Chapter Eight

What happens when you live in a city of 9 million people and you don't know the bus system? Oh boy, let me tell you. 

For the city of Lima, Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 1 and 2) are feriados (governmental holiday): There is no school, there is no work; basically the city just shuts down. The holiday is due to a summit between South American heads of state and Arabic countries (click here for more information) in downtown Lima, and it's just easier to shut down all of the potential traffic congestion by canceling school and work.

Since I have a five day weekend, I decided to save money and have some adventures here in Lima. Saturday's adventure was supposed to include some rock climbing at Base Camp Peru; however, my afternoon turned into an adventure of Lima's bus system. Unlike the highly organized and fairly regulated transit system in the US, the buses here are somewhat unconventional (ranging from large vans to converted school buses to 'normal' buses) and there are no signs or websites to show you the routes. Instead, the names of the major streets are written on the side of the vehicle, and a man (or a woman) yells out the next major street or landmarks when the bus comes to a paradero (bus stop).

Following my host mother's advice to arrive at my desired destination, I set out to take "Cualquier bus por Miraflores..." ("Any bus to Miraflores"). I asked the man working on the bus if it would take me to the intersection of La Paz and Diez Conseco, and he said yes. Something must have gotten lost in translation because that is NOT where I ended up! Once we left the familiar district of Pueblo Libre, I sat in eager expectation of FINALLY getting to go rock climbing and do some mind-provoking physical exercise. We turned onto La Paz after thirty minutes or so, and I began to keep an eye out for my cross street, but to my dismay practically none of the streets are labeled (even the main intersections with stoplights). About ten minutes later, the man working on the bus told me the next street was my stop, so I got up and disembarked. Apparently this man thought I asked for the 10th block of La Paz (bloque diez) instead of the street Diez Conseco. 

Believing that I have an impeccable since of direction, I took off walking down the street determined to arrive at the correct cross-street. Some times I think I'm too much like my father... The street was pretty long and the buses are very cheap, so I took another bus in the same direction to save some time. Well that was not the right direction, and once the buss turned off Avenida La Paz I finally gave in and decided I was officially lost and needed to call it a day. I had been 'traveling' for about an hour and a half and this wasn't the best part of town. Before I caught a bus going in the opposite direction (back towards home), I stopped to capture the most relaxing part of my voyage: el mar.

It may not be pretty, but it's better than Lake Dirtybird...

Needless to say, Saturday was a bit of a flop. Hopefully the climbing gym will be open on Monday or Tuesday so that I can get some climbing in this weekend. If not, I think a museum or the zoo should be open and I have some friends in town to adventure with! The best part about all of this: two days of school and then I'm off to MACHU PICCHU!!!!!!! That's right, the cat is out of the bag; next weekend will be the biggest adventure yet and I'm SO EXCITED!!