorrow, we´ll be heading to Pisco, where we´ll be taking a boat to sail around the islands and hopefully catch more than a glimpse of the sealions there. I´m guessing that the 4 hour bus ride to Pisco will be somewhat of an adventure. Stay tuned!

3 comments:

  1. What happens in the other part of the world always interests me ;-) Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your rest of the adventure :-)

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  2. I really like your story! I want to go to South America one day to! What an adventure! Be carefull ok! X

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  3. Hi Ning,
    thanks for sharing, how is the latino feeling there?
    Is there lots of Salsa and people dancing or not really? :)
    And how was cruising the Amazon, we want the whole story!! :))

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