I left my makeshift office at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, and walked briskly in the direction of the nearest bus stop. [By 'bus stop', I mean a mound of dirt adjacent to the road.] I couldn't resist the urge to stop in one of the stores advertising their happy concoctions of juices and milkshakes. I ordered my new favorite flavor - chirimoya - then continued my journey. Walking in Lima was a hazard in itself - I always had to stay alert, lest one of the maniacs on the road accomplish what seemed to be a city-wide goal: running me over.

I safely made it to the main road and began to climb the precarious pedestrian bridge that extended to the other side. I never managed to overcome my fear of that bridge. Children would go streaking by me, laughing giddily, while I tried to shuffle along as quickly as possible, my heart in my throat. But this particular day, I spotted something that actually made me halt while still on the bridge, prolonging my time on the structure of death.

But no matter - I was mesmerized: on the road below me, I saw...a goat standing on top of a bus. Just...standing there, looking at me as if to ask what I thought was so out of the ordinary. What further baffled me was that this goat was on a bus with a luggage rack, indicating that this was not a city bus. Does this mean that the goat traveled on top of the bus for a rather long distance, from some outlying town? I'd never before encountered this method of goat transportation, and was thoroughly baffled.

And of course that was the one stinking day I didn't have my camera.