Last Stop... Huacachina!
So I'm officially back home but due to the lack of Internet cafe's in Huacachina I wasn't able to post on the last leg of our trip... until now that is...
The night before we left Puno, we checked out this bar called Kamizaraky... I'm only mentioning it because it was my favorite bar of the entire trip. A total dive, Kamizaraky is a place to just chill, have a beer, hang with good company, and listen to a pretty great selection of music. T'was sweet!
On Thursday morning we're supposed to be picked up at the hotel by a collective transport van for our 1 hour ride to Juliaca Airport. The van never shows up so our hotel staff arranges a relatively cheap private taxi ride (45 soles/ $15)... all goes well until we reach Juliaca and realize that our driver does not know where the airport is and has to stop and ask about 7 or 8 people for directions. Did I mention that Juliaca is pretty sketch? Two thoughts flash across my mind -- either we miss our flight or we get carjacked. Good times!
We finally make it to the airport only to learn that our reservation was canceled. Great, thanks for telling us! Glad I gave you my email address and hotel telephone number when I made the reservation. We're like, "okay, is there room on this flight? We'll just buy the tickets now".... "sure but it's $200+ and we'll only take cash, no credit cards." All would have been well but there's no ATM in the airport and we weren't traveling with that much $$ on us. I thought I was going to lose it... there was no way in hell I was staying in Juliaca.
Thankfully a different airline had a flight just a bit later and they were kind enough to take VISA... phew! It just meant that now we'd have to take the local bus from Lima to Ica (at 8pm to 12:30am) since we missed all the nicer tourist buses which only go earlier in the day since arriving in Ica late at night is not very safe. It actually wasn't too bad... it was late and our cab driver looked like a dealer with gold teeth, but we arrived safely at lodging in Huacachina by 1am.
Our last couple of vacay days were spent basking poolside, enjoying Pisco Sours, sandboarding, riding a doon buggy, and playing with Capuchino the pet monkey. Can't think of a better way to end the trip!
Back to work tomorrow...
Oh, and thanks for reading :)
