Hallucinations on a Sleepless Overnight Bus in Peru

Half-awake and half-asleep but always sporting a roller derby shirt.

On our fourteen hour bus ride from the lush mountains of Chachapoyas to the coastal desert of Trujillo Peru, I only managed to sleep for two hours. Maybe this was due to the fact that our driver tried to pass everything on the road. Whether we were on impossibly curved stretches or brief impassable straightaways our conductor overtook trucks, buses, cars, bikes, mototaxis, and canines. Perhaps I couldn´t rest because I had too many swigs of soda. During a short stop in a tiny isolated town, Melissa had me disembark our double-decker to fetch a gaseosa to help her stomach fight the constant nauseating swerves. I barely made it back to catch the culminating scene of the uplifting film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Or maybe I couldn´t get any shut-eye because I´ve inherited my mother´s nighttime narcolepsy. My twelve waking hours provided me with plenty of time to observe and ponder about the transforming landscape, Peruvian cultural traits, and various animal behaviors. Breaking from my short tradition of clear, logical, and somewhat helpful posts is a list of sites I witnessed on an overnight journey from peaks to bleak dunes.

There are breathtaking mountain vistas in Chachapoyas. At times the green of the trees was interrupted by horizontal stripes of gray and khaki colored stone which resembles loaves of marble cake.

The bus driver was obeying the speed limit.

We reached ludicrous speed and the numbers went red.

The front of our Movil Tours coach had a constant digital reading of the speed of our bus in kilometers per hour. This fact had been reported to us by new friends from Adelaide, Australia. The numbers usually read in orange, but anytime the driver sped faster than 90, the display switched to red. This color-change was accompanied by a warning chime, which sounded more like the change of hour beep onf a Timex watch.

Most trucks were solid in shape and occasionally had people riding on top braving freezing temperatures. Some trucks were not lugging containers but crudely made beds with bamboo trunks holding their loads.

Landslides and rolling rocks are a constant problem in this part of the Andes Mountains. The highways and gutters on the side of the road are littered with pink pebbles and boulders which roll free from the mountains. We also saw two huge trucks laying on their sides. There was no rescue crew in sight but the drivers were no longer present. We noticed triangular shaped signs on the ground warning oncoming vehicles. It was probably too dark to clear the scene.

Lone and sometimes pairs of dogs patrol the sides of the road leaping out of the way when buses and trucks come close. One poor pooch did not make it off the highway in time.

An empty truck-Would you trust your cargo on this bed?

Some classes of bus serve hot meals which are better than the food served on airlines in the U.S. The passengers on our coach had chicken and rice with a boiled half potato. We also had a bebida caliente (hot drink). For dessert we ate yellow jello.

When we boarded in the dark night we noticed that we were sitting in front of a young mother and tiny baby. We envisioned a crying newborn signaling every twist and turn. However, during the fourteen hour ride the baby never got out a solid whine. Anytime it started to whimper, the mother gave it something else to do with its mouth. That was one well fed child.

From the second movie we learned that Jason Bourne is the Rambo of super agents. He is simply unshootable. His ultimatum was cut short in Morocco. At 11:30 PM, just as he was hurdling buildings, they shut the movie off. They must have done this so passengers could snooze. But now I will never know if he won or lost.

Punch buggies (or slug bugs as they are known in parts of the deep south) are alive and well in Peru. We saw two dusty black slug bugs and a shiny red punch buggy on our bus ride.

Rather than littering the ground with signs before major elections, Peruvians hype their favorite candidates by painting the sides of buildings with bright colors. Win or lose- their names, slogans, and desired offices remain plastered like billboards for months or years, until they are painted over during the next election cycle.

The Peruvian sun seemed like an asterisk through the Movil Tours curtain.

As the sun rose over the desert, bats flashing over our bus gave way to flocks of birds flying morning maneuvers.

Signs read Agua is vida no lo contaminamos. (Water is life let us not contaminate it). Despite this, the sides of the road in the desert are littered with trash, meters away from the ocean and rivers.

Tonight we travel on an overnight bus to Lima. I will make sure to lay off the caffeine.