Ica: making friends like it's our job

So we stocked up on snacks for our 7hours of fun in Ica. WOW!!! Not what we expected at all. The city was absolute chaos, with so many people and these mini-cabs racing around everywhere. We attempted to take pictures, but decided preserving our lives was more important than getting a quality photo of these insane drivers, who paid no attention to any road laws... We nicknamed it the "tuktuk clusterf***". Regardless, it was definitely an adventure trying to cross the street to the bank to get more soles and "PlayaVea", a sort of Peruvian Target.

Now we had several hours to kill, and we hadn't idea what to do. We ended up hanging out in this random park for several hours, reading and goofing off. We arrived at the bus station 3 hours before our journey with plans to take advantage of the free wifi. We started off by facetiming with out friend Kari, whom we both miss greatly. It's weird how nice and comforting it is to see a friend's face; our tradition of facetiming someone while in bus stations is definitely a worthwhile tradition. 

A little while later, a woman came into the station with 2 young daughters, a son, and 2 older daughters. She noticed we were a watching the t.v., attempting to learn Spanish from the evening news. She jokingly asked me if I wanted to buy her daughters, which led into a quite normal discussion of where we were going. She was returning home to Iquique after the earthquake. The little girls started asking me questions about my name, age, where I was from etc. and eventually became comfortable enough to curlup on either side of me. It was positively the cutest thing. Before the mother boarded her bus, she asked if she could take a photo with me and her children. Ahhhhhh! I love making friends! The little girls hugged me and kissed me on the cheek and the brother shook my hand and gave me a hug... I guess I got some of my Baba Anne's charm and ability to make friends with randoms regardless of how well speak one another's languages. 

Currently we are on our overnight bus to Cusco, watching one of the "Hangover" franchise's movies. I am fascinated by the level of profanity and nudity allowed on these buses. In the U.S. this would all be bleeped out. We were also able to try Inca Kola, which is best described as being a highlighter yellow color, smelling like bubblegum, and tasting similarly to Coca Cola. 

Anywho, here's to waking up in Cusco and beginning our journey to he Sacred Valley!

Besitos,

EmBoss