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Gianni Truvianni's Bus Trip From Tacna, Chile to Lima, Peru

It happened in late September of 92, while I was in Buenos Aires that I decided to return to Lima, Peru, from where I knew he would return to the United States, but only after capturing the Peruvian life had not really to see.

The party making reference to slum it in Spanish or at least in Peru is known as "young people" which if translated literally into the English language would be "young people". This expression, which to some extent, is nicer then coined in English, which means more or less extreme poverty. While the other in Spanish or in Peru (I'm not aware of the time or not this expression is used in all Spanish-speaking countries) suggests that the city is "young" and under that is still in early development stages; justify the lack of certain facilities as running water or electricity. Of course, from a technical standpoint, we could say that every major city at a time was a solution which finally turned perhaps in a metropolis.

By then it had been in South America, a little over a year and decided after visiting places such as Curacao (an island off the Dutch coast of Venezuela), Chile and Argentina, it was time to return to the States, but instead of taking a direct flight between Buenos Aires and New York, I would take the bus from Buenos Aires to Lima. From Lima, I would catch a flight to Miami and spend the rest of the way by bus, he's short of money over time. However, this only after spending some time in Lima, getting all the shots that had not in my first months there, this time in my life when I was heavily involved in photography.

This was in early October came in Peru, not really in bus, but in a shared taxi (with five others), in strange or maybe not so no bus (or at least not at the time), which actually goes from Santiago to Lima, but it is limited to take passengers across the border, which means of Arica in Chile (which at one point in history was a part of Peru) to Tacna in Peru. The latter city is one that actually changed hands twice: first to be Peruvian and Chilean then back to Peru again. All this occurs after the war in Peru and Bolivia lost to Chile, both countries have lost much of their land. Bolivia has taken more debatable, since they were forced to renounce his connection with the Pacific Ocean.

Once in Tacna, I hooked up with a blond man from Argentina who was on his way back to Venezuela. East, the place he and his Venezuelan wife had come to call home because it was where he found a job in the oil industry profit ever of that country. Tacna, as many know is a city in an Order of Peru, which also carries the same name, which really has little to offer anyone, especially however a tourist, this city welcomes visitors in a given batch is being what is commonly known as "Free Port". This being a place where the goods are sold cheaply because it never actually entered the country, ie import taxes are not added to their price.

This This factor causing that lends itself to many Peruvians, an entire day traveling by bus to an otherwise small town, dirty in the middle of the desert, because we have to fill up of goods to take back and, above all, to sell in Lima, needless to say, at a higher price. Of course there are those who travel by plane from Lima to Tacna, as he had done in my way, but these would tour this place is not really draw all that many unless they wish to take a connecting flight to Bolivia and Chile and Argentina. There are even making the trip by car, but few have actually found it cheaper for Peruvians seeking to do business in Tacna to travel by bus to then by car, usually from Lima.

In all that relates to travel between Tacna and Lima, or vice versa, you can rule out the option the train because it simply does not exist, not only between these two cities, but none in Peru, Lima and Cuzco save. Although I imagine that the train would not have been more convenient or faster, even if one had occurred.

Once in Tacna and sitting side by side on the bus to Lima, my new acquired Argentina's traveling companion and I could see clearly what this trip he was taking for the first time, although it would not be all about. I had flown from Lima to Tacna, when the time was what I had less money, the more you saved from the experience. Naturally, there would have been the same. This is because when people went from Lima Tacna which was not long in the way of baggage with them but was reversed. It was the Tacna and Lima were the bus trips were filled to capacity as traveling all these "traders", he brought all his property, which literally filled the bus up to the point that you could not take two steps in the hallway without having to go around or over someone's luggage.

That being the case, because the bus companies do not set limits on the amount it really could be transported in these buses which resulted in the roofs of buses that are stacked nearly two meters high, while transmission of the compartments also jammed pack and overheads. There were some who even traveled all the way up, as they preferred to volunteer their seats so that stereo Pioneer could travel in comfort. Fortunately, all this I was safe from having to travel with any livestock, as Tacna does not really offer any.

Naturally, as always, the bus companies in Peru, always in a bid to be considered for its passengers tried to install as many seats on the bus as possible that was terribly descendants of them in the desire to have as many as possible even if it means removing the toilet, so this could be achieved. Yes, the bathroom was sacrificed for these types of buses, which normally have, so two passengers could pay more than 24 hours travel. By all considerations, even in Peru, it would be difficult to find anyone willing to pay for a seat on the toilet.

