Not all days on the road will be wonderful adventures. Our travel day from Titilaka to Arequipa was not a journey I'll remember fondly. Mostly because I was robbed of what should have been a pleasant evening exploring Arequipa followed by a nice meal in one of its many cool city center restaurants. In retrospect, the best case scenario would have been a long day. It's 1 hour from Titilaka to the Puno bus terminal. Then the bus is supposed to take maybe 6 - 7 hours, including one official stop in Juliaca. So 7-8 hours on the road. Full day. But some poor decision making and execution on the part of the Transzela bus company meant that a long day would become an extra long, disappointing day.
My moorning started fine, with a simple breakfast at Titilaka. I think I had some eggs along with this. But honestly their bread was hearty and delicious with some butter. Would have been okay with just that.
First part of the journey was smooth enough and we got to the Puno bus terminal without issue.
Some oddly disorienting lighting inside the bus terminal.
While it's not a place you want to spend extra time in, it's a good idea to arrive a bit early, allowing some time to figure out where your bus is. Each bus company seemed to be selling last minute seats. So a good amount of yelling going on, with each company's promoter calling out their route. The effect can be a little chaotic.
We still had some extra time, so I did a 1/2 lap around the perimeter. Not much to see. But I did grab a bag of popcorn.
Our bus looked nice enough. The
Transzela VIP Inca Suite.
I don't recall any of those claimed amenities. No movies, no music, no snack. Seats were comfortable, I'll give them that. And those comfy seats would be a saving grace. The wedge shaped leg rest thing in particular was pleasant.
We were supposed to leave at 10am. Was closer to 10:30 by the time we actually departed. Unclear why. Maybe trying to sell some last minute seats. Maybe we were waiting for someone. No info was shared as far as I could tell.
Scenery departing Puno was not beautiful.
About 90 minutes in we made the one official stop the bus was supposed to make, in Juliaca. More grim scenery.
Not sure why, but the bus also made a handful of unofficial stops, picking people up along the side of the road. Probably 2 or 3 of these stops, including the woman who would be my neighbor for the rest of the ride. Her decision to kick off her boots did not improve the air quality inside the bus.
Standard life on a bus type of deal so far, right? Wrong. The late start and the unofficial stops that the bus company thought they could get away with to maximize their revenue delayed us just enough so that we did not reach the stretch of Via Interoceánica Sur in time to clear the scheduled road work. When the bus rolled to a random stop on the highway I wasn't sure what was going on. In time I learned that there is regularly scheduled work happening that closes this stretch from 2 - 5:30pm. Every day. Not a secret. I think we arrived at like 2:15 or so. Know what that means? It means you're stuck for 3.5 hours on the highway.
No cel service, either. And no movies, music, or snacks. At least not anything provided by the bus company. There were some enterprising locals walking up and down the traffic line selling some things. We picked up an ice cream, I think.
This was not a good situation. We had the relative good fortune of being on the lower level. I heard some of the upper level folks complaining about the heat making things very uncomfortable for them. The biggest discomfort I dealt with was the nonstop jibber jabber from a couple of my neighbor ladies. They were yapping like they were getting paid by the syllable. Jeezus.
By the time we rolled into the Arequpia bus station it was nearly 9pm.
We rallied somewhat, walking within a tight radius of the hotel to find some generally disappointing food.
But in our limited walkabout we saw enough to realize what we missed. Downtown Arequipa had cool vibes. If we had gotten in around 5pm like we were supposed to we could have enjoyed a nice evening of leisure. Disappointing.
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