After one year in Arequipa, we are on the move again. It’s not that we don’t like Arequipa; we just want to try out beach life for a year. Maybe we’ll like it, maybe we won’t!
In three days, we head north on the Peruvian busline, Cruz del Sur. With entertainment screens on every seat, Internet, USB ports, seats that recline 160 degrees, and food and drink, the trip will not be too tough. Traveling on the buses here rivals the planes. We leave here around 3pm on Tuesday and will arrive the next day sometime near midnight. One bus from here to Lima, another from Lima to Trujillo. The adventure continues. The total cost for us and our six suitcases (the extent of our life’s belongings) will be less than $200. Pretty cheap move!
We signed a lease for our 3-bedroom apartment way back in January when we were visiting the area. Furnished places are difficult to come by in that particular area so we made the decision at that point to reserve a place. Our $600 per month rent will cover everything, including utilities. Electricity, Internet, cable TV. And it is located about three blocks from the beach. Will be very different from being at almost 8,000 feet and in the Andes foothills.
Year-round, day-time temperatures will be a little warmer than here, averaging around 24C. At night, they seem to be around 18C. Seems like a nice temperature range to us. It’s not the tropical beach of Costa Rica and Ecuador. The Peru coast is one big desert with the sand eventually dipping down into the Pacific when it reaches the western edge of the country. Lush vegetation and palm trees are few and far between. But we still thought it was a pretty cool town with a nice vibe.
It is a big surfing area and connected to the rest of the country and the continent by the Pan American Highway. We will be within fairly easy access to the white sandy beaches further north and the lush inland countryside of Northern Peru. And, of course, archaeological sites abound everywhere as in the rest of the country. Twenty minutes away by taxi or “combi” is the city of Trujillo with its population of 800,000 or so.
Of all the foreign tourists that make it to Peru, over 90% go to Machu Pichu. Only about 25% get to Arequipa and less than 3% find their way to the part of the world we are moving to. I thought this was very interesting since there is so much other amazing stuff to see in the country other than Machu Pichu and the Inca Trail.
These are a few pics we took while visiting back in January. Stay tuned for more about this part of the world once we arrive!
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