Oltursa buses turned out to be excellent and
to be honest the whole set up more closely resembled catching a plane. Our luggage was checked in, hand baggage was
given a cursory security check, passports were studied and once we were on
board we had blankets, pillows and piped music.
There were staff to greet us on board and on setting off a bus features
and safety video was shown. Things got
better as the steward brought round a bite of breakfast and more importantly a
brew. In fact we got fed 3 times by the
time we’d disembarked and had taken advantage of the free wi-fi service. Does it all sound too good to be true? The drawback was we couldn’t choose to not
watch the films and were subjected to 5 back to back dreadful, noisy offerings
by the end of the journey.
We
soon left the city behind and immediately entered a desert type landscape with
little huts dotted around. I’ve
subsequently learnt that we spent the bulk of the day travelling through the
world’s driest desert; Atacama. No the
wonder we travelled several hundred kilometres without spying a blade of grass
or drop of water. That may sound like a
boring vista for 12 hours but it proved to be a fascinating landscape. Occasionally we passed cactus plantations
where people were harvesting cochineal beetles.
As we dropped down from a pass in the high desert mountains we crested a
hill and were presented with a lush river fed valley. This green agricultural area contrasted so
sharply with the grey and beige sandy, rocky hillsides that it looked almost
artificial.
At
times the Panamericana Highway on which we were travelling literally blasted
its way through the mountains. The
tunnels we went through certainly weren’t designed for a coach to meet up with
a wagon part way and anything taller than our vehicle was destined to get
stuck. Unbelievably for the first few
hours we could still discern snow-capped peaks through the dusty haze. The road then sliced through a huge, flat
area of sand that was utterly devoid of life.
This desert stretched right to the coast and merged with the sand dunes
along the edge of the Pacific Ocean. We
dropped down to a shabby seaside town where the sea and the skies were grey
with the waves pounding in. Typical; the
first time we’ve seen the sea in South America and it’s the first time we’ve
had cloudy skies.
As
we progressed the weather improved with blue skies and vultures lining the
way. I’m not kidding there were hundreds
of them and other than scavenging rubbish dumps we can only assume they’re
waiting to see what it deposited on the beach.
Looking down on the ocean from our cliff to vantage point it was easy to
imagine animals being dashed upon the rocks.
The road then moved inland slightly and straightened out but we were
still travelling through desert. They
say the world is over-populated but by the end of the day we’d passed through
several hundreds of kilometres worth of emptiness. There was the odd isolated community but if
you don’t mine, farm or fish you’re going hungry. The only splashes of colour in this
predominantly grey landscape were from rubbish lining the edge of the road and
the odd crucifix marking the spot where someone met their maker. Or, alternatively; regular reminders that if
you drive recklessly you’re liable to come a cropper.
We
passed through Nazca famed for its lines in the desert and a place where we’d
originally planned to stop. I’m sure
seeing the formations would have been a great experience but the 20min flights
are very expensive. We saw a bit of one
on the way past so tick, done that! We
reached Paracas 12 ½ hours after leaving Arequipa but since we’d been so
comfortable it didn’t seem like such a long journey. It looked like a nice little place but it was
too late to explore. We checked into El
Amigo Hostal which has developed from the backpacker place in our Lonely Planet
to scoring 2 stars. At Soles60 a night
its great value so we decided to go for it as we’ve a feeling the place we’ve
booked in Lima will be much more basic.
