So I was on the bus from Jipijapa to Guayaquil, and all was well until we started our approach to the Guayaquil bus station. The station is huge, almost as big as most airport terminals, and there seemed to be a lot of traffic, even for a Saturday.
The station was in sight, but we were only inching forward very slowly. The driver was trying to weave his way past a vast tangle of cars, taxis, shuttle vans, and other buses.Twenty minutes passed and we were still trying to get to the disembarkation point.
The passengers began to grumble, then rose up in open revolt. They forced open the doors and got out in the middle of the road, grabbing their luggage and threading their way through the traffic toward the terminal.
I decided to get out, too. The roads and ramps were like a parking lot, with hundreds of vehicles going nowhere. The entrances to the terminal were thronged with hundreds of people in lines or milling about in confusion. I had planned to go in and get the schedule for the bus to Cuenca the next day, but when I finally squeezed my way through the crowd to the door, I realized that no one was going in.
Well, that was annoying, but I figured there were just too many people so they were restricting the number who could enter at one time. Since I didn't really need to know the schedule, I decided to go out to the street well beyond the jam and either get a taxi or call an Uber.
When I got to the street I saw there were a lot of people trying to flag down cabs without much luck. So I walked further in hopes of getting away from the whole mess. It was 89 degrees, very humid, my backpacks were heavy, and the equatorial sun was beating down on me, but I kept walking.
After about a mile, I found a shady spot free of traffic, and summoned an Uber. Unfortunately, instead of walking south toward my hotel, I had walked north. The Uber driver was coming from the south, so of course he had to inch his way through the traffic around the terminal before he could get to me. That took quite some time. And then he had to go through the traffic again to get to my hotel. It was a process.
I asked him what the problem was with the terminal. He said, un temblor. So I Googled.
Yikes! That's a large quake. Other than the jam around the terminal, the city seemed to be going about business as usual, however.
I got to the hotel and the women at the front desk told me that the shaking had been horrible and that the power was out. So I sat in the hot lobby and waited. After about three hours, they let me go to my room. It was also very hot, but I was able to change into my swim suit and go down to the pool. No sooner had I plunged into the refreshing water than the power came on.
I went back to the room and turned on the A/C. It was heavenly. I basked in the coolness of it.
Later I walked about a mile to dinner down one of the main streets. Everything and everyone seemed relaxed and going about their regular routines. Apparently, there wasn't much damage in Guayaquil itself. Some of the smaller towns near the epicenter suffered more and several people were killed. In Cuenca, one person was crushed when a wall collapsed on their car. That happened just around the corner from the hotel where O was staying. Luckily, she was out of town at the time.
Still, too close for comfort.
Hoping for no aftershocks.
P.
No comments:
Post a Comment