Bus Music

Kerri and I took a 10-hour bus ride to Cuenca yesterday. Normally, I´m entertained by the always-blasting South American music, at least till I´m ready to sleep. Yesterday, the speaker right across from me was blown and sounded, at best, like a radio not tuned properly to a station. The guy in front of me dealt with this annoyance by pulling out a pocket music player with a tiny speaker instead of headphones, so I had to listen to two unlistenable music selections at the same time. I asked the conductor to turn the music off, and he did, but he turned it back on after an hour. I tried to endure for about half an hour, but then got up, started feeling around, and realized I could unplug the speaker. The music went off, nobody seemed to mind, and the rest of the trip was relatively peaceful, at least for an over-filled bus barreling down curvy roads through the Andes. Happily, we´ve found a hip, tranquilo hostal with a cafe/bar and are going to try to find hot springs tomorrow.