Leaving Lima was not as easy as it should have been. We ended up leaving the hotel at 11:30, the transport arrived one hour earlier than expected. We were literally dumped at the busy bus terminal and told to wait. Well…we waited, and waited…after the bust we thought we were supposed to be on finished loading it occurred to us that perhaps this transfer was not going to be as smooth as we expected. I went up to the counter and tried to find out if that was our bus. She answered rapidly in Spanish and I was clueless as to the explanation but was quite aware that there was a problem. Vinnie had better luck, she spoke English to him…go figure…and finally after much tribulation we were able to get on the next bus to Pisco. The bus came and we loaded up. Everyone but the chickens was on it. It was smelly, uncomfortable and overall nasty not to mention that the bus driver took every hair pin turn at full speed and passed every car and moving vehicle as if his life depended on it. We tried to be good sports and convinced our selves it was just a three hour trip so we could definitely put up with that. It was a bone jarring experience! My back was fully tortured and I was sure I was doomed for the rest trip. Just when we thought the bus ride couldn't get any worse the assistant "whatever" came back and turned on televisions on full blast. Most of the movie was dubbed in Spanish, some of it was just the original English but when ever there was screaming (I think they added extra) it was dubbed in at a mind piercing pitch. We arrived in San Clemente (of course the bus didn’t actually go to Pisco), found a taxi and headed to our hotel. It was only a 10 minute drive so things were looking up. We had been warned that Pisco was damaged by the earthquake, 3 years ago, and it didn’t disappoint. The damage was still quite evident and what wasn’t damaged was covered in trash. We were led into our hotel room which was sufficient (again, we had been warned). It was clean and the folks running it were very friendly and went out of their way to make our stay pleasant. Had a good dinner at the hotel and went to bed…long day.
