Peruvian busses

Maybe I'm just tired because I didn't sleep the greatest last night, but I have to say so far I'm not that elated with the busses here. Of course that could just be saying they're about as bad as taking amtrak in the states.

There's no central bus station in Lima, and with ten or so different bus companies, most with two different stations stations in Lima, it becomes especially frustrating that none of them has anything as simple as a bus schedule.

Maybe the problem is that we didn't want to go far enough. Just a four hour ride down the coast. Everybody recommends the two biggest bus lines, but when you check out there web site where you can supposedly buy tickets. Both list pisco as a destination, but then when you say you select it, they both say there are no buses that go there. So we went to the grocery store which is supposed to have a sales office. They sent us to another grocery store. Half an hour later the ticket broker at that store said we'd have to go to the bus station to buy the tickets. Great, which one... And when. "Oh, there should be a bus leaving four pisco every hour."

After going to the station it looked more like there were only four a day. That's far fom one an hour.

We finally got on a bus, but it doesn't stop in pisco. It continues on twenty minutes past it and stops at a national park where we ve to get off. Then it turns around, and goes back through pisco to get back to the highway. But we can't get off there. We should have ignored the recommendations and gone with a cheaper bus company that makes more stops, leaves more often and costs less. Oh well. Next time...

One of the main problems here seems to be the language barrior. I thought my spanish was doing alright, but I can't make out a word they say here. They speak WAY to fast and mumble. They have a way of looking away when they talk to you like they're in a hurry. What's more they seem to have the same trouble understanding me. The other day when I dropped off laundry, I asked in spanish, "Should I pay now?" The girl responded no. Then two seconds later she rattled off some question. The man next to her translated, "Can you pay now?" Huh?

Today the attendant on the bus was passing out lunch. Did I want one? "Yes" How about Karen. "No, just one."

She continued on down the line without giving me any. Huh? I waited patiently until it was clear everybody else had been served. When i finally got her attention again she was already picking up the trays. I asked if I could get my lunch and she ran off very upset. When she came back with it, she castigated me for not eating at the same time as everybody else. I explaines no less than for times that when she had askes if i wanted lunch, I SAID YES! It's not my fault she's in too much of a hurry to listen!

So my message for the day to Peru is this: slow down.

Lima beans

I don't know if they have anything to do with Lima, Peru, but maybe I'll find out soon enough now that I'm here. This is my first time south of the equator and I'm curious to see how disorienting it will be to have the sun in the north at high noon. If you ask my brother he'll say I have no sense of direction to begin with, but I usually get my bearings with the help of the sun (even though I frequently cheat and look at my compass...)

I'm also looking forward to seeing the southern stars. That may have to wqit though because it's been foggy here and Lima is full of bright lit casinos. Soon enough though.

I arrived last night, but tonight I go back to the airport to pick up karen after a week apart :-) Just six more hours...

I rarely book ahead, but it can be disconcering showing up at midnight in a strange new town without knowing you have a bed reserved so I reserved one ahead through an online hostel booking service. That gave me a false sense of security because as it turned out the hostel had given away my bed since i didn't show up at 11 am. I'm not sure where that time came from. I didn't specify an arrival time in my booking so I guess they arbitrarily picked one. I also think 11 was supposed to mean 11 pm but with out the am/pm the hostel assumed they were using the 24 hour clock. I'd like my dollar deposit back but don't really expect to ever see it again.

It all worked out in the end. They pointed me down the street to a newer hostel that was quieter but had space. That was fine since I really just wanted to give Karen a quick call and then go to sleep.

Ok, time to check out Lima and see if i can get some beans.

Take care,

J

It's been a while

Yes, I've been bad.  For a while I had my reasons, but even that time passed by long ago.  For those of you who are curious, Karen's been much better about keeping everybody abreast of where we've been and what we've been up to.  Her updates are probably the main reason I've allowed myself to be extra lazy. 

As usual, "plans" have changed and rather than making our through central america down to costa rica or even panama, we've turned north and find ourselves in Mexico.  One of Karen's friends is studying here so we visited her in Merida for Carnival.  We were thinking about heading back down to Honduras to do some scuba diving in the bay islands (renowned for some of the cheapest diving in central america) but we have flights booked out of Cancun at the end of March and that only leaves us a month to make it all the way there and back again.  I checked around and it seems that Playa del Carmen has similar rates so now we're shopping around for a dive shop where Karen can get her Open Water certification.  After that we'll be able to go on a few dives together.  Karen is looking forward to spending some time on the beach SLOWLY getting a little pigment before we head back to the states for a wedding and a bachelorette party. 

Part of our reasoning for staying in Mexico is that border crossings here get to be a bit pricy.  Belize charges a departure fee of 15 dollars per person (20 if you stay more than a day) which seems to me more like a toll to pay for the use of their roads than anything else.  Mexico charges about the same to enter the country, so going to honduras and coming back would cost $60 per person in border crossings alone.  Why spend four or five days in transit just to save a little money on diving and accomodations... 

