Friday, May 07, 2004
Colca Canyon Tour
After spending a week in Lima, I eventually managed to escape down south to Arequipa, where I have been since Wednesday morning. On Thursday and Friday I took a trip to the Colca Canyon, one of the main attractions in the Arequipa area. Usually I avoid tours like this one, because they generally cost more than doing it yourself, and they are often too sterilized for my liking, avoiding the real life and culture of the locals and focusing on a few touristy spots. This tour proved to be no exception, and confirmed my conviction that I should continue to avoid them as much as possible, but I was feeling lazy, and I did enjoy the scenery, so I shouldn't knock it too much.
When I do take the odd tour now and then, it reminds me how independent I really am when I travel by myself. Normally, when I am traveling around, I choose my own restaurants and hotels, something I sort of take for granted until I get on a tour and see how many people just accept what the guide decides for them. I have learned that normally I choose better quality hotels and restaurants at much lower prices than the tour guides do, even though as locals they should theoretically know more than I do. It continually surprises me how many people just go where the guide takes them and never stop to ask themselves if there is someplace better. For instance, when we arrived in Chivay, the main city in the Colca region, the bus pulled up to a restaurant several blocks from the main square and disgorged the tour group. With one look at the menu, I could tell that this place was nothing more than a tourist trap, with prices about five to ten times what a local restaurant would cost. Luckily, there were several Swedes and Peruvians that were of a similar mindset as myself, so we set off to find a more reasonably priced place. Not more than two blocks away was a restaurant with a set menu that cost one-tenth of the price of the set menu at the restaurant where the tour bus had left us. Granted, that particular joint was not the same quality, and we decided to continue looking, but it confirmed our belief that we could do much better somewhere else. We eventually ate at the local market, which at six or seven times less expensive was just OK, but the next day we found a place of pretty much exactly the same quality as the tourist restaurant for a quarter of the price.
This kind of thing is standard on just about any tour wherever you go in the world, but the really galling thing about tours in the Third World is how much they try to cut corners and how they will short you any chance they get. There is really very little concept of customer service and client satisfaction in most underdeveloped countries. Confirmed again and again on my obligatory tour to Tibet, and to a lesser extent on this trip, if you don't insist on getting what you paid for, and stand your ground, you will almost always get less for your money. For instance, when we arrived at the hotel in Chivay (which was included in the tour price), the hotel guy tried to put three of us in the same room, when we had been promised single rooms with private bathroom. Being accustomed to this sort of scam, I just politely insisted that I would be in a private room, and soon I was unpacking alone. Others in the group that were less firm ended up with shared rooms and communal bathrooms. In a similar corner-cutting maneuver on the trip back, the guide and driver decided that they would just drop everyone off in the main square of Arequipa instead of returning us to our hotels where we had been picked up. The guide asked people if that would be OK (in a way that didn't really invite a negative response), but I was the only person that insisted that I should be returned to my hotel. Granted, the distance was not especially great, and was probably not more than a 15-minute walk, but it was dark, I had several bags with me, and I was going to a hotel in a relatively isolated area. I considered it safer, more convenient, and perfectly reasonable that I should be dropped off at my hotel. The guide made a joke about me not being able to walk, but I stood my ground, and as we drove back to the hotel, I watched all the other group members dragging their backpacks and luggage back through the streets of Arequipa. Dropping us off at our hotels would not have been especially difficult, but if nobody has the balls to object, why not just cut a few more corners and go home early? If the tourists get robbed on the way back to their hotel, oh well.
OK, enough of the dissertation. Nobody should get the impression from today's blog that this tour agency was bad or that I had a bad time. These kinds of things are standard fare for Third World tours, and this tour was actually better than most (certainly much better than the perpetual short-changers in Tibet). The tour visited some very scenic places, and it was nice to see the Andean condors, one of which swooped right over our heads, and I enjoyed myself. I guess I just remembered why I usually prefer to do it myself. Now in the final leg of my trip, I guess I'm just getting lazy and I prefer to not have to think so much.
When I do take the odd tour now and then, it reminds me how independent I really am when I travel by myself. Normally, when I am traveling around, I choose my own restaurants and hotels, something I sort of take for granted until I get on a tour and see how many people just accept what the guide decides for them. I have learned that normally I choose better quality hotels and restaurants at much lower prices than the tour guides do, even though as locals they should theoretically know more than I do. It continually surprises me how many people just go where the guide takes them and never stop to ask themselves if there is someplace better. For instance, when we arrived in Chivay, the main city in the Colca region, the bus pulled up to a restaurant several blocks from the main square and disgorged the tour group. With one look at the menu, I could tell that this place was nothing more than a tourist trap, with prices about five to ten times what a local restaurant would cost. Luckily, there were several Swedes and Peruvians that were of a similar mindset as myself, so we set off to find a more reasonably priced place. Not more than two blocks away was a restaurant with a set menu that cost one-tenth of the price of the set menu at the restaurant where the tour bus had left us. Granted, that particular joint was not the same quality, and we decided to continue looking, but it confirmed our belief that we could do much better somewhere else. We eventually ate at the local market, which at six or seven times less expensive was just OK, but the next day we found a place of pretty much exactly the same quality as the tourist restaurant for a quarter of the price.
