Day 105: Arequipa, Peru

Saben looked at Lin with a face both disgusted and utterly freaked out. The bus driver must have been hungry because he stopped 3 times in one hour for a “break.“ At these stops, the aisles would flood with people, 3 bodies deep at any given second, each one vying for a sale. The bus smelled like a corncob covered in fruit and rubbing alcohol, body odor, bad breath and something else entirely indescribable mixed between human and food smells. Tragic really.

We had been trapped on a bus with windows that can`t be opened, about a hundred other people, and no circulating air. These extra people in the aisles, mostly grossly over-sized women panting from having climbed the 4 stairs to the 2nd level of the bus, pushing and shoving and spilling onto unfortunate passengers along the way. Saben had the misfortune of having the aisle seat today and his left arm was being subjected to a seriously out of proportioned butt following the woman selling a basket containing bus essentials such as toothbrushes, socks, and nair clippers. Luckily, the bus break wasn`t too long and, with time and many many hours or physical therapy and emotional counseling, he may be able to use that arm again on aisle seats.

After 7 stuffy, stinky, frustrating hours, we finally arrived in Arequipa, Peru. Every time the driver stopped to let someone on or off, for road construction or a red light, nearly all the passengers (literally all Peruvians except us)  would stomp their feet and bang their hands on the bus windows yelling “Let`s go, let`s go!“ (in spanish). It was like being trapped with a bunch of 2 year olds! Only these people knew better–they were full grown adults. In fact, the loudest of all was an old man in his 60s whose very own yelling and pounding got the driver to get going at one break stop that left his wife behind! The driver had to figure out from additional yelling and pounding that not all the passengers were on the bus and had to stop about 3 blocks away while those left behind ran to catch up. After 7 hours of listening to grown people throw tantrums, we were more than relieved to get off that wretched bus!