Ken & Linda Whitney: Buses

We ride a lot of buses. As we cruise down the mountain from Huaraz, we bask in the comfort of a luxury bus complete with snacks and reclining sleeper seats for the ten-hour voyage. I wish I could sleep, but swinging around the switchbacks and crunching through mudslides keeps me awake. It's a stark contrast to the other buses we ride. The Virú-Trujillo bus squeezes its passengers into tiny midget seats. If the person in front of you decides to recline, you feel paralyzed in the cramped space. We try to sit by a window that opens, so we can breath some cooler air, since Peruvians religiously avoid drafts for fear of illness. In the current summer heat, it's torture. Then there's the city buses we ride in Trujillo. I'm always impressed by the bus courtesy. As soon as I enter a crowded bus, somebody always offers me their seat. I ask myself how is it that everyone tells me how young I look, yet they always treat me like an old lady on the buses. So I try to step smartly up into the city buses and strut to the back with a show of energy that surely makes me look young, but to no avail. Someone always offers me his or her seat. Last week we were stuck in a power outage in Trujillo, late at night after a rare rainfall, and in the dark. Traffic stood still, we couldn't get back to Virú, the taxis were full, and the buses were packed and not stopping. People panicked, and we felt nervous too. We decided to make our way to the temple albergue where we had rented a room the night before to do 35 of my family sealings. After an hour we finally squeezed onto a packed bus, worked our way up the steps to the front seats, and someone got up and offered me a seat. As usual I protested, and she insisted. Then I realized I was exhausted and gratefully sank down onto the seat. Ken wound up a few seats back where someone gave up a seat for him too. It took about an hour to go what was usually a 20-minute ride. Thankfully the temple albergue had a room for us and even had power. It's the only place we know of that has American style air conditioning...what a treat!