About an hour away from Ica is the city of Paracas. We heard the Ballestas Islands Boat Tour that departed from this city was amazing and provided an opportunity to get a close up view of sea lions, otters, penguins and over 200 species of birds. When we looked into taking this tour we found out that it was a 1/2 day tour and we could add a nearby National Reserve tour to make it a full day trip.

We decided to book the full day. We found a couple of different travel agencies that book these trips, one called Oro Travel and the other Desert Travel. It is best to negotiate regarding the price since we found a big difference in asking price and what we ended up paying.

It turned out that regardless of which company you booked the tour with, it was one bus that took us to Paracas and to the boats. After speaking with other tourists who were part of our group, we found that the cost for the tour varied from person to person. It was evident that some people were better negotiators than others. We paid about the same for a full day tour that we booked with Oro Travel as someone else paid for just the 1/2 day tour.

I have to admit, we found it a little confusing as we were ushered from place to place with a guide who spoke no English. We were told we would have an English guide on the boat and as it turned out, the whole tour was in Spanish. We were grateful that someone was on the boat who was bi-lingual and she translated everything for us.

As you watch the video slide show below of our tour, keep in mind that every time you see what appears to be black specks on the top of rocks, it is actually hundreds of birds, side by side.

After the boat tour, we had about 20 minutes to walk around before getting on another bus that would take us to the Paracas National Reserve. We were in a tourist area with many souvenir shops and restaurants and we enjoyed the short time we had to explore the area.

Since we wanted to tour a few cities in Peru as we made our way back to Chile, we decided to travel by bus. Once again we chose seats on the first level for more comfort.

The Cruz del Sur Bus company had more security than anything we experienced in Chile. Before boarding the bus, all people and bags were scanned with paddles. Once we were on the bus, someone came on board and took a video of all the passengers. Wearing seat belts was mandatory. We were told it was the law in Peru.

We had a very pleasant 5 hour ride to Ica with an English speaking stewardess, air conditioning and movies. We were pleasantly surprised to be served a sandwich, apple and drink. During all our bus trips in Chile we were served cake and cookies with juice or soda, regardless of the length of the trip.

There wasn't much to see along the way and it was challenging to take photos because we had seats at the back of the bus and only had 1/2 a window to look through.

Hotel Ollanta

Before leaving Lima, we had booked a place to stay in Ica at Hotel Ollanta. This place had good reviews on Trip Advisor and the cost per night was reasonable.

We found out that Ica had an earthquake the week before we arrived causing some water problems. It turned out that the electricity was also inconsistent. Luis, the hotel manager, did his best to make our stay comfortable and even gave us our own wireless router so we could have good Internet reception. The fact that he spoke English was a bonus.

Our room was very nice and in addition to a queen size bed, it also had a sitting area.

The hotel had a terrace on the roof where we got some photos of the city.

Downtown Ica

After getting settled in our room we went for a walk to the downtown area. We couldn't believe how many three-wheeled, motor taxis there were and the sound of beeping horns was non-stop.

Ica, like Lima, had very aggressive drivers. Pedestrians do not have the right of way. There are many round-a-bouts making it very difficult to cross some streets and if you are not careful, you will get run over.

After taking a photo of the town square and cathedral we headed back to the hotel. We found the loud horns too disturbing. We've been spoiled with peaceful surroundings for so long that the noise felt like an assault to our senses.

During our walk home we saw a dog standing on the ledge of a building and we also came across a very tall cactus plant.

Since we only had a few days in Lima, we decided the best way to see the city would be to take a bus tour. We picked up a pamphlet at a Tourist Information Booth for tours with a company called, Mirabus.

The place to catch the bus was conveniently located right in front of the cathedral and within walking distance from Linda's place.

The architecture of many historical buildings was beautiful. We also found many  buildings to be quite colorful.

Other Interesting Photos

While walking around Miraflores we took a few other interesting photos like this one with a police officer on a type of motorized scooter (I forget what it's called.) and a man in a wheelchair passing one another.

I found this caged, basketball/soccer court on the roof of a church interesting. We could see this from Linda's living room window.

We had a wonderful time in Lima and appreciated the warm hospitality we received from Linda.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Randie and I decided to fly to Lima rather than take another very long bus ride. The best rate we could find was with Peruvian Airlines. We were surprised to get a better deal from a local Travel Agency than at the Peruvian Airlines direct office.