The trip from Merida to Playa was an interesting experience.  It should be about five hours to get here in a bus. For some reason our guide book said it was five and a half hours on a first class bus and cost 25 dollars.  However it was only 16 dollars and four hours to get to Tulum and then 2 more dollars and an hour ride from there to get here.  Something didn't add up.  We were ready to take the bus to Tulum and transfer from there if need be.  When we went to shop around though we found a bus leaving a 9:30 in the morning for about $12.  Perfect.  When we got the tickets the lady said their wasn't a bus at that time.  I asked if it was full and she said no, but it's Mayab.  We're not sure why that was significant but we said, yes, that's fine, that's the bus we want.  She kept trying to put us on a bus that left in the evening and took 10 hours to get there and we kept sayin no.  When she asked first or second class we'd said second and we thought maybe the Mayab bus was first class after all which was why she didn't want to sell us the ticket.  It really didn't make any sense.  Unfortunately in all the confusion I never asked how long the Mayab bus would take.  The next day when we boarded it, we found out.  It was 9 hours before we reached Playa and there were no bathrooms on the bus.  Just that morning I was coming down with a cold so my bladder was extra sensitive...  The over airconditioned ride was less than fun and we were pretty tired by the time we arrived -- just after sun down. 

Maybe this is why she kept saying it was a Mayab bus.  Maybe there was some significance in that name indicating it was going to take the long backroads all the way south half way down to the border before going back up the coast to reach its final destinations.  You would think this would be something she could mention.  Sir, are you sure you want to go two sides of a triangle when you only need to go one?  Had I known, I would have opted to pay the extra 6 bucks to arrive before dark.

So there we were, just after the sun set, tired and hungry.  We checked into the first place we found with a reasonable price.  It's a bit of a dump, but charming in some respects.  When we came back from dinner and crashed into bed at about 8:00, queen was playing in the background.  Karen said she'd never heard that particular song before until this trip.  This was her second time hearing it on the trip though.  And her third.  Maybe even her fourth.  I guess somebody had put the cd player on repeat.  Not repeat the album, but repeat the song.  They played every song two or three times in a row before somebody would get up and change the song.  The music was loud too, and only got louder when the crowds congregated in the room outside our door.  It sounded like fun, but we were too tired to notice.  Maybe tonight we'll join the party before going to bed. 

We meant to find a new place after getting up this morning, but the first place we looked at cost twice as much.  It looked clean, but our little hell hole was starting to grow on us and being our lazy usual selves we decided to stay another day.  This afternoon while looking for lunch, we found a place that had a weekly special.  It's nicer, includes a bathroom, has a tv and AC and costs two thirds what we're currently paying.  Tomorrow we move in.  A week gives us plenty of time for Karen to complete a dive course and for us to follow it up with a few dives together.  After that maybe we'll head down the coast to somewhere a little less developed -- maybe someplace without a starbucks... 

So long for now,

J

 

Xela

Last semester in my AI class there was a section in logic where they used the example that each person can has a left leg, but no person can have more than one left leg.  We were supposed to write this out in a particular first order logic notation using funny symbols.  Well, maybe nobody has more than one left leg, but last night at salsa lessons I proved that it's possible to have two left feet.  Ok, maybe I wasn't that bad, but I still have the hardest time with the "open" and the spins.  Actually, I think I had the exact same problems I had a few years ago when I took a lesson or two.  I can get the basic movement, but once you have to switch it up my feet want to stick with the original rhythm and moving one foot back when it wants to go forward, or remembering which foot it is that's supposed to go back just throws me off.  I think it only made matters worse that after learning my part, I looked over and tried copying the part that the maestra was showing Karen -- that would of course be the girls part... 
We kind of got it down in the end though and now maybe we just need to practice alot before going back for another lesson... 
Today we went to a glass blowing factory in lieu of class -- or rather in the middle of class.  So it was 1 hour of class, then a field trip followed by one more hour of class.  Little did they bother to check that all the glass factory workers were on holiday so the shop was open, but there was no glass blowing to be seen.  Just a video...  Pobre Karen.  I've seen glass blowing a number of times before but this would have been her first time.
Tomorrow we don't have class because it's the weekend, but we do have a field trip to a nearby volcano.  I'll have to be careful not to trip and fall in =)  After that one of the other students was hoping we'd go with her to another town nearby (maybe a few hours by bus) and come back Sunday, but I think we'd rather just stay here and relax.  After all, I have my first homework to do -- el preterito (past tense). 
Take care,
J

on the road again...

Seems like I've probably started a few blogs with that comment before, but it's such a comforting and familiar feeling to me =)  Of course this time things are a little different.  It took a year, but I succeeded in my plans of corrupting the girl I met just before Costa Rica into quitting her job, selling her car, trashing half of her belongings and storing the other half (she isn't quite as dematerialized as I am...) and travel the world with me. 
So with little more than our backpacks, one way tickets to guatemala and two week reservations at an intensive spanish immersion school located in quetzaltenango (aka xela), we were off.  Our 2:05 am redeye flight became a night on the floor in O'hare followed by a morning flight, so we were tired when we arrived in Guatemala City, but no jetlagged -- it's directly south of Chicago so there is NO time change!  Our second day we rushed off to a bus station only to find the bus was scheduled for half an hour than we expected which gave us plenty of time to have a delicious breakfast of eggs, cheese, tortillas, black beans and plantains.  mmmmmm.  All that for jus over a buck =)
Now we're in Xela and we've just had our first morning of spanish instruction.  In a few minutes we need to head back for the evening activiy -- salsa y merengue lessons! 
The family we're staying with is very friendly and I'm sure after a few more days Karen will get over her shyness and start yammering away en espanol.  Until hen we'll just have to work no our vocab =)
I guess that's it for now though.  Time to dance the night away.
Hasta la proxima,
J