May Day! May Day!

First of all, here's our schedule for the week.

May 1

◦                Things got moving pretty early this morning - room swept, trash emptied, all sheets hand-washed, breakfast eaten and out the door before 7:30.

◦                Left terminal around 8:00 in a 20(?)-passenger combi

Elvia waits.

Loading the luggage

◦                Today's traffic funnies: 1) The reaction to police presence on the road is slightly different here than at home. Cresting a hill in a definite (marked) no-passing zone and the slow moving (according to the driver) vehicle ahead of you is a police car? Honk loudly as you speed by the in left lane so that he's for sure aware of your presence. 2) Danger! - If you speed up, there's a chance you can avoid whatever danger is in the road by simply being airborne when you get to it! 3) squiggly arrow - Since you did go through a straight stretch of road about the hours ago, it wouldn't hurt to remind you at this point that this road is curvy. (Real use: for fog and such) 4) Mantenga su derecha. (Keep to the right.) - Unless the left lane looks better to you 5) Velocidad máxima 35 km/h - or whatever you think you can handle plus a little 6) No adelantar. (No passing) - Unless you REALLY want to get ahead of the vehicle that you're currently following 7) Don't EVER get in a vehicle that doesn't have a working horn!

◦                Fueled up a little before arriving in Nueva Cajamarca and for a bathroom stop for some - maybe 10-15 minutes?

I can't remember what this fruit was called, but Elvia bought a few so that I could try it out.  It wasn't at all what I expected, and I think, after trying to convince the others to have some too, we ended up throwing the rest of them away.

◦                In Nueva Cajamarca, we pulled into the terminal around 10:15 and everyone got out. I assumed we would be there just long enough to dump off the passengers whose final destination was NC (Nueva Cajamarca, not North Carolina) and their stuff and then be on our way. After about 45 minutes or so of waiting, we learned that the office had sold tickets to two passengers for the 11:30 turno, which was us. (We had just gotten there super early because our driver didn't let things like major curves slow him down a bit!) So, we were told that the combi would leave at 11:30. At 11:10, our driver shouts, "Everybody on the bus!" (Or something like that) We all hop on and the bus pulls out of the terminal, at which point, we discover that two of the the American tourists on board were not actually on board. So we should go back into the terminal and wait for them. Except we can't go back into the terminal says the driver because we left without the two people who had bought tickets for the 11:30 bus, instead reselling their seats to two other people who were wanting to travel to Bagua. We drove slowly along while the driver communicated with the office. The Americans had gone out to get saldo for their phone or something. Finally, we drove back to the main street in front of the terminal, and the driver went in to see if they were there yet. They all came hurrying back to the combi just before 11:30. The lady in front of me announced when they got on, "My chickens are all going to die, and it's your fault." I'm not sure how serious she was, but it rather struck me funny. In all of the delay for various reasons, the final reason that she singled out was that these two stupid gringos had taken the driver's word that we were going to leave at 11:30 and didn't show up until five minutes before that. I explained" our" mentality regarding the situation to Palmira, and we both had a chuckle.

◦                No worries about the supposed delay. We'll make up for it in the driving!

◦                Lunch stop somewhere around 12:30 perhaps? I think two passengers and the driver were the only ones who ate.

The restaurant

The restroom facilities

Looking up at the restaurant from the restrooms.

◦                Palmira and Elvia deboarded about an hour before we did at ???

◦                Flat tire after that

Waiting...

◦                We arrived in Bagua a little before 4:30, leaving Héctor on the combi to travel on to Jaén.

◦                Cold barley drink and papaya awaited us at Roder and Georgina's then a little rest. 

There's a fan in our bedroom that we've plugged in and are using!

◦                My plan after supper was to go directly to bed. Do not pass go. Do not shower. Do not wash your clothes. However, after we sang some hymns and the after supper conversation lengthened, I actually woke up a bit and decided to repent of my wicked ways. Maybe I'll just wash my clothes so that they'll have more time to dry. Okay, maybe now I'll just do a quick rinse in the shower so I don't get into (annually, onto) a clean bed with a filthy body. There's something about being on the bus all day that makes you feel quite dirty! Wow! This shower has power, and the water is so nice and cold, I guess I'll just go ahead and wash my hair while I'm in here. So, my bedtime was delayed, but I guess in the end it was all worth it.