Huacachina to Lima, Peru

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Another travel day today. This will be a bit longer bus ride. I think about 6 hours. I will only be in Lima overnight, then I will catch a short flight to Iquitos tomorrow.

I was up early this morning as usual. I forgot to buy more water yesterday. I had enough to make tea, but not enough to make oatmeal.


I caught a TukTuk into the Ica bus terminal. I arrived early in Ica. I was able to spend some time in the VIP lounge having another coffee and a small snack before boarding the bus.

What I didn't do was buy a snack for the 4 plus hour ride to Lima.

I had seen all this landscape between Huacachina and Lima on my trip south last week.

My supply of Peruvian Soles was almost exhausted, so while at the bus station, I did a Western Union money transfer for me to pick up on arrival in Lima.



We arrived in Lima a little after 3. My first task was to find a Western Union to pick up money. There were none close by, but I was able to take a city bus to get a little closer.

I went to the first of the Western Union offices that showed on google maps. I waited in line for 15 minutes only to be told that they don't do Western Union (even though there were Western Union signs on display. They directed my to another office a few blocks way. There I only had to wait 10 minutes to be told they didn't have enough Soles, but they could give me USD. I said thanks, but no thanks. They then directed my to a large supermarket across the street where there is suppose to be a Western Union kiosk. Finally, success. I got my cash infusion.

This ended up being the easy part of my day in Lima. The hard part that included too much walking, another bus that took me further into downtown Lima and a little closer to my destination for the day. There are city bused that would take me to my hostel (about an hour drive), but I couldn't figure out what bus to catch. I tried to book with Uber, but I couldn't figure out where they wanted me to meet the driver. I decided to walk to a better defined area to try Uber again. After having walked a few kilometers on this quest, I gave up and flagged down a taxi, costing about 10 times the cost of the bus. In relation to taxi's in the US, still pretty cheap. The quoted fare was less than $12 usd.

Did I mention it is rush hour in Lima. A city of over 10 million people. Busses are full, and stop and go traffic for miles, and miles, and miles. I finally arrive at the hostel after close to an hour and half taxi ride. I gave the driver a 50 soles note for the 40 soles quoted fare. He was super happy that I told him to keep the change.


It is now dark, going on 7 pm, but at least I have arrived and getting to the airport tomorrow will be very easy.

The hostel as you can see is pretty non descript on the outside. The inside has a bit more character and is comfortable.

Sorry for all the boring details. LOL

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