Peru (2)

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For the ones interested, here are a couple of anecdotes to tell from our travels. We realise they are a little long, so only read through if you have the time!

* We had a 5 hour bus ride to get to the start of the 8 day trek through the Huayhuash mountain range. It was a public bus that we had to catch, so it was super old, suspension pretty much shot and we ended up with a couple of seats right at the back of the bus over the axles and next to the toilet. Now this 5 hour bus trip was only 160 km, however it was the bumpiest, dustiest most pot holed road we have come across so far. The whole trip we bounced around like jack in the boxes and by the end of it I think my spine had compressed about an inch. The funny part was that by 3 hours into the trip, both Patty and I were busting for a wee, however the bus wasn’t stopping till we got to our destination. Patty decided to bite the bullet and go first, so into the toilet at the back of the bus she goes. Now the road had been bumpy up to this point, but about 30 seconds after she went into the toilet, the road suddenly got SERIOUSLY bumpy! I’m getting bounced off my seat, and I can’t help but start laughing as I think of how Patty is handling herself in the loo. This mental image of Patty trying to squat over the toilet seat and pee while getting thrown around by all these bumps was very funny! So the big bumps continue and a good ten minutes passes and Patty still hasn’t emerged from the loo. She was obviously having a super tough time getting her bladder to release while trying to remain positioned over the toilet! When she finally did emerge, I find out that on top of only managing to get a trickle out (and so still has a full bladder), she had managed to lock herself in the toilet and had spent a further couple of minutes trying to get out! Very funny!! Luckily for me when I went to the toilet after her to make an attempt, the bus suddenly pulled over to drop off a passenger and I had a 30 second respite to empty the bladder. Patty was so annoyed… NOT HAPPY JEN!!!

* We also took a bus when we went from Cusco to Arequipa, about an 11 hour bus ride. We booked this bus a couple of days before the travel with a particular company, paying about AUD25 each for it. Anyway, on the day of travel, we get there half an hour early and try to check our bags in. We are told that we can’t check them in just yet and to wait. We end up waiting till 5 minutes before the bus is leaving before being given a couple of tickets and told to take our bags and go and find the bus ourselves in a particular departure bay. So off we go lugging our bags to try and find this bus which we think we are now going to miss. However when we arrive at the specified departure bay, we find that there is no such bus from this company in the departure bay. After much confusion and panic thinking we had missed the bus, we get told that this other bus a couple of bays further down and from a different company is the one we are meant to be travelling on. We find out that the company we had booked with had on-sold our seats to a different company for less than half the price. So the fully reclining, wide leather seats with movie and dinner that we had originally bought on a particular bus were now partially reclining, narrow, cramped cloth seats with no movie and no dinner! So you can imagine Patty’s Latin, hot blooded reaction to finding this out! There were also a couple of young Argentinian guys that had also been ripped off in the same way and Patty starts talking to them. They are just as annoyed as her, and so they all go storming back inside the terminal and remonstrating with the lady at the counter where we bought the tickets, trying to get the money back. The lady behind the counter is having none of it, so one of the Argentinians grabs the lady’s phone and a DVD that happen to be sitting on the counter and tells her if she’s going to steal from him, then he is going to do the same to her, and storms off back to the bus. He ended up going back in about 10 minutes later, and the lady then agreed to give back half the fares in return for her phone and DVD. Very funny, but a very cramped 11 hour bus ride was had by all, which wasn’t much fun!

* One of the problems I have found while travelling through Peru has been the sleeping. The Peruvians are a very short race, and so most of the beds are half a foot shorter than a normal bed. This means that I have either had to sleep diagonal across the bed (which Patty didn’t really appreciate) or I’ve had to have my feet hanging out the end of the bed getting cold all night. We also had the same problem with the tents on one of the treks. Luckily Patty had her cousin, Cami, along and so they shared a 3 man tent, and I slept in the other one by myself (diagonally). To save conflict, we have been getting rooms with twin beds. Luckily a lot of the twin bed rooms have a double and a single, which means I get to sleep diagonal and keep my feet warm and Patty gets to sleep comfortably as well! Hopefully the bed length will improve when we hit Bolivia (although I suspect not!).

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Photos

Muchu Picchu
with timers!