Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2003 - 6:14 p.m.
We took an all-night bus to Arequipa, leaving at 11pm. This bus started in Lima and was packed, many people already sleeping when we boarded the bus. Soon we and other travelers discovered other passengers in our seats, some refusing to move. The bus company had sold tickets with the same seat number to more than one person (this has happened before, as well as the bus co. sometimes selling a ticket with a seat number that doesn't exist!). James and Ross had no problems with their seats but I found a French girl in mine--she was traveling with a French guy, and they didn't speak English. So through our broken Spanish I learned that they had tickets, but one was for a different seat that was occupied with some Peruvian guy. I tried to ask them if they had talked to the man. I was confused on what they expected me to do--I asked "where am I supposed to sit then?" If they wanted me to switch seats with them so they could sit together, fine, but it was unclear what was going on with this guy sitting in their seat. Finally, in a huff, the French guy moved to another seat and I got the cold shoulder from the girl. Fortunately, being a night bus, all anybody did was sleep.
It was a restless sleep for me and when we arrived in Arequipa at 7AM we were pretty worn out. We got our bus tickets to Puno, our next destination, for Sunday. The guide book said it's a 10 hr bus ride to Puno, but the bus company said it's only 5.
Soon we checked into our hotel room, but learned that the room wouldn't be ready until 10:30AM (check out time, two more hours). While we watited we had breakfast on the terrace, it was a beautiful sunny morning. We could see the nearby mountains that frame the lovely colonial city of Arequipa.
Later, after settling in our rooms I set out on my own to find a place to drop off my dirty luandry, mail some letters and postcards and get cash from an ATM. Found a lavandaria down the street, then walked towards the main plaze, a beautiful square. Then I found a bank with an ATM which promptly swallowed my card! I went inside the bank and had to take a number to be served. When I realized it was going to be awhile, I went to the post office in the meantime. When I returned to the bank, I had to continue to wait, the whole time was about half an hour. Finally, when I was able to talk to someone, he told me I needed to talk to the "Jefe" (boss) of the bank. I went to talk to the boss, who wasn't there and had to wait awhile for him to return. Then he returned and got another person to help me. In my limited Spanish I explained for a third time that happened and showed him my passport. I was then told to return in 3 hours to get my card back.
Later when I returned I cashed some travelers checks, and then, at the advice of the guy at the first bank, I tried another bank around the corner, which also promptly swallowed my card. I wanted to cry. I went inside, had to again wait awhile to talk to someone and finally told I needed to return tomorrow morning. Then I almost did cry. I haven't been able to get any money out of my savings account since I started this trip. If I can't use my bank card that makes things really difficult on how I'm going to access my travel funds. I have e-mailed my bank several times already, they assure me there is no problem with my account. I suspect the problem is with the Peruvian bank machines, but no one can give me a conclusive answer here why I'm having these problems. I wonder if I used my card back in Cuenca if I would still have this problem.
One positive thing that happened was that the guys and I arranged a 2 day tour of the Colca Canyon starting on Friday the 22nd.
