This is how I was greeted once in a little shop in Canete, when I had gone in to use the internet one day. Yes, that's right - can you imagine a world where you have to travel at least an hour to get to reliable internet access? And, what's even better is that this drive can turn into much more than just sitting in an overcrowded van for an hour.
I had to go into town one day to check emails for work, and I was going to attempt the connection in Lunahuana, where our home is (which is only about a 5 minute drive in either a taxi or van). However, when I went out to catch the van, I happened to get into one that was going straight to Canete. I figured since they were heading right there, rather than stopping and waiting forever in Lunahuana, I would just go with them. This would "assure" me of good connection and limit my frustrations in trying to get the other place to work. Well, turns out that I made the wrong decision...
About half way to Canete, going up a pretty steep incline, in the middle of the desert, the van started shaking uncontrollably. Every time the driver stepped on the gas, we all would nearly get thrown into the seats in front of our own. Nearly everybody in the van (we had 19 people in a 15 passenger van - and mind you they were not all small people, and most of them came along with bags of who-knows-what that they needed to get from point A to point B) started shouting at the driver to let us out. He however, refused to give up on his van. He kept on trying and trying, until finally we were all nearly to the point of passing out from the gas fumes that were quickly filling the van. I was waiting for all of us to go up in flames at any minute. He finally pulled over, and everybody piled out - except for me of course. I got pinned when the driver got out and threw his seat backwards so he could get at the engine or whatever it was that was underneath there. His seat ended up in my lap, and to my immediate right was an elderly woman, and sitting next to her, facing the other direction, was another elderly man - both of which could hardly move. I finally couldn't stand the smell any more, and eventually crawled over the both of them and got to some fresh air.
A couple other modes of transport passed us after we had stopped, and most passengers piled in to other overcrowded van or overcrowded taxis (they would pile anywhere from 6-7 people in the taxis). Just as I was about to flag somebody down, the driver started up his van again, and assured us we would be able to go. So, I climbed back in, and hoped for the best.
The poor driver of our van - lost most of his passengers, therefore only made maybe 15 soles (about $5) for driving an hour. If he would have made it with a full van, he would have gotten maybe $17.
Once we got into town, things didn't get much better. He was FLYING (probably trying to make up lost time therefore lost money). He stepped hard on the brakes, nearly putting me on the floor since I was sitting in a seat right by the door, therefore there was nothing in front of me to stop me (and seatbelts are obviously unheard of down there...). We then felt a *thud*, and heard a yelp. Sure enough - looking through the back window I saw the poor dog was had just run over, thrashing along the side of the road. One of the women in the van started screaming as though it was HER that we had just run over. Oh, it was terrible...
After that, everybody in the van simultaneously did the sign of the cross as they tend to do before traveling, to protect their "viaje".
We eventually made it...
No comments:
Post a Comment