Shouts in the Night

I had taken a strong painkiller and a double dose of muscle relaxant to help me sleep despite the pain, and I used earplugs to help ward against being awakened by any of the city noises, yet despite these precautions all of us were abruptly startled out of our beds in the wee hours of the night by the police yelling at our door!

Okay, it turned out that they were yelling at our neighbhors and not at us, but we couldn't help overhearing what was happening. Apparently the tourists in the room across from ours had been tempted into purchasing cocaine, which is very, very common and marketed by everyone including your taxi drivers in Peru.

The police were yelling for the tourists to hand over their passports and show them the drugs. Then suddenly everything got quieter and we heard the police state that it was not enough. Not enough what?? We looked at eachother in confusion before the realization of what was happening hit us.

The unknown officers (or those pretending to be officers?) had apparently been offered the amount of money they considered a fair bribe for turning their backs. We heard them hand back over the passports, close the door, and leave the building.

We all silently considered how safe we might be in a city so easily bought off by a few American bills before we at last allowed sleep to overcome us.