Chile border run

Finished my first month of teaching and have really enjoyed it; ok, I tell a lie, I'd love to smash my alarm to pieces when it wakens me up daily at 5.30am, but after my first class is over and the sun is out, getting up so early isn't that bad.  Finished my monthly exams with my classes - the pass mark is 70% - quite a few passed, some failed, some even turned up on exam day for the very first time of seeing them. I was like, 'eh, Hi, I've been your teacher for the last month, who are you?'  Normally I get a reply of, 'Teacher, teacher, I work lots; was very busy' - the usual aul banter and they are the ones who seem to fail. 

They have been so sweet and some of them are good friends now. Sometimes they will ask if I can teach them next month...I like to joke with them and tell them that I'm teaching other classes or else I'm going home and never coming back...they reply, 'Teacheeeeeeeeeer, not funny', which is met by me in stitches at them. They like a bit of banter which is good and it's really nice to be wanted and have lovely comments written by them in Spanish about you in these dreaded 'encuestas'. They'll change their tune next month, when they get bored of me. 

So exams finished and it was time for me to update my visa as it was running out. Myself and a few other friends/colleagues decided to go to Chile and spend 4 or 5 days chillin at the beach, at sea level, with nice sunshine and relaxing a world away from work and Cusco. We set off on the bus (yes, another 20 hours plus of travel and changing buses) from Cusco and headed for the border town of Tacna, which is still in Peru. Got the local buses again; the one I swore I'd never get after my trip up to the north desert area, where I had my nightmare bus travel to the HelpX in the house occupied by all the soldiers. But now, I'm living like a local and earning like a local...so it's time to do as they do. The bus was alright, boiling hot as usual and stopped everywhere to let people on and off. One man was selling a book of juices that cured all types of illnesses - Jaysus, he never shut up. Well, anyway, I managed to sleep loads - I think I woke up about twice, only to see who was getting on and off and fell asleep again, much to the annoyance of Claudia, who had bought prescription drugs to help aid her sleep, which didn't happen!

We got to the Peruvian border town of Tacna and had to get a 'collectivo taxi' across the border. Now, I was never going to do this to go to Ecuador, but now, living here longer, these things/border crossings don't scare you anymore. We jumped into the 'collectivo' and had our passports taken off us; things were fine and dandy and of course, I fell asleep again no sooner had I got into the car. Got to the border crossing and the sexy border police officer asked for my passport. He then spoke to me in Spanish and asked where I was from/the usual and then kept looking at me and then my passport photo and stated, 'New Look?' I wasn't sure whether to take it as a compliment or insult - probably an insult as I'm sure I looked like crap. Oh and I got another dreaded 'hair cut' from Cusco again. Yeah, I know, thought I'd learned my lesson from the last time; but this one was a 'cert' so I was told. They must train these hairdressers to cut hair dry, by lifting them in clumps and cutting with a razor blade. Even though my hair is a bit of a mess, it is nowhere near as bad as the last time, and I prevented her from going anywhere near my fringe (a wee bit of improvement in Spanish helped that maybe).

 Arrived in Arica, the border town of Chile, had a couple of drinks and found a hostel thanks to a guy who was sitting inside this bar/cafe on his own. Myself and Claudia had a bet; she thought he was German and I thought he was Israeli...whoever won, got a drink. Went over and chatted to him and he turned out to be Israeli...I never did tell Claudia I knew I was right, cos he was reading his Lonely Planet back to front; but a bet is a bet. Anyway, he gave us the name of a few hostels and we went with the closest one.

Went out that night to some of the local places. Arica reminded us of a bit of a red neck town; lots of strange individuals roaming the street, a few men pissed as farts, talking complete jibberish. Money was now different - it changed from Peruvian Soles to Chilean Pesos - we were being handed plastic notes with denominations of 10000's etc. Very confusing trying to work out what the hell One Sol was worth - you always feel richer than normal.  Some people in the bars were nice enough; usually those serving the drinks, giving you huge measures - we realised why at the end; they helpfully 'included' the tip at the end if you wanted it or not. I didn't find the Chileans here as friendly as in other South American countries. 

Anyway, we went back to our hostel, and slept the night. My ears were killing me and making me really sleepy and dopey (nothing new there) and we wanted a good night's sleep to get up for the beach in the morning. The next day we got ready for the beach and I made a detour to the local pharmacy for some drugs/drops for my ears. Walked about 15 minutes to a nice beach in Arica. The weather was about 20 degrees C with a bit of wind. We both put on our sunblock (Factor 15 as a friend who was going back to England left me hers and I had ran out of my Factor 50) and of course, I fell asleep again. Woke up, seemed fine, walked home and passed out on the bed; ear was making me tired again or so I thought. 

Well, 4 hours later, we woke up. I was the colour of a raw lobster on my torso and back - my bikini was etched into my skin, with the pink/raw colour of my flesh being the rest. My arms, face and legs were fine, just my body. Claudia had a few stripes on her legs and feet. I could swear that fecker who went to England and left me her 'leftovers' put water into the so called sunblock or whatever. Well, that was me destroyed for the rest of my time in Chile. I spent the last couple of days in bed looking at the paint failing off the ceiling as I couldn't move due to the radioactive effect of the sun on my skin along with my ears being deafened with the ear drops that I'd put in. Our two other friends arrived the next night in Arica to meet up with us and go out to the bars/beaches.

Never before was I glad to get a bus back to Cusco. Except this bus left at 7pm the next night, so we had to hang around the border town for another 7 hours after check out. What made it worse was that Chilean time was 2 hours in front of Peruvian time, so technically, that was another 9 hours then. And to make matters worse, we decided to kill some time by getting something to eat/check out the internet cafes etc. except that when we arrived back in Tacna in Peru, the electricity seemed to be turned off for at least two hours.

Made it back to Cusco in a nice enough bus, except toilet standards here are something to get used to. The smell of wee hitting your nose as you try to go into the toilet, with no toilet roll, soap..oh and even the likelihood of piss being soaked up by your laces or jeans if they so happen to touch the floor. I seriously sometimes wonder why these people aren't sick all the time; but I suppose they are used to germs/everyone else's bodily fluids everywhere, being shared around - nice and caring!  

Arrived in Cusco and took my red, raw body to the local hospital like a complete freak. Still wearing my bikini top, as a bra was just agonizing to put on and at least I had the white strap marks to go by, so I wouldn't be in so much pain. The doctor did say I had a nice bikini top though..he obviously has no clue about fashion then.They filled a large syringe with 3 types of medications - it was a steroid injection to help with my sunburn. My throat also turned out to be infected and has now passed up into both of my ears. They have given me 3 different types of antibiotics along with a steroid injection. I sometimes think that if they know an insurance company will foot the bill, they hand out as much as they can. Well, here's hoping I'll be nice and tanned tomorrow...rather than red, raw with nice pus green blisters on my skin. My trip to Chile won't be forgotten!