Let me preface this post with a warning: Do not go about getting to Mollendo the way we did! Keep reading to find out what I mean ;)
After traveling through the night to get from Chile to southern Peru, we finally made it to Arequipa. We took a taxi from the bus station to our hostel, which was downtown (details to come in a future post!), and got settled in. My best friend and I knew that we would be in Arequipa for a few days, so we decided that we wanted to have a beach day. We had heard of Mollendo from friends, and figured it would be easy to find. Boy, were we wrong!
Waking up in the morning, we put on our swim suits and packed our beach bags. We were ready for a day in the sun and that was about as far as we'd thought out. Thinking it would be easy to find a bus, we walked to the bus station and asked around. As it turns out, the bus station was for long distance travel, and we had to cross the street and go to a very small station that had many passenger vans. There were no signs and everything was quite overwhelming. Van drivers were yelling their destinations and the price per seat. My friend and I found one bus that was headed to Mollendo, but there was only one seat and it was quite pricey.
I don't remember a single person speaking English, so I'd only recommend trying this approach if you can speak Spanish. Luckily, both me and my friend did not have to worry about a language barrier. We wandered around the station confused as to how we should proceed. The next van was leaving in a few hours and we did not want to wait. Then, a man approached us and said he works with a car company and that they have cars coming to take people to Mollendo. He tried to have us wait with him at the station, but it seemed a little suspicious.
Instead of waiting with him, my friend and I chose an equally (if not more!) suspicious option. A man pulled up to the curb we were standing on with his wife in the passenger seat. "Are you going to Mollendo?", he said. "Yes", we responded. He told us a relatively cheap price and we hopped in the back seat. Another man that was on the curb joined us in the car as well. After we entered the car, the man said he had to stop at his house to grab a jacket before we left.
True to his word, we stopped at his house before hitting the road. Then, we began the 2.5 hour drive from Arequipa to Mollendo. Most of this drive happened in silence with the radio playing softly. To pass the time. we took in the scenery, which was mountainous and barren. At last, the car came to a stop in the middle of a very empty town on a small side street and our driver said "This is where we leave you." Us three passengers tumbled out of the back seat onto the road and the car pulled away. The other man from the back seat pointed down a street and said "the beach is that way" before he wandered off. And just like that, we were alone, without phone service and without a clue where we were.
We heard an ocean somewhere and we quite literally followed the sound through winding (mostly silent) streets. It seemed like we were in a ghost town. Eventually, we saw the water peak over the horizon. We had made it to the beach! Just as soon as the excitement came, it disappeared. We had no way to get back to Arequipa. Our ride to Mollendo was a one-way purchase.
When we reached the beach, our first mission was to find a ride home. We wandered the boardwalk until we saw a transport van parked in the shade. As we approached, there was a man asleep in the drivers seat. I knocked on the window, waking him up, and told him we needed to get back to Arequipa later that day. He asked what time and I said "maybe around 5". He responded that he would take us back for a reasonable price and that we should meet him back there at 5 p.m. Trusting that he would still be there, we walked back to the beach and set up our belongings in the sand.
We spent the day absorbing the sun rays and splashing in the cold Pacific ocean water. There weren't too many people there, which was nice. The tide came in as the afternoon set in, and we retreated to the street to find food. We stopped at a seafood restaurant, but they all seemed the same. Each had people outside recruiting people to come in, but I didn't see much difference among them. We ate outside, but it was hard for me to find a vegetarian friendly option.
After food, we headed back to the spot we'd met the van earlier that day, and thankfully, he was there! There were other people meeting him there too and we all hopped in to begin the near three hour journey back to Arequipa. We were lucky to have our own seats and good music that made for a relaxing journey back.
This method of transportation is by far the most sketchy approach to traveling in a foreign country, and we are lucky we arrived and returned safely. We completely winged the entire trip which made for a good story and a good time, but I'm not sure it is worth the risk overall. If you have a chance to go to Mollendo, I recommend you plan the trip a bit better than I did!
After arriving back at our hostel, a sigh of relief left my body. I was glad to be back in an area I knew how to navigate and to have WiFi. My day made me realize my dependence on technology, because in is absence, I felt stressed. I would have never imagined finding a location based on the sound of the ocean, or finding modes of transport with complete strangers and a little trust. It was a humbling experience and I am proud of us for navigating through the day without any form of help in a language that is not native to us. Adventuring to Mollendo was a trip for the books!
What's Next...
This post covers just a portion of my journey. I have so much more to share! Stayed tuned and subscribe for notifications about my upcoming blog posts.
I'll be talking about...............
-Semana Santa in South America
-Colca Canyon and its Condors
-The City of Arequipa
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