In Chivay, we found a cavernous restaurant called Casablanca, ambled in, and sat down at a large picnic table. A cute young waitress came out, and was immediatlely friendly. She brought us a pitcher of wine, which was well needed after the events of the day. Soon, we were bouncing to the 80´s mix on the radio, eating trucha frita (fried trout), and playing a lovely game of jiggle face next to a cozy fire. Susanna, the nice waitress, listened to our story of our rough bus ride, and was amused to serve us. The busy season is winding down, and the flocks of tourists coming into her restaurant yelling "Pisco Sour!!" had greatly decreased. She enjoyed talking to us, and soon offered to find us a hostel. We were relieved, feeling luck had turned back our way.


We finished dinner and walked out onto the street where we hopped into 3-wheeled motorcycles with carriages on them-motorized rickshaws-and rode to the hostel. We arrived at the Rumi Wasi hostel, met the caretaker, and were showed our room. On the way in, we were hassled by a few kids, who were about the same age as the kids on the bus yesterday. We lay down and fall asleep quickly, but not for long...
The kids were loud. Running up and down the stairs, shutting one another out of the rooms, chasing each other around, and screaming. We woke up. We didn´t fall back asleep. One boy was locked out of his room, and was begging his "friend" Aléc to let him back in. His voice is tattooed on my brain. Niki went out and politely asked them to be quiet because we were sleeping. Surprisingly, it lasted for about 45 minutes before it started up again. Not long after, I went out, and saw two older women (girls?) hanging out, not disciplining any of the children. It´s hard to show emotion at someone in a language with which you´re not comfortable with. But some words came out as I did my best to make the kids shut up. They finally did at 2 am. They were up and loud at 5 am. Not much sleep for us that night. We resolved to get out of there quickly. As we were leaving, we saw the woman who hounded us from yesterday, smirking at us and demanding payment. I wanted to hop out of the window and skip the bill, but the girls wouldn´t let me. Tired and frustrated, we left Chivay without even getting in the famous hot springs there. Not a fun way to start Thanksgiving.

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