Miss kookoo ri ko

I spent a lovely Shabbos with Chabad of Lima..

Motzei Shabbos I headed to the bus station.. On the way I met some musicians and we jammed a bit.. The next bus to Arequipa would only be in the morning.. so I spent the night camping out at Miraflores park overlooking the ocean.. It was really nice..



The next morning I headed back to the bus station.

It was a 16 hour bus ride to Arequipa all the way with non stop blasting violent movies and the continuous feasting of all people around me.. Every ten minutes the bus was bombarded by obnoxious food merchants selling all kinds of food.. yelling out their goods and shoving the greasy.. disgusting food into your face.. They'd be selling.. jello,fried fish,chicken, meat, corn,potatos, eggs,cakes, but all were very unclean and unhygienic...sitting in the outside heat for hours.. There were some that even sold fruits.. a banana or apple.. but I would never get anything from them.
I could not.. I'd rather starve.. After being so so annoyed by them.

I opened my windows to let some fresh in come in.. and was going to take a short nap.. I was surprised.. by buckets of water being poured down on us through the window.. Carnival... I got all wet.. my backpack and stuff got wet too..

That would be a constant game the rest of the trip..
..closing the window fast enough before they had a chance to pour buckets of water down on me..

That wasn't all.. We had chickens on our bus too. They made all over the bus.. it smelled bad..

Finally we got to Arequipa.. 2 am..
I took a combi to the main square.. and then in the morning walked around town.. davened.. got a mango, oranges, peas, avocado, tomatoes @ the supermarket and then was going to take a bus to Colca Canyon and camp out their for the night and do some trekking..

The next bus I got on.. the lady sitting next to me.. mentioned roosters..
I speak no Spanish.. so I wasn't sure whether she meant that she had roosters in which case I wasn't going to spend the next few hours with the company of roosters jumping around me.. so I asked her what she meant by roosters?? She didn't get it?

So I say kookoo ri ko?? kooko ri ko? pointing to her big bundle at her feet.. but she just laughed.. henceforth the people on the bus referred to me as Mis Kookoo ri ko..but they weren't so wrong..

A few hours later.. I was the one running around like a chicken with no head..

I have been attacked again by a splitting headache.. The bus was jammed packed.. with no air at all.. I have never been on such a crowded bus..
ok the local buses and trains in India could sometimes be that bad..
but this was a long distance trip.. I guess altitude sickness was a possible cause too..
I was passing out.. and could not breathe.. The locals started screaming.. help.. emergency.. alcohol.. gringo is feeling sick.. They splashed alcohol all over my face..

One of the local Peruvian ladies suggested I wipe my face from sweat from my armpits...(I don't know.. that is what she motioned.. but that didn't work.. because I use deodorant.. )

The alcohol shocked me and felt a bit better.. but after a few minutes it weared off.. and I was passing out again.. and then splashed more alcohol..

Slowly people started getting off the bus.. allowing me more air to breathe..
I was getting acclimated.. and drifted off to sleep.. I remember someone saying vaguely that it was my stop..Colca Canyon.. but the locals told the driver that it wasn't necessary to stop for me.. since I was not up for camping anyways.. I was too wasted to insist either way..

We got to the last stop Cabocanade.. It was pouring rain.. I still felt sick. I just checked into the first hostel I saw.. (10 soles - $3 a room.. went right to bed.. and slept straight to 5:30 AM)

I then took the first bus to Colca Canyon. I wanted to be @ the biggest canyon by sunrise.