i went to Chiclayo yesterday on the primer turno pasamayo (the first bus that leaves Santa Cruz at 8am, which normally arrives to Catache to pick up more passengers at 9am). well, the buss didn’t arrive until 12pm, because of landslides, aggressive rivers to cross, and roads collapsing. (a normal hour-long trip took them 3 hours!)
i boarded the bus - and about an hour or so into our so-far-so-good journey, we got to the part of the road where we have to drive through a large river. while we were crossing, there was a construction vehicle with a huge crane trying to pull out a big truck that got sucked down the river while it was trying to cross it last night. (the next day, i found out that the 3 people in that truck ALL DIED!!! and, as of this very moment, they've only recovered one of the bodies!)
about 5 minutes further down the road, there had been a huge landslide. so, we had to stop and wait for hours for the construction trucks to clear the road up enough to pass. i had to pee sooooo badly, that i pulled a campo-move: i wrapped my rain jacket around my wait - longer side in the front - and i popped a squat right in front of the bus! yeah, people walked past and looked - but, as one of the women on my bus put it, “estamos en camino - que podemos hacer?”
finally, we were able to move on… but, very carefully…
the journey through the Catache mountains to Chiclayo follows alongside a river with steep, STEEP drops (as i’ve previously written in past blog entries). on this trip, i was on the opposite side of the river - on the side of the high mountains. which wasn’t necessarily a good thing, because i could watch the rocks from above slowly fall down below to where our bus was.
there were waterfalls all around - waterfalls which i never thought existed (during the dry season, there is only one visible waterfall). the road went through about 5 or 6 big waterfalls… 2 of them SOOO BIGGG in fact, that the pasamayo guy working with the driver had to walk to the back of the bus and tell all of us to close our windows. i was half asleep, so after closing my windows, i doze off again. about 3 minutes later, i awoke to a load roaring noise, and looked out the windows to see we were under water!!! i thought for sure we had fallen off the cliff and into the river! but, i was just a fierce waterfall we were driving under!
the rains have brought havoc in our mountains these past few days. all i had to do was pick up a prescription and come back to Catache the following morning!
we finally arrived to Chiclayo at around 6:15pm. it took us over 6 hours to get there. i had to hurry over to the serpost and rush around to get the rest of my stuff done before night came.
and then i thought the worst was behind me…
well yesterday morning, i got on the bus at 8:10am and we were off by 8:15am. i felt like i was boarding a disney ride, because i knew what was in store. today, my window seat was on the side of the river - so, i didn’t have to watch as the rocks fell down the step cliffs to our bus.
leaving Chiclayo, the first hour or so went very smoothly (the road is almost all paved - and very american-like… heheh). but only 2 minutes into the treacherous mountains, we come to a fresh landslide… lots of heavy rocks and 2 huge boulders! almost all of the men passengers got off of the bus to help clear the road. it took a little over an hour - lots of “uno, dos, tres - ya!” - and tons of muscle and ropes - before they could clear the way.
most of my fellow passengers were taking pictures; of course, i didn’t have my camera with me - but, i snapped a shot with my lovely peace corps cell phone:
for the next ½ hour or so, we stopped periodically to clear fallen rocks out of the road, and i just sat back and enjoyed the scenery. the waterfalls were absolutely breathtaking. i really felt like i was someplace special (i know that i really am in someplace special - but, i mean like angel falls or something).
another attempted cell-phone picture - one of the many waterfalls:
and then - POP! - flat tire. yup, not kidding. and we kept driving on it. not too safe, is it? well, we only drove on for about 5 more minutes, and it was stopping-time again. this time for hours. we were stopped behind about 10 trucks, cars, and buses - all of whom were waiting to pass since the night before! things were not looking too good.
all of us got off of the bus to go and check things out. and - oh yes, things were bad - the road had collapsed from a huge land slide. and to make matters worse (as if they could get worse, right?), there was only ONE construction vehicle working on clearing things up.
well, we were there for a couple hours… waiting, watching, snacking (thank goodness i came prepared with snacks and plenty of water!), and talking. i met a lot of great people… a family from Santa Cruz, 2 engineers from Chiclayo, and my new socio, Sandro, from the municipality was on the bus with me, too.
things weren’t so bad (Peru has definitely brought me some major patience - that’s for sure). but, then the clouds started developing, and the solo construction vehicle stopped working. we were basically just hanging around - completely clueless as to what was going to happen.
finally, we saw some filthy, muddy people beginning to walk around our side of the mountain. when they got to us, they said that it’s about an hour walk through rivers, slippery rocks, and mud up to your knees to cross. two people actually slipped over some rocks, and they were bleeding! they said that there were more people walking over here, hoping to catch a ride to finally make it home.
as for us, we didn’t know what to do. our bus drivers told us to wait it out - but it could be hours!!! nonetheless, a hand-full of passengers on our side decided to grab there bags and head out on the journey across.
but, the majority of us were undecided. we were just standing there with our bags, unsure of everything at this point. people were (rightfully) complaining how no-one was in charge of this crazy situation! i was outside talking to my new friends, Dani and Diego, about what we should decide to do - and my socio, Sandro, had already begun to walk over and change his mind and head back to us about 3 times!
after more passengers from the other side arrived (disgustingly wet and muddy), we finally decided to head out… so i put on my headphones, my backpack, and my game-face - - ready to go!
the first obstacle was a very large, muddy river - some people took their shoes off, but i just rolled up my jeans and plowed right through it. to write about every single obstacle would be absolutely ridiculous - the ENTIRE road was so deep with mud, it went up to our knees! there were boulders and slippery rocks to climb over - and some people fell right into the mud! we even came across a HUGE dead snake!
as i was walking through the nastiness, i made sure to glance up every so often - just admiring the beauty and enjoying the rare time i had - trapped back in those remote andean mountains. Dani, Diego, and i stopped every once and a while to look at the beautiful, green parrots - we couldn’t believe how many there were!
our long, dirty journey was insane. we finally arrived - absolutely filthy. i timed us - and it took us over 50 minutes to get to the other side where the buses were.
we waited for about another 20 minutes or so, talking about our absurd experience, when one of the bus guys arrived with the nasty dead snake in his hands… cell phone shot:
when the bus was filled with enough people, we finally were able to head out. another 30 minutes, and i made it home to Catache!!! picture of my muddy shoes and socks:
whew!!!
i won’t be going to Chiclayo anytime soon, that’s for sure.
