At the bus terminal, we were helped and shown where to go and where to drop our bags off.
The people here have been very nice so far. We went to the food area and I got us an Inca Kola (~$1) because apparently that’s something we should try. It tasted like a mello yello but not so mellow-y. It’s less aggressive with the flavor of mellow yellow and it’s got a sparkling taste to it. You can taste the banana. Or what we think is banana.
Before we boarded we went to the restrooms and they had these cute bathroom signs. Haha Then we sat in front of gate and waited til our bus arrived. There was this confusion between us three and whether or not the guy had put our bags into the bus or not. We hope he did. The bus is a double decker with lots of space width and length wise. They’ve got an entertainment system just like planes do. There’s no Wifi or outlets but they have internet and fb on the screens. We were the first ones on the bus and we went straight to the top front part and sat down. We were all excited and taking pictures thinking we’ve got the best view. Then this nice guy asked us if this was our seat. We just looked at him confused. Our ticket is all in Spanish and we weren’t told there was assigned seating. So the guy helped us find our seats and told us that “asiento” means assigned seat. Or something along those lines. We didn’t get the best view but our seats are still pretty roomy and comfy.
Now 5hrs into our bus ride and we had our first stop in Ica. Outside of Lima are the undeveloped part of the country. I’ve seen shack neighborhoods in other countries before but these looked like they were built on top of sand. That’s pretty crazy if they are. We drove down the coastline and it was nice seeing the ocean for a bit. I fell asleep for an hour or two. I haven’t been sleeping much because our hostel was located in the main street and you can hear everything! So this quietness was much needed and appreciated especially after the kid sitting behind Katriz stopped talking. Woke up and tried to watch some movies but there wasn’t a lot to choose from and some of the English movies were dubbed in Spanish. They just fed us some chicken and rice dish. It was good. So far this bus ride hasn’t been too bad.
Spoke too soon… once the lights were off and we were supposed to be sleeping, the babies/kids started crying. The entire night I kept waking up to crying and eventually to motion sickness. I’ve never been on a bus for this long before and going through the mountains was what was making us nauseated. I woke up once to Lulu trying to get back to her seat. She was sitting window. She told me that she had just thrown up everything that was in her tummy and that was her 4th trip to the toilet. She had really bad motion sickness. This was the one thing I didn’t get medicine for mainly because I hadn’t anticipated how bad the motion and the altitude would affect us. Cusco is 11,000ft (3,400m) in case you were wondering =]
Sometime in the middle of the night(2/3am), the kid behind Katriz moved further to the back of the bus. While the baby behind me was sick and kept crying. I think because he was getting motion sickness and altitude sickness. He cried for an entire hour straight. Poor baby. The dad ended up carrying him and falling asleep in the chair behind Katriz. Lu and I eventually fell asleep. Lulu from motion sickness and me from the noises. This wasn’t my first bus ride so I’ve gotten better at counting my breaths so I didn’t get affected too badly on the twists and turns. Katriz stayed asleep most of the night. Lucky her.