we have been driving for 2h and 45 minutes when the bus stops. some minutes go by and we are announced that we need to pay money so that the rocks are not thrown to our bus. what?!! some people tell that their friends/people they have met on the trip were telling them about the rocks being thrown at the bus.. not very nice. and those stones are not small.. they are sometimes as big as basketball. we are about 10km from Arequipa city border. the rebellers offer us apparently another option - w can continue on foot. 10km to the city border + 8km to the center of the city.. about. after another 5 minutes or so the bus starts moving... luckily.. and no stones being thrown at us... i guess they talked our way through.
we drive another couple of km and the bus stops again. it is already dark outside so we can´t see what is going on. i guess some road block again? after some minutes the bus starts going again.. puuh... couple of km closer again... and then we stop again. now we are ordered out of the bus.. the bus can´t get through.. there are barricades so we need to continue on foot... our bus has 50 tourists and 4 local tour guides.. now it is getting interesting. there are other tourist/back backer buses.
we get all our stuff and go outside. you hear people trying to organise themselves: "we can´t keep 50 people together.. form 4 groups!" ... i try to stay close to the people in our bus. it is pitch dark.. everybody turns on their flashlights. we walk. apparently the day before roads were blocked on Machu Picchu trapping some 1500 tourists (my calculations) into the ruins there. after some 5 minutes of walking we see the roadblock.. lots of rocks.. we are wondering if we can get over it even on foot... one of the tour guides advises us to get close together and keep quiet.. it is safer this way... we are able to get across the rocks.
then up front we see the real block. in the distance (maybe 90-100m ahead) there is fire all across the road... big fire.. and people and rocks. we all stop.. gather ourselves. guides are contemplating... there is a railroad running parallel to the road.. about 25-30 meters away separated by gutter and a field.. after some time they advise us to turn off all the lights.. not to take pictures (yeah you know the tourists: "grooouuup picture with the fires on the background!!!") and stay very silent. we descend some 10 meters to the railroad and march on in dead silence... hoping that we can get past the block... we walk and walk.. and there are no problems.. we get buy and they only whistle.. nobody comes to get us... so we continue on the side streets for a while and then get back to the main road.
we keep walking. we have crossed the city border... as far as we know we have about 8-10km to the city center. there are no cars.. no nothing moving.. no horses either (just for you Marko ;) )... occasional bikers zoom by though.. and then hoards of people walking.. some going away from town and mostly back backers/tourists going into the town. it is dark.. in the distance we see a plane take off from the airport.. the dialogue in our group is the following:
- oh.. see.. the planes are still going
- naaah, that is the last plane off Peru... "evacuation complete!"
:D :D yeah.. it is pretty exciting.. nobody is really too worried.. nobody is attacking us or anything... there are all kinds of jokes going around like "ooh.. look at the pretty stars.. seems like a good day to die" .. of course this was a joke.. the stars were very pretty though... it is kinda fun :)
occasionally there are more roadblocks. locals gathered around fire in groups.. others burning tires.. we get cheered on as we pass through... they are all happy and smiling.. loots of rocks.. big rocks on the road everywhere... we also see one dead dog between the rocks :( ... there are pieces of houses (as we figure) on the road... sometimes we have to cross the stones with care.. no buses or cars could get through this. then there are the kids doing their own little riot with empty plastic bottles filled with stones to make more noise... seems like all the locals are on the streets... the dogs are going nuts.. barking at us like no other... we keep walking... and walking.. we go at a good pace... there are more people walking in the distance in front of us as well as behind us... tourists :) .. people take pictures and many have acquired some alcohol.. everybody is cheerful.
we walk at a good pace for 2 hours.. one of the tour guides has made some phone calls.. we have gotten closer to the city center.. but we still have about 2,5 hours to walk! the roads are clearer now.. we see police pushing the rocks off the roads... we start to see some cars. so our tour guide tells us that we should stop and wait.. a bus is coming. he has gotten a 25 passenger bus to come and get us :) .. others from the bus are behind us somewhere.. there is just about 20-23 of us in that group.. the bus takes us to the main square... in city center life goes on as normal as it seems.
once at the city center i get off the bus and go to the internet cafe across the street to report to you that I´m ok... then i stop by at local fast food place to get a sandwich... i see 2 other people from the bus who were not in the same group who we walked with... so i hear about their experience and how they got to the city center... seems that everybody was safe and fine... i get the food and go check my self into the hotel... i guess no leaving town today as i originally had planned :D
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