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.