However, once the bus set off, my traveling companion of Argentina by the name of George (can not remember the name) and I sat and even comfortable, well more or less and began to speak of the many curious aspects of our trip. One is that the roads in Peru, were simply nothing even comparable to any of Chile or Argentina, which at least these two countries paved. The road traveled, which could not be called a "highway" by any stretch of the imagination was a dry dirt road, which made especially for us dust on the bus when they were hit by a vehicle moving faster, it was not so difficult, Given the limited speed our bus had to travel because of all that had been packed on top.

During our trip, Jorge and I talked of our lives, tell me about my career as a photographer while she told me about her life in Venezuela, although our subjects include history, as Eva Perón. It was in this point he told me that my understanding of this issue was that of the typical American, who asked what his response was that my view was like all Americans who believe in a simplified version of Eva Perón. She and her husband, led to a government that was perhaps generous to the poor, but very corrupt, which I asked if that was not the case, knowing that all was not so simple.

Our bus trip however, was interrupted at the boundary between the province of Tacna, and the rest of Peru. This is because, although Tacna Peru is a part of this is due to its status as a "free port" as another country, where one is in fact necessary not only to show a passport, but you go through customs and pay duty even as he bought in Tacna. However, this is a process not is required unless you go when you enter the rest of Peru Tacna.

As you might suspect with all those people on the bus complete with the goods, customs is an issue that would be a lot of time, especially other buses, as there were several ahead of us in line to cross the border. However, many buses, more often then not have a collection among its passengers to pass customs officials which in turn would not seem too care or at all for that matter and even leave the buses that pass through pay without having to wait in line. All of which makes the life easier, but with fortune my companion Travel and mine at the time only went to board a passenger bus, which besides being loaded with goods were not really willing to give money to bribe the customs officer. All that meant, Jorge and I, we had nothing apart from clothing and personal belongings have to wait maybe ten hours or more in the border before it passes, simply because we were on a bus apparently carrying contraband, with people going to pay what would have amounted frugal $ 10 per piece for the bus to go through maybe five or would have done. As a matter of fact, George and I even offered to make five dollars each to the collection that would have gone to the customs officer, only to discover that we and another woman were the only ones willing to sacrifice money to save time.

This was when faced with the options of having to spend ten hours at the office or put a lot more than five dollars to pay to a customs officer to ignore contraband need not even George and I the only sensible thing we can do, it would take another bus to Lima. We did so first by off the bus with luggage, help me to carry his George, as there were more than I did and walk across the border, which only includes customs, and not control passports.

Once across the border, after having demonstrated the customs officer that we had nothing then other personal items, since none of us had made any purchases in Tacna, got on a bus that had also gone unpaid. Naturally, we had to pay the price of two tickets to Tacna and Lima, as in Peru, a bus is not required to carry passengers to another bus, even if the same company or with the same fate simply because they could not or would not wait to get through customs. Jorge and I, however, does not mind paying, because it actually was not much and all what we have been able to get going faster.

Once inside what is now our second bus, we continued chatting and our theme after speaking of Eva Perón, whom he labels as demigod (much to protest George in the opposite direction), addressed the recent arrest of "Abimael Guzmán ". This is the man, considered the leader of the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), which many in Peru would be tried by a military tribunal (although he had never been a member of the armed forces) for all things of betrayal. This is a position that in most countries (including Peru) is usually reserved for those in the military beyond a certain range or security clearances, none of which applies to Guzman. There were those in Peru they were even calling for his death, though Peru had no death penalty at the time, and should not even President Fujimori (currently serving a imprisonment in Peru) imposed on the Constitution that year.

Shining Path, a group that since its inception in 1980 was responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 people and a car bomb in the same year killed 27 people in Lima district of Miraflores. I must confess I did not know much about what was happening in connection with the arrest of Guzman, other then what I had heard on television in Buenos Aires, which was that she had finally been captured. This after many years of eluding police in a house in Lima in the district of "Groove", which was hidden by a couple, running a dance school in the same house. Even recalled hearing that the lady of the house, which was a devout follower of Guzman, was also the niece of the famous writer Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, who had run and lost in a runoff election against Fujimore, (President of Peru at the time) in the presidential election 1990 in Peru. This actually having won the first round.

