On the bus ride back to Madrigal there was a faint burning smell. The stench actually woke me up from a comfy little nap. Fortunately, the driver pulled over to attempt to render the situation to no avail. Our bus was done. On the side of a cliff all 50 passengers waited for Arequipa City to send another bus to pick us up. With my ipod battery getting low, and having lost the last book I picked up, the fear of ultimate boredom kicked in. for about 45 minutes I sat and watched the Sun set behind the silhouette of a cactus. The driver knocked me out of my calm trance as his round self waddled over to pee on my cactus.
Two hours later the rescue bus arrived. When I popped out the door into the cool fresh air I realized we were stopped much more literally on the side of the cliff than I knew, wheels inches from the edge. Thank god I did not know previously, or I would have been a nervous wreck. Pure blackness dropped off next to the wheels of the bus, but the smell of budding cactus that must have been near by cloaked in black filled my nose.
This is the first time I have been in South America for the start of winter. It is amazing to see all the constellations one is so familiar with flipped on their side. It feels like the crazy mirror house at a fair. The constellations are so unfamiliarly distorted it disorients you.
Funny, how in the middle of quite a bit of disorientation and lonliness I have found solace in the Peruvian friends I have made in Madrigal. So many of them have come to know a little bit about me, and all remember my name. I ran into such a heavy handful of friends on this bus that it is hard to even think I could be lonely. Yeah, we operate on different playing fields, but the curiosity and affection for one another gets stronger with every interaction. It is so rare that I want to escape site, but when I do, they pull me right back in so lovingly it is hard to think the doubt ever crossed my mind.
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