Got something to eat. 20-25 mins before departure I figured I should go to the exit area. No no no. I was told (I must admit all the staff were super helpful) to go to some other terminal next door.
It was not labelled as a terminal. It looked like a car park. No official staff out in the street of course. I dragged my suitcases around swearing loudly in English. A taxi driver eventually pointed it out.
Got there. Three gates. No idea which one to go to. Security guard saw me swearing and waved me to my company's counter. Had to do airline style bag check in. Then they wouldn't let me through cos I hadn't paid the tax. Counter to do this fucking shit totally invisible. Same security guard points it out. Pay the tax. Finally allowed through, after a ridiculously cursory inspection of my hand baggage.
Why have numbered gates if you have to go to your company's counter anyway?
I have the ticket in front of me for slightly calmer perusal now. There is some tiny generic print listing the different terminals. By address. Oh no, those are the terminal addresses in the different cities. There is no indication which terminal I was supposed to use. No suggestion that I had to check my bag in at their desk.
What an absolutely enormously unnecessary load of stressful crap.
Oh, and as on every single bus I've been on, the seat numbers are half invisible when you are stood up.
I'm not going to blame myself for getting confused. If they can't even clearly SHOW THE NAMES OF THE TWO FUCKING TERMINALS ON THE BUILDINGS and, I don't know, HAVE SIGNS POINTING THE WAY TO THE OTHER TERMINAL, I don't see how it can be my fault. Steaming pile of crap.
Arequipa stretches for miles. The outskirts look like they are half built. The centre looks more like a proper town/city. I spent no more than two hours there, I may spend a night or two here on my way back from Nazca depending on timescales.
Well, I'm nicely relaxed now for my 16 hour journey. I could have got a ticket for a 10pm or similar bus arriving 8am, but since I've already booked the hostel for tonight (assuming they let me in at 1am) and I can hardly do any sightseeing here with my suitcase in tow I saw no point. If all goes to plan I can get a few hours sleep tonight.
Oh, at the start and end of the previous journey, a guy (different each time) came and stood in the middle of the upper deck and did a sales pitch. I think the first one was flogging some medicine. The second one was vaguely some sort of comedy beggar (but not quite a beggar), although for the second one I deliberately stared out of the window and didn't speak any Spanish if asked (although he was rattling along at a fair clip and I didn't catch a lot of it anyway). WTF is this allowed for?
Anyway. At least I feel OK except for all this fucking hassle, so that's an improvement on my situation at 3am.
Oh joy. They are showing a film with sound on the speakers. I think it's "Marley & Me", in English with Spanish subtitles. I am going to put the headphones on and try to ignore it. The screen is positioned such that I am going to get an immense crick in my neck if I try to watch it anyway. Like 45 degrees up and about half a metre from me.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Oh yeah, crank that volume baby. We all want to listen to it.
Oh yes, and on both buses they kindly stapled the luggage ticket right through the address label on my bag. That's cool, if it saves you the cost of a bit of elastic or string, feel free to ruin it.
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