Saturday, November 10, 2007

Pimp my Ride

Angie looked into an inland tour while visiting this beautiful country. The popular tour was a trip to Angel Falls, the world’s tallest waterfalls. Getting there required flying on a small plane, one of which had crashed the week before. Having heard multiple stories of cruisers having to wake up their pilots while in the air, we were convinced to forgo that trip for now.

Masterpeaces’ Alex and Isabelle went to the bus terminal for an afternoon to do some “bus watching” prior to their travels.. We, on the other hand, were persuaded by the unanimous choice of the tour agency and our taxi driver to use “Bubbas bus service” (the real name escapes us). Here we are waiting with our bags at the bus terminal surrounded by the most luxurious motor coaches I have ever seen, with “in flight” beverage service, movies, etc. Alas, none of them were our bus. Where is our bus? In rolls our ride just like the opening to “Pimp My Ride”. They pull the battered behemoth in and the engine hood goes up because it’s overheating. A peak inside looks and smells like something out of a 1970’s bachelor pad. No problem, they do upgrade us to another bus which also has no in-flight services, a broken bathroom, and looks like a 1980’s bachelor pad. Better I guess. The kicker, literally, was that the suspension was shot. Every bump in the road was a nauseating thud and sway. At our first stop, Parker, who has never been seasick, proceeds to hurl starting at the curb and finally ending at the men’s room across the parking lot. Poor kid even had to venture into the bus “bathroom” during the trip for more cleaning. Angie’s Spanish got a bucket from the bathroom attendant who even offered medicine free of charge. You can read his version of the trip in the kid’s section of the blog, coming soon.