The tempting bellybutton

Simon is a genial bus traveler, generally handling long city rides with ease while watching other travelers and the various bus lights going on and off. Sometimes he even holds on for additional support.

So nonchalant as he holds on too

When the Ten Thousand Villages board of directors was here, we spent several days tagging along with them to artisan workshops that often took several hours to reach, in a small chartered bus that was meant for people far shorter than us, with the added danger factor of having metal spikes sticking out of the seat back in front of us. 

While I was panic-stricken for most of those hours, envisioning an eye poked out or cheek slashed open as Simon was wriggling about, he was pretty nonchalant. (He even picked the same set of seats on day #2, when everyone else was moving around!) 

Picking the seat of danger, again

Buses and combis are generally pretty crowded, but people are so kind about giving up their seat for a person carrying a child. Most buses have a sign to this effect but how often do people actually heed what a sign says?

I love this sign since the injured person actually has a cast on. Another version of the sign has a little fetus swimming around in the pregnant woman's belly, to clarify what the special-seat-for-the-big-belly means, I suppose. Fabulous! 

And even when they don’t, the cobrador, the guy who leans out of the bus door, shouting the destinations to people on the street, then walks through the bus every so often to collect fares, has been known to yell out “give up your seat for the señora!” to move the process along. 


The cobrador is also the one, though, who tells me to hurry, hurry, HURRY up and get off as I’m carrying Simon and a backpack, yet the bus hasn’t come close to stopping. I think I’ll wait to hurl myself off of the bus until it actually stops moving, thank you. Sam has likened the crazy screech-to-a-stop, zoom forward, hurtling-in-all-directions driving patterns of the buses to Stan Shunpike's bus in Harry Potter; I wholeheartedly agree.

The other day we were riding an über-crammed bus into downtown Lima. Sam was packed in with the masses farther back in the aisle. Simon and I were seated. People standing in the aisle were pressed up against our sides. One lady right next to us was holding on to the bar on the seat in front of us. The bus lurched and she grabbed onto the overhead bar for more support. This action lifted up her shirt enough so Simon could see her bellybutton. He thought this was hilarious and, pointing to it, kept trying to touch it. As it was only about 2 inches from him, it wasn’t that hard but I doubted she would have liked having her stomach fondled by a toddler. But it was hard to physically keep him from touching her without violating the personal space of the other person we were squished up against!

Eventually the bus got to the next stop and as the new influx of riders was carried in, the bellybutton lady melted backwards into the crowd in the aisle. Simon found new people to watch and inspect. I think I’ll have to brace myself for an inevitable slap in the face when someone thinks I’m touching them inappropriately… they’ll never believe that it was my innocent-looking little boy!