Last Friday, we were ready to leave for a short trip to Trujillo to start apartment hunting on the Peruvian coast. We woke up to news that day about avalanches blocking the central highway. The highway would be closed for five days and bus prices shot up from $3 to $30 per passenger as private cars offered to take people to Lima via detours and backroutes. I thought about all the people who would miss their flights, meetings, dates and precious time with their families.
On one overnight bus ride from Lima to Huancayo, we had chosen one of the more reputable bus companies to make sure we’d arrive safe and sound. Three hours from Lima, halfway to Huancayo, in the middle of nowhere in the Andes with no town in sight, there was a rebellion. I woke up groggily to realize that people were complaining about the bus stopping every half hour. It would stop for fifteen minutes each time. Someone explained that the motor was overheating and it was necessary for them to stop every half hour to splash it with water.
It was going to take forever to get to Huancayo. People shouted that they needed to arrive in time for work, that the bus should have called for backup as soon as they knew about the problem. We were locked in and passengers started banging on the windows, demanding to be let out.
When the driver finally unlocked the bus door, we all scrambled out to find that it was pitch dark outside and no one knew what to do but yell at the bus staff. We were lucky enough to flag down another bus on its way to Huancayo. They only took five of us and we had to sit on the floor in a little hallway behind the drivers. I arrived in Huancayo five hours later, freezing and with a major headache but thankful that we made it.
That’s what happens when things always go wrong — you remember to be grateful.
What went “wrong” this week and how can you turn that mishap into something to be grateful for?