Crossing the border in Peru was a piece of cake. We just had to avoid looking at the nudie pictures in the Ecuadorian border office hanging on the wall, steer clear of the money changers on the Peru side, and try to decipher the sign “it is not security here to change the money”. Then, we got back on the bus all the way to Piura, Peru. After a quick glace around and a very sketchy feeling, we hightailed it out of Piura on our first overnight bus with the “best” company in Peru, Cruz del Sur. We had no idea what to expect and were pleasantly surprised. We had a 16 hour trip from Piura to Lima, but with all the entertainment, the time passed pretty quickly. The overnight bus rides in South America are set up like plane flights with meals, an attendant, and movies. There are blankies, pillows, and American movies so “awesome” they went straight to DVDs in other countries! HA! The chairs went back very far and we got some sleep thanks to our eye masks and ear plugs. In the morning after breakfast on the bus, we admired the scenery as we travelled along the coast seeing sand dunes of all sizes and nice looking waves rolling across the beaches. Then, the attendant handed out Bingo cards and quickly began calling out numbers in Spanish over the microphone. Guess who won Bingo? JJ!!! He won us a free upgrade to first-class on the next overnight bus ride!
We decided that Lima, Peru was not going to make our list of places to stop and bought our tickets for the next overnight bus to Arequipa, Peru as soon as we arrived at the station. We stretched, had a nice filling lunch for $2.50 each, a slice of lemon meringue pie, and got on the next bus first class! Well, it was really no different than second class except there were leather seats that seemed a little larger than the others 3 across instead of 4. Time flew again with more “awesome” movies. Let me give you some examples; Moby Dick 2010 (self-explanatory), You Again (which I think was Mean Girls – the reunion), and so many fantastic others I just can’t remember. We finally rolled into Arequipa the next morning.
I don’t know if you avid readers are getting the impression that we are taking a lot of buses, but we most definitely are. There are really no other choices for getting around quickly and efficiently than the bus down here. From our constant use of them, we have picked up on a few very interesting and funny characteristics at bus stations and on the actual buses. When you get to the bus station from any taxi and people see you are a couple of gringos, the bus company employees immediately start shouting their “destinations” and offering to take you to the bus that will then take you to the place they are shouting. We have found it is easiest to just shout where we want to go before this starts in order to quickly get the right person to come to us. My favorite “shouting” destination was the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador. Guayaquil is pronounced, why-a-keel. Now say that over and over as you can about 10 times in a row. Pretty funny. Okay, so now you get to your bus and sit in your seats. Pray now that you have a window, if not, you will be smelling things you never imagined, good and gross. Here come the vendors for anything you want. Sugar cane sticks, candy, empanadas, nuts, corn cobs, pre-scooped ice cream cones, etc. They walk up and down the aisles shaking their goods in your face. Now the journey begins and the bus gets its engine roaring. At the very last second a man will jump on and enter the front of the passenger section. This is a salesman. They will be selling food, their own talents, encyclopedias from the 1980s, catalogues (verbally describing every single item inside), or other “deal of a life-time” goods for the next twenty minutes or so. You better listen up and don’t eat that candy that they gave you for “free” at the beginning of the presentation because you will pay for it later! Our favorites have been the guy selling his talent of puppetry and the man selling encyclopedias from 1980 something. Also, we recently saw ladies that had rigged up their broomsticks with special cups and plates in order to complete food transactions with customers from the windows of the bus with a system of raising and lowering the stick.
Free entertainment does not get much better than this!
No comments:
Post a Comment