So after our adventure to colca canyon, we stayed one more night in Arequipa. La doña, though I think a little confused, was happy to have us back. We had booked a night bus to ica that left at 6:30 , so we spent the day wandering and holing up places to use their wi-fi.
About 5:30 we head back to the hostel to grab our packs and catch a taxi to the Flores private bus station. That in itself should have told us it was a bad idea. Upon arrival I show the woman our tickets and ask her if we need to check our bags at all. She looks at me as if I'm not right and says no we just wait and watch for our bus. So we sit directly in front of the window where we can see all of them come in. They call for buses over the PA, but it's somewhat sporadic to say the least. And it seems like the bulk of them are late. They would constantly be calling a bus 15 minutes behind. So we are sitting watching for buses and it's almost 6:30 now. Not a single bus that says ica on the front and not a single announcement for ica or for a 6:30 bus. Finally at about 6:50 I go back to the lady to inquire where our bus is. "se fue" she says with kind of a why-the-f-are-u-bugging-me-again look. I'm shocked and start to argue with her and ask her why we didn't hear it or why we didn't see it. We've been sitting there for the past hour watching for it and none of them said ica. Oh because the bus is actually to lim, it just makes a stop in ica. when I, in a kind of frustrated and rude manner, asked her how I was supposed to know that when it says ica on the tickets, she quickly just jumped to having a solution for us. We could pay 5 more soles and she would adjust the ticket so we could leave shortly. At this point it's 7 and she begins filling out a bus ticket for 6:50. What?? I point it out and she just keeps reassuring me that it hasn't arrived. I take my tickets and sit down, now a flipping 10 soles poorer.
We are supposed to be looking for busses that go to Lima and are arriving from puno. We don't see any for a while. When we finally spot one at 7:20, but with the wrong te on the window, I go back to counter and ask if that is the correct bus. No. We sit there until about 7:30/40, and I finally look at Megs and tell her that we need to go catch a different bus. This is ridiculous; they don't know whats going on, most of their busses are late, and if we don't move soon, we are going to miss any chance we have of getting to ica that night.
Packs back on, unused tickets shoved in our pockets, we hail a cab down the street to the bus station to buy new tickets at Cruz del sur. They'll make sure you don't miss your bus If you're waiting right there for it.
We get there and purchase 2 fresh tickets. 65 soles a piece. So now in order to get to ica we have spent a total of 110 soles a piece. Fantastic!
The bus that we got tickets for doesnt leave until 9:30. It's 7:30. So what do we do? We go in search of food of course!! This trip has consisted of bus rides, wandering aimlessly and a lot of eating. So we hobble down to this little restaurant hidden in a bit of a nook of the bus station. We notice they have sandwiches and beer. Thats good enough for us. We order 2 beers from a girl and she asks of we'd like bottles or cans. She can't be more than 18. We tell her cans are fine and she runs off, Out towards the bus station without a word, her 4 year old daughter/sister/random vagrant trailing behind her. She returns about 5 minutes later. She holds up 2 different cans "¿cristal o cusqueña?". She puts down The can of cusqueña in front of Megs. Please dont tell me she has to run off to Get my beer. Oh no; the kid comes from behind her and puts the can face down in front of me. Gotta love the 5 yr old bartender.
We finished our beers and sandwiches, paid our tab, and headed to check in with Cruz del sur. They put us in a wait room and came around to let us know the bus had arrived. On the bus, seats reclined, ready to sleep through the night, off we went on our way to ica.
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