It was a long adventure back to Lima from Ica - which involved waiting for an hour in a half in a line-up that we didn't need to be in and running after a mob of people who I thought were running to a secret bus down the street somewhere, but ended up being on a tour group ha-ha.
See what happened was there was 2 lineups at the bus station, one was a cheaper bus to Lima and the other was a direct "more expensive" bus (the humor is that it wasn't even $2 more!). It was also the Friday of Peru's independence day long weekend so the locals were lined up around the building. We got in this lineup after asking what is was for (buses to Lima, obviously). After refusing about 30 cab offers, a man in an official looking outfit yells through the crowd "Direct Bus 25 Boliviano" and the lady in front of us who we'd been chatting with us says "Go with him - 25 to Lima!". So a herd (literally about 30 gringos) start running after this guy in a mad rush. What happened to me was that there happened to be a pack of Gringos (white people) running by at the same time with this tour group so I somehow got mixed up with them and ran about 5 blocks from the bus station with my big pack on. I finally asked them if they knew where the bus was and realized I was with the wrong crew. So I head back and my Israeli friends had moved made it up to the front of the line - where we discovered an empty teller who was selling tickets for the direct bus! Ah light bulbs go off and we all have a good laugh...
Note to self for future travels - arrive in the city of your flight at least one day before!
Now I am pretty much settled in in Ottawa - started working last Monday. I think I'm going to like this job, I'm in the Justice division working with crime data so I find it very interesting so far! I also joined a running clinic to whip my butt into shape (which ended up being very motivational - see next post!).
All for now, thanks for reading!
Here's a photo of the second half of the lineup - it goes all the way around the building.
-AH
