1 am early in the morning�
"Quick, quick, quick, oh mi gawd! How much longer do we have to be waiting"
"Quick, get him to stop, go on,"
"No, she's the leader!"
"I'm going to burst, Jesus!"
"Thank god we've stopped"
"Run!"
Then proceeded much running for shadows and "I can't do it by the coach, they'll all, see." Thank god for Diamox, I'd rather have the physcotic mood swings that come from altitude sickness, sounds like fun.
When we finally got to our destination, we eagerly waited (and v. coldly) for our '4x4 wielding nun" and were surprised to see a lovely little very little blue habitude little nun... Madre Vilma had arrived. We loaded our bags into her truck and ourselves into taxis. Personally, we had a very pleasant half Spanish and broken English conversation with Alfredo our driver, But became slightly worried when we had to scream at him to avoid a PARKED truck as he had been staring out the window, he swerved and we narrowly avoided a big big badness. He seemed to find this terribly amusing as he also found the dogs amusing and the two old ladies and also the boy sitting at the curb� We relaxed as the drive went on and continued trying to answer the 2nd question he asked us, what country do you come from. That was until.
Kishani: "Caroline, look behind you, is that blood on the window?"
Caroline: What?
Kishani: "Next to all the cracks?"
Caroline: " I don't want to know."
Needless to say yes it was blood. We finally made it to the nuns 'pad' and were greeted by more smiley nuns. We had to avoid the sprinkler and keep dry. We paid Alfredo. He got out of the car took the money, and laughed at the sprinkler then left. We lazed around for � the day and the played for what seemed like ages with the kids at the soup kitchen. We learnt that mono was monkey and that Mr Saxton was a gordo mono (far monkey). We also learnt Sara should (?????) lean over near the older boys and that Hasmita shouldn't let older craftier girls see her lip balm if she wants to keep it. They sung us songs about 'bebe Christo' and we sung the wheels on the bus - not very well. In the afternoon there was more lazing around in the lovely sun, lying on our sleeping mats on the balcony in comfort of the nunnery while the other � of the team traipsed around 11 different hardware stores in Huaraz looking for fuel for the trangers. They were not happy bunnies. Especially when they saw that the shopkeepers tested the fuel by pouring it out on the pavement and trying to light it. Safety first. Risk Assessment: Big hazardous danger. But at least it gave the locals something to watch.
The shoppers were taking ages so us back at the nunnery slept and read. Suddenly we heard music. I wondered why, I was bored so looked outside the door and what should I see but one of the old ladies who lived at the nunnery dancing away in front of the stereo to some snazzy mariachi music. Skirts a-kimbo, hopping from one leg to another. She was just the cutest thing. Lovely. Kishani
