We were standing at our bus stop the other morning reading all the newspaper headlines, as everyone else does, when a gentleman pointed out to us that a particular newspaper was predicting a major earthquake in the near future. The report said that according to all the relevant data one was overdue!Would you believe it at about five next morning a substantial tremor rattled the valley, and beyond! The noise is quite disconcerting for those who are not used to it; the locals just seem to keep going on with their lives. Because we were both still in bed at the time we did not feel too much of the vibrations. I can assure the noise was bad enough!
That brings our total tremor experiences to about six since we have been here and I hope that they remain of similar or less proportions if they are to continue. However, we are reminded of the earthquake that destroyed Ica and killed over 450 people in August last year and Ica is only 300 kilometres south of Lima.
Look for the man with the blue cap, his name is Santos and his job is to make sure the buses remain on their correct route. They are not supposed to alter their journeys in order to pick up extra passengers.He is also a fantastic help to Marion and I in selecting the correct bus for where we want to go. There are more buses passing this stop than the old Heinz fifty seven varieties! Different sizes, different colours, different shapes and very different ages. They go all over Lima and even take many different routes, and at different speeds. One day going to Los Olivos we took the wrong one and drove right through two markets and took thirty minutes longer than normal!