This kind of thing is standard on just about any tour wherever you go in the world, but the really galling thing about tours in the Third World is how much they try to cut corners and how they will short you any chance they get. There is really very little concept of customer service and client satisfaction in most underdeveloped countries. Confirmed again and again on my obligatory tour to Tibet, and to a lesser extent on this trip, if you don't insist on getting what you paid for, and stand your ground, you will almost always get less for your money. For instance, when we arrived at the hotel in Chivay (which was included in the tour price), the hotel guy tried to put three of us in the same room, when we had been promised single rooms with private bathroom. Being accustomed to this sort of scam, I just politely insisted that I would be in a private room, and soon I was unpacking alone. Others in the group that were less firm ended up with shared rooms and communal bathrooms. In a similar corner-cutting maneuver on the trip back, the guide and driver decided that they would just drop everyone off in the main square of Arequipa instead of returning us to our hotels where we had been picked up. The guide asked people if that would be OK (in a way that didn't really invite a negative response), but I was the only person that insisted that I should be returned to my hotel. Granted, the distance was not especially great, and was probably not more than a 15-minute walk, but it was dark, I had several bags with me, and I was going to a hotel in a relatively isolated area. I considered it safer, more convenient, and perfectly reasonable that I should be dropped off at my hotel. The guide made a joke about me not being able to walk, but I stood my ground, and as we drove back to the hotel, I watched all the other group members dragging their backpacks and luggage back through the streets of Arequipa. Dropping us off at our hotels would not have been especially difficult, but if nobody has the balls to object, why not just cut a few more corners and go home early? If the tourists get robbed on the way back to their hotel, oh well.
OK, enough of the dissertation. Nobody should get the impression from today's blog that this tour agency was bad or that I had a bad time. These kinds of things are standard fare for Third World tours, and this tour was actually better than most (certainly much better than the perpetual short-changers in Tibet). The tour visited some very scenic places, and it was nice to see the Andean condors, one of which swooped right over our heads, and I enjoyed myself. I guess I just remembered why I usually prefer to do it myself. Now in the final leg of my trip, I guess I'm just getting lazy and I prefer to not have to think so much.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Police and Protests in Lima
It seems like every time I come to Lima, someone is protesting something. I usually stay near the Plaza de Armas, the main square where the Presidential Palace is located, and there are invariably riot police, tanks, and gas masks stationed all around the plaza. This time, they went a step further and actually sealed off the entire plaza, which I hadn't seen them do before. This time, there are several thousand cocaleros in Lima to protest the government's anti-drug efforts. The cocaleros make their living from growing coca, the plant from which cocaine is manufactured, and they are upset about the government's crackdown on their livelihood. They have been marching around the streets and blocking traffic, but otherwise there have been no real problems yet.
Although the police look menacing in their riot gear and toting their gas canisters and shields, they don't really bother the tourists and are generally friendly. I generally try to avoid police in most developing countries, especially South America, due to their penchant for corruption, but I make an exception sometimes in Peru. Peru must have some of the most attractive traffic cops I have ever seen. It seems much more common for women to go into law enforcement here than in a lot of other countries, and many of them are quite attractive. Add the fact that many of them are wearing tight motorcycle pants and riding Harleys, and it makes for a dangerous combination. They are also much more approachable than police in some of the other countries I have visited, so I have actually had several conversations with the police in Lima while I have been here.
You always know where the police and security guards are in South America because they are constantly blowing their whistles. Most of the time, they don't seem to have any reason, they just blow the whistle to remind everyone that they are there. Many of them actually just wander up and down the street and blow their whistle and regular intervals, I suppose as a deterrent to potential thieves. The constant whistle blowing gets a bit annoying, but I guess it's good that there are so many police around and that they are so visible in a city like Lima.
Although the police look menacing in their riot gear and toting their gas canisters and shields, they don't really bother the tourists and are generally friendly. I generally try to avoid police in most developing countries, especially South America, due to their penchant for corruption, but I make an exception sometimes in Peru. Peru must have some of the most attractive traffic cops I have ever seen. It seems much more common for women to go into law enforcement here than in a lot of other countries, and many of them are quite attractive. Add the fact that many of them are wearing tight motorcycle pants and riding Harleys, and it makes for a dangerous combination. They are also much more approachable than police in some of the other countries I have visited, so I have actually had several conversations with the police in Lima while I have been here.
You always know where the police and security guards are in South America because they are constantly blowing their whistles. Most of the time, they don't seem to have any reason, they just blow the whistle to remind everyone that they are there. Many of them actually just wander up and down the street and blow their whistle and regular intervals, I suppose as a deterrent to potential thieves. The constant whistle blowing gets a bit annoying, but I guess it's good that there are so many police around and that they are so visible in a city like Lima.