Our new friend Sandra from the Tour Bus company in Tacna,  goes to school in Lima and she arranged to have her regular taxi driver pick us up at the airport to drive us to our friend Linda's place. She called him in advance and he was waiting for us at the airport with a large sign with our names on it.

Our friend Linda and her partner Nisso, live in one of the best areas of Lima called Miraflores. They live walking distance to the ocean. Unfortunately, Nisso was out of the country so we didn't get to see him. Linda, Randie and I went for a couple of beautiful walks during the weekend to get some exercise and to see the beautiful views.

We just happened to be in Miraflores during Pisco Weekend where we had the opportunity to taste a variety of Pisco for free at the waterfront shopping district. We loved the chocolate Pisco the best!

Miraflores

Betty's Amazing Meals

Since Linda and her partner work several hours a day and found themselves eating out regularly at restaurants, they decided to hire a full time cook and cleaning person. We had the pleasure of meeting Betty and eating many of her delicious meals. It was better than or equivalent to what you would get in a very good restaurant.

Not only did the food taste great, but her presentation of food made it almost too beautiful to eat. We felt like we were eating in a 5 star restaurant.

A Sample Of Some Of Betty's Dishes

We also had the pleasure of meeting one of Linda's business associates and friend, Ricardo who also joined us for some meals.

Ice Coffee

If you've been following along with this blog since we arrived in Chile last November, you will know that Chile is not known for their coffee. In fact, the most popular coffee is instant Nescafe, even in upper scale restaurants.

Well…Peru is different. I had great tasting coffee at Linda's place and Randie and I even found a nice café where we indulged in an Ice Mocha Latte and Ice Cappuccino.

In addition to everything we saw during our two hour bus tour, we also saw some other interesting things while walking around the city of Tacna. One thing that really impressed us was the live gazebos we saw at various places along the pedestrian streets.

It was amazing to see how the trunks of trees were used as posts and the branches and leaves created the roof.

We wondered how they got the trees to grow in such a way that the branches and leaves became intertwined to create the roof.

We loved walking along the pedestrian streets. It was wonderful to be surrounded by such beautiful palm trees.

There is a huge archway in the center of town. This was a great landmark for us to find our way home since it was very close to Virrey Hostal where we were staying.

Like most cities and towns in Central and South America, Tacna has a large cathedral.

Inside are several stained glass windows. We found it interesting to see one of the stained glass windows with an image of the triangle and the eye that is also found on paper U.S. bills.

Miscellaneous Photos

This baby was just too cute not to capture in a photo. The baby's mother was selling things on a street cart close by.

This newspaper stand was too unique to miss.

Randie couldn't resist taking a photo of this car… obviously in need of repair.

A Visit To The Dentist

Thanks to Sandra, our English Speaking Tour Guide from BUSTOUR, I was able to get a dental appointment with Leandra who has a dental clinic in town called Ceprod. Sandra called Leandra during our morning tour and was able to schedule an appointment for me later in the afternoon. We were leaving the next day to fly to Lima and I was very grateful that she could see me with such short notice.

I was having problems with a tooth for about a year and had three different dentists look at it and file it down only to end up still feeling pain when I chewed anything hard on the left side of my mouth. Leandra took x-rays, also did some filing and to make sure I didn't feel pain, she asked her husband (also a dentist) to go and get some hard food for me to bite down on so she could test it out. My tooth felt better when biting down, but I still felt some sensitivity.

Leandra told me I had an infection causing some inflammation and she prescribed some medication. I'm not too keen on taking drugs unless absolutely necessary so I chose to hold off on filling the prescription. I chose to use my Zero Point Energy Wand to heal the area instead. Leandra asked me to please email her to let her know if what she did worked for me. I was happy to report back letting her know that all is well (without taking any meds) and I can now enjoy eating pain free. Thank you Leandra.

By the way, Randie and I also had our teeth cleaned and the total cost for all the combined work was about $20.00 U.S. She didn't want to charge for fixing my tooth because she didn't know if it would result in the permanent elimination of pain. We insisted on paying her more.

