Trip to the Capital....Take 2 (Amazing Race Style)

So we did it!  It took riding in scary vans, buses, metros, and taxis, but we finally made it to the capital on our own to pick up more of our packages.  Stephanie and I have watched the Amazing Race on CBS for the last couple of years, and every season we say, "we can do that."  Well, we got our audition today, and I really think we could do it.  


Our morning started at 5:00 after a short night of tossing and turning (guess who was in bed with us again last night).  We headed to the bus station and ended up taking a "private" conversion van (and when I say private, it had blacked out windows and curtains that swung back and forth with the potholes in the road). We were packed in with 18 other people (no joke), and the van kept pulling off to let people in and out.  It made me feel like we were heading for the border or something.  Anyway, a trip that normally takes our teammates almost 3 1/2 hours, only took us 2 hours!  


Once we got to the bus station in the capital, we had to find another bus to drop us off at the metro.  The metro experience was just like any of the ones at home except for purchasing your tickets.  There are no actual people to sell you a pass, everyone (meaning half a million people) all crowd around three automated kiosks to refill their passes.  Finally after being pushed to the side and almost giving up, an attendant came over and took us through the turnstiles with his ticket.  He was exactly the person that we had prayed for to help us through the day.  The metro was packed out, but every time we boarded someone would give their seats up for us.  The metro cars look like they were from an old movie during the soviet era.  We caught a couple connectors and made it to our destination station.  After wandering around the city for about an hour and asking a handful of polis that had no clue where the central post office was, we found it.  


We had a awesome lunch at a small park-side restaurant and then headed to the "post" for the next leg of our adventure.  Since I was there last week, I kind of had an idea of what to do, but now I was on my own.  When it was my turn (meaning I finally made it to the front of the glob of people) I stepped right up, pulled out my Google-translated dialog and let it rip.  How'd it go?....hmm, she just looked at me with disgust.  Now, I am sure this woman has a reputation with the locals too. She makes the people in our post office back home look like Mother Teresa.  After finally figuring out that I was asking her to get our packages, she threw a stack of receipts on the counter and motioned for me to go through them.  Guess what...our names were not on any of those pieces of paper...I'm thinking to myself "dadgumit, now I'm going to have to try something else."  When I told her there was nothing for us in the stack, she looked at me as if to say oh well, and started helping the next person.  I told her we already received a call, the tracking numbers showed they were here, and I'm not leaving here without my packages.  This seems pretty bold, but I was safe, it was all in English.  Finally, a familiar face from the previous week came out and helped us find our packages.  


We grabbed a taxi and headed towards the bus station.  On the way back the surujusu (driver) gave me a piece of his fruit.  Many of these people have very little, and they are constantly giving to others.  He got us back to the station, and helped us fight off other annoying drivers heckling us for our business.  We jumped on a slightly larger bus and headed home.


We asked for safe trip, people along the way to help us out, and the ability to accomplish what we set out to do, and all of our needs were met.  PTL!