when travelling kicked my ass

yesterday i was sitting in a park in Calama waiting the 2 hours for my bus reading in the sun. A gyspy came over and asked me for money and i gave her a cien because i was feeling lazy and she only had two teeth. she sat down next to me and took my hands. She told me she was old and pulled up her shirt to show me her wrinkley nipples as proof. i guess she was telling the truth. She told me that I would have a long vacation and then made me tell her about my love history. She told me that she wanted to help me and that she would do it but i had to put a bill of money in my hand, not for her of course, for me. And i said no. And she said, do it now. And I said no, i don't want to. And she said, ahora, ahora! And I said, no, why can't i use this apricot instead of money? and she started screaming, ahora! el dinero en tu mano AHORA! I'm trying to help you and you're making fun of me. Do you want me to have to put a maldición on you? And she grabbed my head and pulled out my hair and grasping it in her closed hands said if i didn't want her to curse me, i'd better get out some money and put it in my hand for her to be able to help me with. I took my hair out of her hands and told her i wasn't putting the money in my hands and she left in a huff and i thought i was safe BUT when i went back to the bus station the bus never arrived and i waited and waited and finally asked where it was and apparently i was supposed to be at the other terminal (even though I specifically asked if i had to switch bus stations of wait in the same one and they told me the same one) so that bus i was supposed to be on was long gone and all the other busses were booked until december 26th. fuck, i thought, i'm stranded in this shitty gypsy cursed city and can't even get back to santiago to celebrate christmas. Then I realized that there were other companies so I went to them. one was booked until december 30th but Pullman Bus had one spot on a bus at 5 o'clock. it was 4:20. i said ok, i'll take it and took out my wallet to pay only to find a giant gaping empty spot where my debit card usually lives. it was more than i could handle and i just sat down on the floor of the bus station and cried. etc. so not only was i stranded there without any buses but also i only had $7 and didn't know anyone. I went back to the other bus station to see if they had made any progress on refunding my old useless ticket so I would at least have some money but the verdict was that it could not be refunded by them because even though i bought it from them it was not their company's bus. i didn't know what to do so i just sat outside of the bosses office and cried and totally freaked out the boy who was working there who had no idea how to handle a girl his age crying and would run by between the bosses office and downstairs as fast as he could without looking at me. But finally they managed to find a bus I could take to Antofagasta and then get a bus to Santiago in Antofagasta later. but it left at 6 and it was now 5:40. twenty minutes. and they could only reserve the ticket if i gave them some money then. so i had to call the bank long distance and cancel my credit card and see if they could send me money somehow from my account. no. ok, western union, that should work. no, only for people with accounts. ok, parents. no, answering machine. fuck, what do i do? I finally got in touch with my dad but at that point i only had $2 and i was calling long distance so i didnt know how long i could talk and it was 10 until 6. he said he would figure it out and i went to leave when the woman working at the telephone office, who had been watching everything, asked me if i was ok and completely amazingly without even knowing me or anything told me she would give me the money i needed. She gave me some water and food to calm down down and then gave me 100 dollars! i can't really get over it. it makes me really happy about people and everything always working out in general. I didn't even ask for it. i'm basically stunned. Just at the same time my dad was trying to figure out how to Western union some money to me and someone told him not to worry, that the chileans were nice and would help me out. and they did. so, after all of that and 24 hours on busses i'm home safely and i had a really nice dinner with Luke Bostian's family and now I'm going to sleep and tomorrow at 4 i'm going to pichilemu for a week with the swedes for christmas. and you will never get to hear about bolivia because i'm tired. it was pretty.