Initially, it was because of my difficult experience in Lima that the idea of changing my route arised, visiting South America is surely tougher than I thought. But as I got to Cuzco, I can see that things are getting much easier, I am meeting other students and do things together, so maybe it was just an isolated case in Lima. Besides, everyone I have asked so far, no one like Lima. So I am not the only one, thanks God. However, after a serious thought, I would still like to change my route a little bit, to accommodate the cost for me to join some more local tours, and also eliminates the long bus rides to some out of the way areas. Like now I am Cuzco, next Lake Titicaca, then Arequipa, it is pretty much near the bottom of Peru, and the border of Chile. If following my original plan, I would head north again, take a 18 hours bus back to Nazca which is a few hours down from Lima, to just enjoy a 40 mins overflight above the Nazca Lines, and then I would take another 18-22 hours bus ride back to the south at the border of Chile, it's a bit wasting in regards of time and money. As much as I would love to see the Nazca Lines, I decided to drop it.
So, now after Arequipa, I would take a 3-4 hours bus to Tacna (the border city in the Peru side) and then cross the border to Arica in Chile. From Arica, I would join some local tour to Nacional Parque Lauca (see the picture above), which I would see some snow-cap volcanos (active too), and salt flats, similar altiplano scenery as the Atacama Desert, which I would drop as well, again because it requires a long bus ride, and it's pretty rural in the desert. After Arica, I will find a way to fly instead of taking almost the 24 hours bus ride to Santiage. The tricky part is that I have checked with LAN airline, the ticket is rather expensive. I suspect when I get to Arica, there are some travel agency selling flight ticket mucher cheaper, probably with some smaller local airline too. If at the end I will have to take the bus, I will just break it off into small lags, instead of one long bus ride. From Santiago, back to the original plan, I would visit Valparaiso, Easter Island, Sydney, then finally Hong Kong.
Eliminate all the long bus ride and to a certain extent, maintain what I planned to see, except the Nazca Lines, which is a pity. But I think this change will make the trip more enjoyable, it'll be a balance between budget, Spanish, and comfort level.
Already changed my LAN and Qantas flight arrangements. Now, I am going to Easter Island on Nov 14, and back on Nov 17, depart from Santiago to Sydney on Nov 19, and back to Hong Kong on Nov 26. 12 days earlier than my original plan. Looking at the budget spreadsheet, I have already used almost US$5000 on this trip, including all the flights, but not including the upcoming tour fees and accommodation charges. So this change is more sensible I suppose.
So, my friends in Hong Kong, this is the new return date: Nov 26.
