You can't get there from here

I got an invitation to an Arequipa restaurant opening Saturday. The invitation included a map with a red block showing where the restaurant was located. For the record, it was on Acunsion, which is simply Ejercito extended. I guess it's 3 or 4 miles from my apartment. At 5 p.m., I get on a bus which has Ejercito on the window, but when I'm in a sketchy part of town I'm told it's not going where I need to go. The driver's "assistant" (most buses have these guys who collect fares and yell out the door) tells me to get out in sketch town and walk a few blocks and catch another bus. Or I think that's what he said. Like a good gringo, I do what I'm told. I'm walking and see no buses with Ejercito or any streets I recognize on the window, so I flag a taxi. I show the driver the map, and he's asking questions, but I'm not picking up what he's asking. Regardless, I get in, and away we go. He wants 8 soles, the most I've ever paid for a ride here, but it sounds fine to me because it's getting dark and I don't know where the heck I am. We drive for quite a while and I'm a bit nervous because it's all alleys and side streets. (I'm told taxis sometimes kidnap gringos and rob them ... and worse). But sure enough, we reach Ejercito and appear headed to the red block on the map. He takes me to a restaurant, but it's not on Acunsion, but the name of the restaurant matches the name on the invite, so I get out. At the restaurant, they tell me the opening is not there, but down the street and to the right. It's dark now and I'm walking streets I don't know in a part of town I don't know. I ask two guys at a gas station and they tell me to head back the way I came and turn down some street. I do that for a bit, but get a funny vibe and ask a mom and daughter who are headed my way. She says I'm headed in the wrong direction and need to walk about 12 blocks the other way. I walk those 12 blocks and bumble into the opening, but the person I was meeting wasn't there. So I start walking the 3 miles or so to town. Along the way I see a bus with Ejercito on the window, and get a ride that takes me within a quarter-mile of my apartment. On the way to my place, I stopped and bought street food -- five pieces of meat and a potato on a stick -- for 1 sol (27.3 U.S. cents). Home by 7:10, minus about 11 soles, and in for the night.