Two months after two years.

Wow, it’s been a long time ago since my last story. I’ve had some bushy months, although I do have to admit that part of being so occupied was also because I’ve had a very good time J

I had a good group again who knew how to enjoy their traveling. Every-one on their own way J

It also felt very good to be guiding my favorite tour again, for two months travelling with a group of about 18 people with public transport through South America, meeting new and old friends. It was nice to find out that some friends were still friends after I’ve not seen them for over two years. There were even people I only use to work with, but who still remembered my name?! Yes, that felt good, but I do have to admit that I now felt sadder to leave my friends and continue the tour… I felt bad, because I made some of them sad by leaving again. I feel a bit sad because I realize now more that I have a few good friends spread around the world, which I not always will be able to see…

All right, I said that I had a good time and I also told my friends that we should remember our good times and continue having more, so let’s talk about something else. What happened during the last few months:

To start with, I thought the most important thing of this tour would be to refresh my working contacts in South America. However my friends and the tour experiences on the way became more important.

As usual our tour started in Quito and we travelled for almost three weeks through Ecuador. Again this country was for most group members the surprise of the tour. Unfortunately for two of them the surprise wasn’t very pleasant when their wallet got stolen in Tena, while we were trying to enter a local bus.

Besides that we were quite fortunate in many ways. With our group structure, most people got along very well and there already started to form two couples ;-)

The weather was with us and we also didn’t receive many inconveniences from as-clouds of the Tungurahua Volcano. We enjoyed an excursion in an overloaded pick-up truck to a view point on a hill opposite this volcano. We saw a bit of lava coming out of its mouth and took pictures with a flash. On these pictures the volcanic ashes reflected as if it was snowing. A few days later however part of the area around the volcano had to be evacuated, because the amount of ashes in the air became unhealthy…

On the beach in Peru we had a very interesting and emotional night with ‘missing people’, who turned out not to be missing, deep conversations in Spanish, German, English and Dutch with a new friend and too much alcohol. A night not soon to forget ;-)

In Lima there joined two new group members and a tour leader who would use our tour to gain more practice.

From Lima to Ica we encountered our second real problem, a roadblock from angry cotton farmers, who wanted the government to pay them higher prices for their cotton. Right before the blockade there had also been a heavy accident with two trucks involved, so you can imagine that we had to spend a long time waiting in the bus. Luckily we had reserved ourselves a private bus on this route, I had made the right decisions about leaving or not and at what time and luckily the group was very understanding and calm about the situation.

On top of this the agency with which we reserved the bus and a private tour to Islas Ballestas was also very helpful and offered us a great alternative to go next day to Islas Ballestas. All this together made our inconvenient experience into an adventure that was part of the travel experiences in Peru.

In Arica we needed someone who could buy our 20 bus tickets to San Pedro de Atacama before we would arrive, because of the limited amount of seats. However after I paid him for the tickets, it turned out that he had lied about the amount of seats that were available and also that we paid him more that 120 US$ too much! This was the second time that I caught someone in Arica stealing from us. What’s wrong with people in Arica? Luckily we stayed in a friendly and trustful hotel. But partly because of this thief, our bus ride to S.P.A. went slightly less smooth than normal.

In S.P.A. we experienced the down-side of ‘mass tourism’. I knew what time we should start our tour through the Valley of the Death and the Moon Valley in order to have time enough before sunset, but no agency wanted to start at that time. Later it turned out that this was because the bus drivers wanted to do two tours a day, to be able to earn more money. During winter in Chili, the morning tours however are not back in time to give the afternoon tours enough time to do a complete tour without rushing. All right, it was still a good tour and most people will not know the difference.

Unfortunately we couldn’t go to ‘Cactus Island’ on the salt flats, because there was too much water on there. But during the rest of the tour on the Salar, in Uyuni, Potosì and in Sucre, everything went smooth.

Not so good was that I had to ‘force’ my group on Friday the 27^th of May into making a decision about how to go from La Paz to Cusco…

Already for 18 days there were blockades between the border of Bolivia and Puno and recently these blockades had turned violent. There were fights with the police and some governmental buildings were burned down. All of this because the Aymara’s who live in this part of Peru were (are still at the moment of writing) protesting against the environmental damage caused by mining in the area around Puno.

Most rumors said that these blockades would last at least until the national election in Peru on Sunday the 5^th of June. We were scheduled to leave from La Paz to Puno on Wednesday the first of June. What are the odds that we can pass by the blockades in the next 4 days?

There was one other way around, meaning going past Arica and Arequipa, but there were also rumors that the road between Arequipa and Puno soon would be blocked, so it would be a big risk to drive around for two days without certainty to be able to pass. I decided to mention the option, but not to recommend it (later I found out that the roads indeed got blocked…). Instead I wanted my group to fly from La Paz to Cusco on Thursday the 2th of June, but unfortunately there was such a run on the tickets that the reservation made for us was already canceled by the airliner before we could pay. This airline is the only one with economical seats on these route, but only flies on Thursdays and Sundays. For Thursday we couldn’t get more that 7 seats anymore and there was a risk that the same would happen for next Sunday. For this reason we had to decide Friday evening with hardly an alternative if we wanted to fly on Sunday the 5^th. If we would miss this change, the second option was more than twice the price than we could pay now.