Great Restaurant

In addition to recommending a great dentist, Sandra also recommended a higher end restaurant called Uros. Randie wanted to eat Alpaca since he never tasted this before and Sandra said Uros was a great place to order this meal. I, on the other hand, was happy to simply taste the Alpaca and chose to order a fish meal.

Both meals were absolutely delicious and were served on a hot stone slab keeping the food hot for the duration of the meal.

One thing we found amusing at this restaurant is that they used paper bibs. It seemed a little out of place for such a fancy place, however we played along and wore them.

During our walk home we passed a casino and a portable Pisco Bar that was set up in the middle of a street. No, we didn't go into the casino, nor did we order a Pisco Sour…maybe next time.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Tacna and highly recommend you visit this city if you are anywhere close to the area or if you are traveling between Chile and Peru.

Since we planned on staying in Tacna for just a couple days, we decided the best way to see the city would be to go on the city bus tour. We learned about this tour when we visited the Tourist Information Office the day we arrived. The company providing the tours is called BUSTOUR and they offer two daily tours lasting about 4 hours each. One leaves at 9:00 a.m. and the other at 2:00 p.m. We chose the morning tour.

Since the brochure included a map indicating where the tour started, we just showed up the morning we wanted to take the tour and had no problem buying our ticket just before boarding the bus. We asked if the tour would include an English guide and we were told it would only be in Spanish. We chose to take the tour anyway since we still wanted to see the various sights.

As it turned out, the bus stopped shortly after beginning the tour and an English Speaking guide, Sandra joined us. We were pleasantly surprised when she told us she usually only worked during the afternoon tour, however when she received a call asking if she would accompany us, she accepted. We ended up having our own personal guide throughout the tour since we were the only English Speaking tourists on board.

Not only did Sandra translate everything throughout the tour, she gave us the name and phone number of her English speaking dentist and also made recommendations for great restaurants in town.

In addition to touring the city, our tour also included a a few stops including a wine and pisco tasting tour, entrance to a museum with Petroglyphs, a short hike near the museum to see 1500 year old Petroglyphs in their original location, a stop at a hot springs resort (unfortunately not enough time to experience this)  and a stop for a home made treat made from corn. It was delicious!

Take The Tour Along With Us

I've included a few captions in the video slide show below to point out various sights. You will see the beauty of this city from the architecture to the flower gardens and Palm tree lined streets along with the mountainous countryside. Enjoy!

As a North American tourist, you can only stay in Chile for a maximum of 90 days before you have to leave the country. (It might be different if you are a citizen of another country.) Some people live in Chile without applying for residency and like any tourist who wants to stay longer than 90 days, they also have to leave the country to renew their visa. This is often referred to as a "Visa Run." You can cross any border and turn around and come straight back into Chile for another 90 days.

Since we had a deadline for when we had to be out of Chile, we decided to go directly to Peru for our "visa run" and after spending some time traveling throughout Peru, we planned to take our time stopping at various places in Chile as we made our way back to Vicuña. Without a time constraint, we could stay as long as we wanted in any given place. We were grateful that our landlord and friend, Pierric allowed us to store most of our belongings at his home so we could travel lighter with just a backpack each. 

We first took a bus from Vicuña to La Serena where we got on the Fichtur VIP bus heading for Arica, the most northern city in Chile. The bus was scheduled to leave at 2:00 pm but didn't leave until around 2:30 pm. Since the bus ride was going to be about 24 hours, we purchased first class tickets for the first level where there are fewer and larger seats than on the second level. It only cost about $4.00 more for these tickets and it is well worth it. In addition to the larger seats, It is also a lot quieter on the first level and the seats recline further making it easier to sleep. Randie took a picture of me when I was sleeping soundly.

We found the bus to be even more comfortable than we had imagined. Just like being on an airplane, we were given a pillow and blanket and earphones to watch movies. We found out that on the second level the movie was played over loud speakers so you didn't have a choice whether or not you wanted to listen to it.

We were glad we brought some food with us since they only served juice and cookies at one time and juice and cake at another…not too nutritious. The bus did stop a few times where we could have gotten off to buy food, however we were happy with what we brought with us…including our peanut butter and crackers. (The little, plastic ice-cream tasters we saved came in handy.)

Views Along The Way

Although we slept during part of our trip, the views during the daytime were lovely. Here are a few photos we took after leaving La Serena and before going to sleep. Keep in mind that all these photos were taken from a moving bus.

