Free Tickets to the Rally

October 2, 2011 (no internet to post earlier)

I woke up on the bus at 6:00 this morning to a man yelling in English, “You can’t keep us in here! It’s not right! Passengers from other buses are getting off! Let us off of here!” He then stormed down the stairs and off the bus. Most of us other passengers had been sleeping peacefully up unto this point. (I had awakened an hour or so earlier because the bus was getting hot. I realized then that we weren’t moving, but figured there was a traffic accident again and had gone back to sleep.) But we were now all awake. “If I were that $%&E# man’s wife I’d @#$%@$ divorce him!” were the first words out of my roommate’s, or seatmate’s in this case, mouth.

I opened up the curtain a little to see that there were trucks and busses lining both sides of the street and learned that we had been stopped since 4:00 that morning. A little while later the bus attendant came on the intercom and announced that we were stopped because there was a car race happening along the freeway and the road would be closed for another couple of hours. She recommended we stay aboard the bus.

The cars stopped along the road. Couldn't manage to get a picture of a car--they were
 here and gone before I could snap a shot.

A few minutes later a yellow racecar came zooming by. As there were many people (all in situations similar to ours—didn’t they know in advance the street would be closed?) lining the street, several of us got out of the bus for some fresh air and a better view. Every few minutes a different car came rocketing past. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to a racecar, and I can’t say I have the need see them again, but it is much more fun stopping for a race than it is for an accident.

We arrived in Arequipa, “The White City” for both its white buildings and white population around 12:30 that afternoon instead of the 8:00 am scheduled arrival. The afternoon was a quiet one for me. I feel like I’m close to catching a bit of a cold, so I tried to rest. I did manage to get out and enjoy the views to some degree though. 

Añadir leyenda

View of the Mountain Misty

Dinner was atop a building with a beautiful view of the city. They provided ponchos for warmth and we tried several “postcard” dishes from this place. One that was quite delicious was guinea pig. (Sorry, Susanna!) Another was a stuffed red chili pepper. The red pepper was the size of a sweet red bell pepper, and it took me awhile to figure out that the pepper and not what was inside it was actually what was making my mouth burn.

Rooftop dinner with the town cathedral in the background.
Poncho provided by the restaurant for warmth. Definitely needed.

Creolla Soup

Guinea pig

Stuffed red chili pepper. Yow!

The night ended with a trip to the pharmacy where I left my debit card in the ATM. Fortunately, there was a very kind man waiting in line behind me and he returned the card to me. This saved me the hassle of trying to get a new card if the ATM had swallowed it or the headache of dealing with a stolen card if the man had been so inclined to try to use it. Yay for honest people!