Roads? Where We´re Going We Don´t Need Any Roads.

Peruvian travel is a study in contrasts. This morning I rode on a bus nicer than most trans-Atlantic flights I´ve taken. Lots of legroom, breakfast, and a rousing game of Bingo. Okay, I have never played Bingo on a plane before, but its pretty popular on buses in South America. This is one extreme. This is what you hope for when you get on a bus.

Generally, this isn´t what happens. A week ago, the bus Drew and I were on stopped because a landslide closed the mountain road we were on. It was a one lane, winding road so backing up or turning around was out of the question. I guessed we would have to wait for hours to pass by, so we watched the construction crew attempt to push the boulders (some the sizes of small trucks) off the road and down the mountain. During the ten minutes we watched, a front end loader was almost crushed and a keg-sized boulder nearly killed the head of the construction team. These setbacks forced our team of crack construction workers to develope a new strategy for dealing with the issue - cheating death.

The construction crews forced everyone off the bus, organized us into a small group, and then started shouting ¨Corra, Corra!¨ (Run!) So we did. Normally, the sight of old Peruvian women running through a landslide would be funny, but I was to busy trying not to die to really notice. Then the bus driver revved the engine, gathered some speed, and bumped along under the landslide sending rocks spinning in all directions. Safe? No. Efficient? Yes.

Since dodging rocks, the Peruvian bus system has stranded us in a town for 3 days because the only road was shut down by protesters. (Really!! Who protests all weekend. Don´t these people have reruns to watch like the rest of us?) When we were finally able to catch a bus to Lima, Drew had the distinct pleasure of sitting behind a guy who barked at every car that passed the bus. Yes, barked. It is hard to sleep on a bus when Mr. Crazy is barking.

By the time we had gotten to Lima, I was pretty tired of the bus system and we still faced a 25-hour ride from Lima to Cuzco. Twenty-five hours on a bus!! I broke down and forked out for plane tickets.