With the journey is long, George and I got to sleep, but not before chatting some girls from the Peruvian town, whom even took pictures of some of which include myself in the capture of Jorge I took with my Minolta confidence. The indigenous girls in Peru, I have to say that it was unattractive or at least those of us on the bus. This is perhaps the reason that despite all their dedication to the U.S., the actor Marion Morrison (aka John Wayne) married with two Peruvian women, while Poland's presidential candidate "Tyminski" took one of his own for his first wife, although now married to a woman from China. It was through our conversations with these women in Peru that we learn more about our host country, in return I gave them some photographs in me, taking in places like Rome, Paris and London.

As for buses, which was much dirtier then the one in Chile and was slower, but carry out its function if I had afraid I'd have to go to the bathroom, which I did not drink or eat much, so it should be for obvious reasons. For my part, not long in falling asleep, since he had been traveling from Buenos Aires and thought I could get some sleep, because it probably would have no problems though mild one one came up. After traveling on the bus, so it must have been two or three hours, we went through passport control police, which was intended only non-Peruvians and from George and I were the only ones, was that we were to get off the bus and show our passports.

Someone actually shouted something which I found quite amusing, while George and I were on our way to the bus (to return, of course) when it was translated into English "all of Arequipa, lower. This reference to the joke about how he came to the Peruvian province of Arequipa, the Peruvian not be real, given its position independent of Government, in Lima, which reaches the end of which has its own passport, which in Arequipa are used to obtain discounts at certain hotels and restaurants. As a matter staff, the husband of my sister when she was going to divorce came from this part of Peru.

Night time later, he fell on what had been this day and trip, and the bus made a stop near a restaurant in Arequipa, which saw everyone off the bus, especially to get something for eat or go to the bathroom. Of course, the reality is that we really had no choice but to leave the bus while being fed, because like everyone else (but George and I) had very expensive products, so they had to leave the bus. It created a situation that had not trusted anyone in the bus with goods so much value, especially while most were a form of their seats and smuggling goods.

Jorge and I got off the bus, taking care that we have not really had and I must confess that unlike most of what he had seen on that road, this restaurant in Arequipa, even humble gave an appearance of being clean, or at least enough that I ordered something to eat, not even come wrapped in plastic. A large chicken and rice meal, was what I had, despite my be a vegetarian in those days, while George was the same and I would add that the food in its simplicity, it was not bad.

The rupture I've finished is also used to go to the bathroom, after which we got in our way and I thought wrongly, of coarse he would sleep all night and we should really Lima early to take a much needed shower. This was what I thought, but like most plans, it was slightly off as the bus, actually. It happened either in the night when the bus driver, who had no one to relieve him, finally falling asleep at the wheel, while going very fast, especially for the type of road we were on.

The bus, which left the road though fortunately not one of the cliffs high, (some over 20 meters) but only the road and into a kind of sand trap, we require all passengers to get off the bus, while men were to push the bus. We had taken a bullet, you could say definitely that things could have been worse, because the bus might have fallen from a great height or received but fortunately no injuries. Most on the bus even took what had happened to calm, as it was not uncommon.

For my part, however, difficult to go back to sleep, spending much of the night awake in fear of the same recurring, but did not. The night however, was a beautiful, after all, traveling under a cloudless sky, desert, showing the wonder that is the Southern Cross, which could not but admire my insomnia.

Morning finally arrived to find our bus still on the road and make their way to Peru's capital more than six million people, yet had not slept well after what had happened, but I feel all that sleep in spite of it. George and I continued our chat until finally arrived to Lima, where we exchanged addresses and said our goodbyes after what had been a memorable trip for many reasons. One of them is Jorge pleasant personality and interesting comments on the many issues of mutual interest came up. Jorge and I, however, never meet again and are unlikely ever though recent years led to his personality and looks and put them in the Polish-language fiction driver's cab of Argentina, which appears in my first "Opera Society of New York. "

About the Author

My name is Gianni Truvianni, I am an author who writes with the simple aim of sharing his ideas, thoughts and so much more of what I am with those who are interested in perhaps reading something new. I also am the author of the book entitled “New York’s Opera Society” which is now available on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Yorks-Opera-Society-Gianni-Truvianni/dp/0595500161/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226938874&sr=8-2

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