Sick o' Bus

June 4

I don't remember much of this day; I woke up and spent a rather extended period of time at the bathroom, and let's say that the rest of the day was quite similar. My entire digestive system was taken by something I ate yesterday. Somehow we checked out of the hotel, flew to Lima, and were transferred by the as usual funny guide to the bus station. We learned that not only did the president give himself a big raise but that the First Lady gets a $10,000 / month allowance, which is a new concept for them - so far, the First Lady "was for free". After waiting for two hours at the bus station we caught the luxury bus to Ica. This double decker, four axle bus was indeed nice, and we got the seats in the first row of the upper deck. Quite a view; I didn't enjoy it too much though, as fever and a very unhappy digestive system was in the way. Despite this strategic seat the unthinkable happened - I didn't take a single picture all day but rather slept pretty much the whole way.

Ours was the fourth stop of the allegedly non-stop trip to Ica, and we disembarked directly in front of the hotel. Upon check-in we discovered that this is no Monasterio anymore: people spoke basically no English. With key in hand we were guided to the room. This is not your normal hotel, it's rather a resort style maze of little sections connected by bridges, stairs and walkways, as if they wanted you to get lost. Our request for a room with a single bed was not heard; instead we got two small single beds. Essan had clearly more energy to fight and went to ask for a different room; the management's response was not very open to that, but they did push the two beds together. Definitely a way to solve the problem.

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While I could not even think of food, Essan was clearly hungry so we went in search of the restaurant. We found something with tables and chairs, but clearly not the right thing. We were pointed to the correct area by a waiter, where once we arrived we were told that this is not the right section. The waiters went on to have a minor argument about where the right place may be and finally pointed us to a table in a rather dark corner of the building. It seemed like we were the only guests in the restaurant, heck, even the whole hotel. Eventually we scored a menu, from which Essan ordered a fancy soup and I got a tea, to hide the disgusting taste of Thera-Flu. About half an hour later, the soup and tea actually arrived, but it didn't take us nearly as long to ingest it.

We got to the room around 19:40, in time to pick the least evil from the four channel lineup, and see Bruce Willis blow himself up and thus save the world in "Armageddon". Seeing Armageddon in Spanish made me relate to my mother who wanted to see "Independence Day" for amusement while visiting: I speak about as much Spanish as she does English, and both movies are about on the same intellectual level. Neither of us had much trouble following the plot. And in my case, it did put me to sleep.