A Fathers Day to remember

There are a few things in life you shouldn't have to do more than once...root canals, dumping your canoe on the first day of a trip, and wearing wet clothes for a week, crawling along the tunnels in Vietnam, and taking a night bus in the Andes.
A double decker bus suddenly doesn't seem to be such a great idea. It's fine in the day when the scenery is spectacular and it's fun to look a couple of thousand feet down, while traveling on a dirt road. It's totally different at night. It's nice to look out and see fields, rocks, scenery. It is disconcerting to look out and see absolutely nothing, no road edge, nada.
For about an hour that was last night. You suddenly stop, as a passenger you see nothing. Then you see a huge truck creep by you, and the journey continues.
It wasn't supposed to be like that.
Puno has had a few problems the last month. Locals were protesting against a Canadian mining company's plan to open a new mine. The week before I left the town was completely shut down, tourists couldn't get in, and the ones there couldn't get out.
The situation improved and I had no problems getting in, but demonstrations started again, and there were road closures. On Saturday I went to a travel agency and she told me there was an express bus at 9 am arriving in Cuzco at 4 pm. The next morning she picked me up at my hotel with my ticket. She told me, that because of strikes the bus would have to detour, and it would add an hour to the trip.

Well, the trip ended up taking 13 hours, the great majority along narrow two lane gravel roads. To add some excitement one of the tires blew, and it took well over an hour to change. Looking at the other tires I was wondering which one might be next. I can't imagine doing this at night.
We did arrive in Cuzco at 10:30, and I was happy I had a hotel booked.
One Long Day!!!