We all decided on flying and paying 212US$ for the ticket, money that the group had to pay for themselves without knowing if their insurance would pay anything back or not. Also there was still a change between now and the actual flight that the blockades would disappear…

The consequences of this late flight were that the group would miss Puno and one day in Cusco, which meant that they had to stay 4 nights extra in La Paz. Not the nicest place for a group to stay, but luckily most decided to go for a few days to Copacabana (fresh air ;-) to still be able to see Lake Titicaca. Copacabana is nicer than Puno and according to many the Bolivian side of Titicaca is prettier than the Peruvian side (I think they both have their charm), so in the end the group didn’t miss that much after all.

Maybe on the first, but at least on the second of June the roads from Bolivia to Cusco were indeed open. It was a break in the blockades to give people in the surroundings the change to vote on the 5^th of June. The west of Peru is pro Ollanta Humala (a former military) and against Keiko, the daughter of Ex president/ dictator Alberto Fujimori, so if this part of the country had problems to vote, they could lose important votes for their favorite president…

I was a bit scared that the group wouldn’t be happy to know that officially the road to Cusco was open before they flew out of La Paz, but luckily everyone seemed to understand that at the moment that we had to make the decision we couldn’t know this and still the situation wasn’t very secure either.

Ollanta won the elections with about 51.5% against 48.5% so he would probably have lost if the blockades had continued… There was some fear that if Keiko would win, we could get stuck in Cusco, but with Ollanta winning everything stayed calm. Even the protesters around Puno were so happy that they didn’t continue their blockades on full force after the elections.

On the 7^th of June they started to block the border at Desagradero again and at the moment of writing the problem is still not solved and will not soon be either.

The new president awaits a big challenge, because the protests against the mining are only part of the problem in a country where the indigenous haven’t been taken serious for a long time. They need to improve their communication skills, but they also need to be taken serious, only then they can start talking about solving their problems.

All right, back to our tour. We arrived save in Cusco and while the group went hiking the Inca Trail and/or visiting Machu Picchu, I met up with several friends and colleagues, some meetings planned and others by coincident. Again I surprised myself about the developments that some had made. During the last two months I met several friends and colleagues who had ‘suddenly’ became mother or father (again) some planned, others unexpected. Several follow extending studies, while others started, or are in process of starting, their own business. It almost felt like I was one of the few who hadn’t made much progress during the last two years. More reason to change this.

During my time in Cusco I also finally found an insurance that could work for my travel agency J It was more expensive than I was hoping for, but it seems that I’m out of options and I want/need a good insurance. I filled in all the paperwork and am now waiting for their response. Hopefully at the first of July Fairtavel4u could be insured and ready to sell tours…

Time to leave Cusco and say goodbye to the group. We did this in style, although not very recommendable, with a drunk and tired (a not unusual state for some of the group members during our tour ;-) bus driver who brought us from the hotel to the airport. Although I had slept less than 2 hours myself, I luckily noticed on time that there was something serious wrong with our driver. The changes were that we wouldn’t get new transport on time on an early Saturday morning, so I decided to keep a close eye on him and give it a try.

Considering his condition he drove remarkable well, even after he fell asleep in front of a not existing traffic light?!

In Lima I said goodbye to a nice group of people with whom I had a great tour. It felt good that by far most of them agreed with me on this, unfortunately some not. But if they don’t tell me anything, I can’t feel responsible for them. It is not my job to make people happy or to like me, my job are the logistics and to solve the problems. I made some little mistakes that I learned from, but overall I believe that I made the right decisions on the right moments. A good practice for when I start my own agency.

Last week it was exactly 6 years ago that I started working as a tour leader and last tour made it clear to me again why I like it so much. Other than recently with the volunteer work I can be myself, meet many people and have to try to find solutions for unexpected problems. I get directly rewarded for the good solutions and ‘punished’ for the bad ones. With my own tour agency and especially when I can guide most of my own tours, this responsibility will be amplified, which is a bit scary, but also a great new challenge…

Overall this tour was a great investment in friendship and good contacts, but now I really have to do more work on the boring part of starting up my travel agency. Without complaining, because I`ve met some brave and very hard working people in the last two months.

In my search for a quiet and economic place where I can work for hours on my laptop, I’m back in Vilcabamba, in Hostal Izhcayluma to be precise.  Here they generously offered me a cheap stay and part time job behind their bar J

Ahora es tiempo para comenzar nuevas experiencias ;-)

Saludos desde Vilcabamba!

Martijn