Living the life...: Bus to Chulucanas

Nov. 19, 2014, 7:00pm

16 hours on a bus, at least that's what they tell me I have to look forward to! I'll arrive in Chulucanas Thursday morning. Friday morning I will go with Sr. Viviana and Sr. Josepha to Cajamarca. I've heard it's kind of a touristy place but honestly have no idea what to expect. We'll just be there a few days and then we'll go back to Chulucanas where we'll wait for Sr. Saane's return from the Philipines before heading to my final destination of Huarmaca. Many of you have asked where I'll be, or for an address. With all this travelling, now you understand why it's hard to give you one just quite yet!

I've never been on a bus like this. Double decker with a roof. I paid 90 soles (~30 dollars) to ride on the first floor. They called my fancy seat a semi-cama (semi-bed). It looks like those business class seats you pass on the airplane as you walk back to your tiny economy class seat. It reclines back nicely and they even gave me a mini pillow and blanket. It's really a pretty fancy looking bus!

We departed the bus station at 3:00pm and it took us about 2 hours to get out of Lima due to of a lot of traffic (typical always here it seems) and the fact that Lima is huge! I'm really enjoying the scenery though. Scenery....Grey skies, looks like it's going to rain. People, so many people, even on the outskirts of town. People walk in between cars trying to sell snacks or bottles of soda to drivers. Other venders sit curbside cooking up yuquitas, churros, anticuchos, and so many other things. The people here are poor and they sit streetside selling just about anything a person could need.

As we reached the outskirts of Lima, the landscape got a bit more mountanous. By this point, the bus was moving so I wasn't able to take a good picture. But I was fascinated by the homes these Peruvians live in. What I would typically look at and consider and abandoned shack is considered home to many here. Looking out my window I see the mountainside covered in tiny little homes painted in bright colors. Most roofs seemed to just be a piece of metal laid atop the house. Some were leaning to one side like they were ready to crumble. I honestly thought we'd reached the abandoned part of town until I noticed many of the homes had laundry hanging out to dry. An eye opener for me..how easy it is to take for granted all I had back home.

Eventually we made it to more rural land. Mountains that seem to be made of sand alone, and the ocean just below us. I noticed a lot of little boxes (like 1' x 2' boxes) that had flowers in them. I could only assume these were little memorials for drivers that drove off the road. Scary. We've driven through a lot of little towns since. Not so many businesses, but a lot of those tiny little colorful homes. A different life they lead out here. They've told me the people in the north are poor in a different way than those of Lima. I think I've gotten just a tiny view of that on this bus trip.

We just finished up dinner: Rice and chicken and mysterious fruity looking sauce. For dessert, a tiny little glass of coke. It came in a cup about the size of a dixie cup you use in your bathroom! Probably a good thing though....I was told the bus doesn't stop unless you have to go #2 and seeing that I forgot my toilet paper (not provided on bus!), I prefer to not fill my bladder until we're closer to our destination. My poor kidneys!

The big double decker bus...and me with my colorful Tom's. Thanks, Mom!