This is about a 10 hour bus ride, so it is an overnight venture.
Around 9pm, the bus stops. No one comes into the bus to inform us what is going on, but we can see snow has just begun falling outside the window.
An hour later it starts to get cold as the bus has no temperature modulation. We put on our coats, but the bus isn't moving, and the further we get from sunset the more I start to shiver. The bus still hasn't advanced, and the driver has turned off the engine. Gray sees that I need a blanket and insists on getting me/us our sleeping bags that are in our luggage below the bus. He goes down to the drivers module and knocks politely. I hear his knocking getting more insistent. The driver ignores his knocking.
Gray tries hollering in some insistent but broken spanish, and the driver just shakes his head.
"He is all toasty warm in the front of the bus wrapped up in blankets and he is just sitting there ignoring me knocking."
"You are sure he can hear you?"
"Yes."
Gray is fuming from the man's rudeness and isn't willing to be rude back.
I, am willing to be as rude as needed.
This bus ride starts in arequipa, which is relatively warm this time of year, goes up to about 16,000 feet during the journey, then ends in cuzco which is also low and warm. You can imagine the temperature fluctuation and why we were not dressed properly in the case that the bus broke down.
I put on all the layers I can and tromp out into the snow... shivering.
I go to the front windshield, right in front of the driver's face, and knock. the only thing keeping my knuckles from hitting his forehead is a thin, glass, windshield.
He tries not to look at me. I hollar, "Good evening. We need to get into the luggage to get blankets. We are freezing."
he just shakes his head no.
i repeat, "We need to get into the luggage, now." while still hammering right in front of his face.
He signals me to come around to his side window and we continue conversing something along the line of:
"What?"
"It is very cold upstairs. We need to get into the luggage compartment to get blankets in our bags."
"no."
"No what? I need you to open it."
"we don't have a way to open it."
"You don't have a way to open it?" I know he is lieing so that he doesn't have to get out of his warm cacoon. "I need you to give me the key then so I can open it."
"no." shaking his head
"No, what, you don't have the key? I know you have the key."
he continues shaking his head no.
"you see me, you see what I am wearing (leggings a sweater, and a light jacket). Me and everyone else are literally freezing upstairs. You are all wrapped in blankets in your module, while we are freezing. You have to open the luggage compartment right now."
He looks at me for the first time, stops shaking his head and hollars something to a kid in the bus's driver's bed burried in blankets. He has succumb to my annouyingness, not my discomfort or his responsibilities.
The kid gets up, and in his pjs grabs a set of keys and hurries out into the snow.
Gray and the rest of the bus file out to get their luggage quickly.
"Do you have a cigarette?" the driver askes me. asshole.
Because we stepped outside, we could see the long line of buses and cars stopped ahead of us. Basically, we don't know why we are stopped. All we know is there are at least 20 vehicles a head of us stopped with their engines turned off. So our bus driver has done the same. No one knows when we will move.
we assume they just don't like driving in snow or something, and curl up in our sleeping bags. we didn't sleep too uncomfortably that night.
In the morning, the sun comes up and the snow melts instantly.
The other busses are starting to turn on their engines and inch forward, but no one knows why we are stopped. there are groups of peruvian men outside yelling at each other. I am watching out the front window everything I can.
There is one spot ahead of us that is very congested, but we can't see any sort of accident.
After about an hour or two of bickering and no movement, women can be seen on the streets for the first time this morning. It was obvious that they were fed up with the men bickering and are going to figure this out because their kids are tired and hungry.
Suddenly the cars are moving. Getting to their side of the road and moving forward very slowly.
Because the busses are parked in the middle of the two-way road, one particularly determined woman organizes everyone enough to get the busses to move over and only use their side of the road. Our asshole bus driver decides not to get over, but to just pass all the other buses while they move over and patiently wait their turn.
So now, we are at the front of the line of buses and still can't see why we can't continue advancing. there are just a bunch of cars, trucks and buses stopped in both directions behind us, and coming from the other way as well. Suddenly, hundreds of stopped buses come into view.
"Wow, something must have flipped in the middle of the road or something."
Then, we see it. One truck. who's back tires slid off he road. blocking one half of the road. then another large truck tried to pass it coming from the opposite direction and couldn't fit through the space of road available, so it just stopped. Parked. One truck that can't get out on our side, one truck that insists on passing through first on the other side, but unable to squeeze through are what is blocking this pass for a couple thousand people. a completely solvable issue, unsolved.
We are sitting where a small accident where no one was injured and no cars were damaged combined with stubbornness cause hundreds of busses, cars and trucks to be stopped on the only road from arequipa to cuzco.
There are no police in site, even though we are only 4 hours outside arequipa and have been stopped for about 12 hours.
Someone, to be honest, probably one of the women, convinces the cars coming from the other direction to back up (which took forever because they were hundreds of cars nose to bumper), they convince the fat truck with the stubborn driver to back up and get out of the way, and then suddenly there is a mad dash from our side of the road to pass through the skinny space now available. a game of dangerous and congesting chicken.
Our asshole driver is one of the first to get through.
As we are pulling away riders from the back of the bus start yelling, "falta gente! falta gente!"
Some people had gotten off the bus to get to a makeshift stand where someone was selling rice and noodles. "They are running behind the bus!"
the driver says, "Let them keep running." as he continues driving.
The police officers have just begun to arrive at the scene and they are signaling our driver to continue moving forward. If he stops, he could get arrested or a ticket for disobeying orders.
There are hundreds of cars stopped coming from the other direction that we are now passing by. As we curve around we can see hundreds of cars were also stopped behind us. We can't get over the number of vehicles inconvenienced by this minor issue. This problem, that could have been solved last night in about 15 minutes if the people had organized would have only bothered about 20 vehicles. But, because it was cold out, they just curled up in their busses and waited until morning, holding us hostage in the middle of a freezing nowhere.
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