The last day is such a blur- I'm so tired right now. Out until 4:30am the night before last, slept for 4 hours, then was awake until roughly 8 this morning. At 7 in the evening yesterday, Patricia and I headed into Trujillo to buy our bus tickets. Due to a change of plans, she wanted to go up to Mancora, and I was off to Lima. Purchasing bus tickets should be a relatively simple task, but oh no. Not in Peru. There are about 6 places we went, each a different bus company, each offering me a fine ride but her either an unnecessarily long or unnecessarily expensive trip. After maybe two hours of searching, she ended up deciding to take the unnecessarily long one (12 hours as opposed to the 8 it should take). We waited in the bus station as the lady behind the counter, for some reason, was trying to sell 3 tickets at once. Then the computer froze before I could pay so we had to wait another 10 or 15 minutes for it to reset. Then, somehow, she seemed to forget about me. There were only a couple others in the whole station and she forgot about me. Sweet.
So all in all, I spent an hour trying to pay for my ticket. At this point I was fairly sleep-deprived and past the point of being annoyed, so I did the only thing you can do at that time- laugh. And seriously, I laughed. Like to the point where everyone thought I was drunk and Patricia was laughing because I looked so crazy. It started off as a little dance I did, then turned into this hysterical pit of laughter until I had my ticket in hand and we left. Those poor, poor people.
So we had 2 hours until our buses left (10:30pm), and what is there to do in Trujillo? We caught a cab to the plaza de armes, which was more busy and crowded than I've felt in that much space. We now attempted for the entire time we had before our buses to find food. But I guess no one eats in Trujillo, because we could barely find ANY restaurants! Any! Finally when we were running low on time we resorted to this diner, but it was a very complicated system for paying and eating...sit down on your own, they bring a menu, you order, you get up and pay this weird teller lady behind glass before you get the food, then she gives you a ticket, then you receive the food and keep the ticket. Hm. So of course, this brought on another laughing fit for us. We just want bus tickets and food! It should be so simple! So again, everyone is staring at us and we look incredibly high and unable to control ourselves.
But we made it to the bus. And very soon, we said a goodbye and exchanged emails, and then sat on our buses. This part went really well- incredibly comfortable, 40 soles (US$12) for 9 hours, the seats reclined really far so it was almost like a bed...perfect! I would pass out for half an hour at a time and not know I'd fallen asleep, so the time FLEW by and before you know it, I'm in Lima! It's actually kind of nice here. Despite the cold weather and the greyness, it's nice and I feel really safe (okay, for some people, seeing armed guards on every corner would be frightening, but it just makes me feel better. Like they had a problem but are taking care of it. And there's loads of female officers!! First ones I've seen my whole trip, so go Peru for gender equality?).
So I got in at this morning after restless but passable sleep, hopped in a cab, and passed out in my dorm room at Hotel España around 8. I only slept until 11, so I now have not had a more-than-couple-hours sleep for a little more than 50 hours. Oh the fun of backpacking. Haha but I feel good, might eat a bit more, shower, and nap again, now!
Oh, and in case I can't find a phone (which I can't so far), HAPPY FATHERS DAY, DADDY! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!
