You may have noticed that the name of this page is La Union and not Huánuco. That is because even though Huaraz and Huánuco are only about 150 kilometers apart as the crow flies but by road it is 354 kms and therefore 2 days travel! We left Huaraz at 1pm and arrived in La Union around 7pm (15s ea on El Rapido transportes), it was a great journey with scenery ranging from dry arid flat to mountainous, with a warning at the start that the road is very dangerous.
We had great seats right in the front with a clear view. Our drivers and crew were friendly and chatty and witty even. The witty bit can be hard when you are trying to converse simply in a language you don't yet grasp fully. No stops for anything but vendors still climb on the buses when you least expect it selling anything from cooked corn to cakes to salads, and there was a (unlocked and working) loo on this bus so no need for anything else!
These little old men got on the bus (which was full) and sat on the steps at the front, Kent was in the first seat and the old man sat on his legs. It took a while for him to realise he was sitting on something he shouldn't be (he was mostly on Kents prosthesis). When he realised he and his mates had a good old look and we all laughed about it together.
In La Union it was just on dark, we wandered down what seemed to be the one and only street, full of food stalls and mototaxis and shops etc, and we quickly ushered into a hotel by a woman assuring us of a great room with bano and tv for 20s (double). In the hotel we found another couple (Peruvian) that we had been chatting to on the bus and also found the room was fine so dumped our stuff and went looking for the bus onward and food. We paid a little more for our dinner here (7s each) but figured it was worth it because a) it was 1/4 chicken and chips and was perfectly cooked and had no rice anywhere on the plate, and b) La Union is so far from anywhere we figure the prices have to be higher.
We find we like places like this, they are full of character and the people are more likely to talk to you and have conversations than in the bigger places. Where we bought the bus tickets there were 3 women who started chatting to us. When we buy bus tickets we have to write down our names, ages, passport numbers and country. These women were very surprised that Carol is 53 and she was very happy that they were surprised, haha. Of course also they thought she was great having a handsome toyboy like Kent too! They chatted to us about where New Zealand is and Carol told them that if they went to the coast and swam for about 3 months they would hit one of our islands. Well one woman was astounded that we would really have to swim and that far! Couldn't we fly! So much for being able to communicate humour clearly...
