Part 5 - You gotta break some eggs to make an omelette
Day 16
I packed and said a heartful farewell to all at Sachahuares - Roberto did a video interview with me getting me to state what had happened the day before - when almost at the house a crazy man had shouted at me something I didn't understand and he was carrying a machete. Harry explained that it was a family that used to own the land but now lived nearby but constantly returned to pick coca and thought they still owned the place.
My pack was light, my legs fresh and knowing I had a few soles to spare made me think of chocolate. Within a half-hour of walking I jumped in the back of a truck heading to Quillabamba, by now only 45km away. But my joy was short-lived - we stopped for 40 min in the baking sun for a bush-mechanic-style tyre change. I had the usual conversation with two coffee farmers who shared the tray with me and their harvest as we bumped along a very poor road. I was extremely anxious to arrive and as such the infinite stops to wash, piss, buy food, navigate 1000 speed bumps, let other vehicles pass, get pulled over by the cops and roadworks helped greatly to alleviate that stress.
Quillabamba came at last. I thanked my transporters and headed for my first of 200g of chocolate for the day (bliss!), then to the pretty Plaza de Armas and the Western Union agent. The country-style system apparently took many hours to operate as opposed to instant cash in the city... I waited until 630pm that evening to then find out someone had decided I wanted US dollars instead of soles (and it certainly wasn't my Mum). The guy then explained he didnt change money so would have to charge me a % for changing the dollars back to soles!! but you made the mistake, bozo. I explored the convenience of a our consumptive system which gives convenient and quick food on demand including eating some animal product... thank you chickens!! This was another Peruvian large small-town with a bit of an identity crisis, many people thinking they are cool city-types but still retaining that judgemental country attitude. I had many mocking laughs and stares and one young ^*(*&^wit even tried to provoke me by saying "Gringo!" loud enough for me to hear when I walked past - I turned, stared right at him and asked if everything was OK. Of course he put his tail between his legs by mumbling something in reply and hurrying off. Don't @#$ with me, I'll have you, no problems, big backpack and all.
I waited until 930pm for the overnight bus to Cusco which compared to my earlier truck ride was limousine-like. I leaned back, absorbed some music and slept while we wound our way up, through Ollataytambo and on to the great city.
Day 17
We finally arrived at 400am in a different terminal to the main one. I was going to stay on the bus until first light and walk from there, but decided to ensure my bag underneath the bus was ok first... and it wasn't. Someone had gone through it and taken my pack cover - the top zipper was still open. The bus urchin was a useless muppet upon my telling him, his only input/output being a token look where my bag was and to say that maybe the cops had done it when they stopped us to search for coke. I was really over Peru - dishonesty, theft and discrimination towards tourists and locals are all commonplace here and I'd had enough. I then caught a taxi back to the town centre and finally checked in to Iquique, Amalaa's hostel a few hours later.
Later I discovered more stuff was missing from the main compartment of my pack - arrggh!! Grrr! That's it, I was not going to be screwed over again - I was going to file an insurance claim. Initially I was not really too keen to involve my favourite (dis)organisation, the police, so checking my insurance requirements I went to the bus company to try to get them to sign a document acknowledging that my stuff had gone missing and the details thereof. Of course they didn't, so I had no choice but to go to the cops (via 4 different stations). I entered, showing them my document which had all the information from the events - they soon dismissed that, formally interviewed me and then called the bus company to request the bus driver and baggage boy come down to the station for questioning. After more waiting the bus employees don't show, so Inspector Gadget decides to drag me with him and his assistant down to the bus station, where we all held an on-site interview/statement, including signatures and fingerprints. I thought that would be the end of it and I could get my statement, but no, the baggage boy was sat next to me in the car and we were taken back to the station to both be interviewed by different cops. Talk about a friggin process. And who was to say the boy was guilty and/or responsible anyway? The bus company had no system at all for monitoring luggage on/off the bus, so they were partially responsible too. It felt like a very heavy situation for him - a few times the cops came to me questioning what I'd claimed because the boy thought I was lying. His parents arrived, the bus driver was there and then the cops were insinuating that he would go to jail - just unneccesarily heavy and stressful. I even asked if there was anyway I could "not press charges" as they say, but no, just the facts, Jack, just the facts. At the end of the whole process for the evening I felt like (but didn`t know that) the kid wouldn't be charged, which was a relief, because even though he may have been guilty/responsible I certainly didn't want to be a part of the ruin of his life. So after the full 5 hours of joy they still didn't give me a copy of my statement... 'No, you'll have to come back tomorrow ' - !!
Day 18
So I did, early, which was lucky because when I got there I was told 'No, first you have to take this ticket to a specific bank, wait in line for 30 mins, pay a few dollars, get the reciprocal ticket, bring that back to us, then wait another hour or more while we can't find the digital version of your statement and have to type it out by hand (with significant typos) transcribed from the hard copy' Am I on another planet? Please, tell me... Oh well, doesn't sound like much fun but I guess I don't have much choice, eh? :) And so my saga was complete.
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