The sunset was especially beautiful.

Waking Up To Desert Views

When we woke up we were no longer traveling by the coast and all we could see was the desert. This went on for miles before we started to see some greenery and change in the landscape. 

Arriving In Arica, Chile

We arrived at the National Bus Terminal in Arica around 1:40 pm the day after we left La Serena. Once we got off the bus, we found out that to get to Peru we had to walk to the International Bus Terminal that was to the right, just a short distance away.

We had two options for traveling to Peru from here. One was to take a bus, and the second was to take a colectivo. In case you missed my explanation about colectivos in a previous post, I will explain again that a colectivo is similar to a taxi, however you share it with others. The colectivo doesn't leave until they have 4 passengers. Although taking the colectivo was slightly more expensive than taking the bus, we decided to take this route since we were told the driver would help take care of the paperwork for crossing the border. We also thought it might take less time than having to wait for a busload of people to be processed.

We ended up waiting in line for about an hour before a colectivo was available. We were happy when the driver took our passports and went into a building and came back with everything stamped showing proof of exiting Chile. Now we were on our way to the Peruvian border, about 22 Km away.

Entering Peru

When we reached the Peruvian Border we had to get out of the colectivo with our luggage and stand in another line for about 35 minutes to go through customs and to get our visa to enter the country.

Once we got through customs our colectivo driver met us on the other side of the customs building and proceeded to drive us to the bus terminal in Tacna, our next destination. Tacna is about 20 minutes from the border.

Upon arriving in Tacna, we took a taxi to Virrey Hostel, a place our friend Pierric told us about. It's not a fancy place, however it was clean and walking distance to downtown.

We were delighted to discover that Tacna was 2 hours behind Chile so we gained a couple hours. After checking into the Hostel we went to the Tourist Information Booth to pick up maps and brochures for Tacna and other cities we thought we might like to visit in Peru. My friend Linda invited us to visit her in Lima and we decided to fly rather than take another very long bus ride. We were surprised to get a better price for the flight from a travel agency rather than booking directly from the airline's office.

After such a long bus ride, we were really looking forward to spending a couple nights in Tacna before flying to Lima.

We heard that toward the end of January and for most of the month of February, the town square in Vicuña often fills up with people as various bands and singers take the stage sharing their talents. These festivities usually take place during the weekends, however, they can also occur during the week if it happens to be a particular Saint's day of honour or a special holiday. The various concerts don't start until around 9:30 or 10:00 at night and often continue until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.

Randie and I are not night owls, however we did go to a couple of these events with our friend Teruca who was visiting her sister next door to us. People of all ages attended these events and we were surprised that not many people danced. We enjoyed some of the entertainment better than others, however we were not interested in hanging out at the town square every weekend.

Even though the place we were renting was about a 15 minute walk from the town square, we could hear the Master of Ceremony speak and announce the various groups as if he was standing right in our bedroom. We could also hear all the bands and singers without leaving home and even our earplugs didn't help when we would have preferred to sleep. We were very happy that our 90 day visa would expire at the beginning of February making it necessary for us to leave the country. We were not going to miss the sleepless nights.

Towards the end of January when Leslie and Barry were staying at the same place as us in Vicuña, they told us about a solar restaurant they went to where everything on the menu was cooked in solar ovens. It sounded interesting and since they wanted to go back, we went together. It was a short distance out of town and we decided to take a taxi there and walk back.

We had to make reservations in advance and also had to choose what we wanted to eat since it would take several hours to cook in the solar ovens. We heard they had the best goat meat around so that's what we ordered. The food was delicious!

Here is a slide show of the restaurant and the views during our walk back to Vicuña.

When Barry and Leslie were staying in Vicuña, they wanted to visit one of the Pisco Distilleries in the Elqui Valley. I didn't feel like taking the trip, however Randie decided to join them. They chose to go to the Los Nichos Distilliery, located about 3 km past Pisco Elqui. You can enjoy a virtual tour below, however, unlike Randie and our friends, you won't get to taste any Pisco.

After the tour they had lunch at a restaurant in Pisco Elqui across from the main square. Randie couldn't remember the name of it, however he remembers how good the food tasted and highly recommends it. If you visit Pisco Elqui perhaps you will recognize the restaurant from the photo he took of it.