Why I Looove Buses

A. Bus touts - They sell pretty much any kind of fried food. And it´s cheap. Not to mention you can buy about a dozen apples/mandarins/limes for a dollar. And then of course there is the arroz con pollo that comes in a little plastic container that looks like a mini garbage can. My favorite - the fried tortilla thing with melted queso in it...duh!

B. Bus pushers - These guys get on the bus, pass out an item to everyone, give a little speech about how you would be helping by buying their candybar/cookies/etc. and then come around and ask you for money, or you have to give them their thing back.

C. La palabra de Dio - Yes, the word of God. I was lucky enough to have some guy get on the bus and sit down next to me and sing for a good 45 minutes, and then get up and preach to the entire bus about the word of God...it was very enlightening.

D. Crossing the border - The bus I caught from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Tumbes, Peru was jam packed at several points along the way...except for when it was me and one other lady crossing the border. Then it was just us and the bus driver and his ¨assistant¨ for lack of a better word. The best part aboutt he whole thing was that the assistant escorted us through getting our passport stamps, it was quite nice really...

E. 3 Nazi movies - Yes, I was lucky enough to watch not 1, not 2 but THREE movies about world war II back to back on my overnight bus from Mancora to Chimbote. The best part - they were all dubbed over in Spanish with no subtitles and the sound quality was TERRIBLE...so even if I could understand Spanish well enough to know what was going on, I couldn´t.

F. 2 Flat Tires - Yeah, at least the views were good. The bus I caught from Chimbote to Huaraz had a rough time but at least it wasn´t too hot and we were passing through a spectacular canyon that went from steep sides of skree I would have loved to ride down on a sled (to my death of course), to sheer rock that might have been nice to rock climb on. Not to mention the cordilleras blancas we could see in the distance. Absolutely stunning, even if it took an extra 3 hours.

G. Honking - Oh dear, please, just keep honking. Never mind that when you honk every 3 minutes it is JUST enough time for me to fall back asleep and be rattled awake by your unecessary honking. The only honking I approve of is when we're going thru a one lane tunnel or around a super narrow turn, and you want to warn anyone who might be coming the other way. (yes, there is a lot of that here as well.) But otherwise, keep your hands on the wheel and let the rest of us ride in peace!