An Authentic Bolivian Experience
Our overnight bus is cancelled an hour after scheduled departure. After a frantic search with an Brazilian tourist (Tiago) we jumped onto an expensive cockroach infested bus. We woke from an uncomfortable sleep to discover landslides had shut our road. Trucks and buses stood in an endless line weaving through the mountains. After hours of waiting I copied others and popped outside. The driver chose this moment to swerve onto the wrong side of the road and overtake the stationary vehicles. I was left alone with no money or phone watching as my bus disappeared into the distance. Running with flip-flops in mud proved unsuccessful so I walked ignoring the laughter from bystanders. Copycat drivers splashed me with mud, a welcome distraction from panic. Whilst contemplating my options I attempted to hail vehicles knowing there is no way I could catch the bus. No-one stopped but at this moment my hero ‘Tiago’' arrived on the back of a motorbike. I jumped on and the three of us rode 5K and found the bus stuck in more traffic. There with driver who had refused to stop we found a livid Jim. It takes another twelve hours for the road to get mended. During which time I am too scared to leave the bus. No food or toilet made it a trying day. We finally got moving at dusk. A while later we pulled over and in a surreal fashion we all stood/crouched together in the dark to pee. The driver of course started the engine causing panic. After a Thirty-three hour journey we arrived in Cochabamba, Tiago who is due to start a medical degree that day shivered and said with a smile ' I want to be back in Brazil.'
Comments:
Matt - Mar 5, 2011
^ shivered and said with a smile ‘ I want to be back in Brazil.’^ lol Well done guys you officially beat our rafting story. Thank god for your Brazilian hero there, Sarah, and what a git of a bus driver! I’m surprised you didn’t kill him Jim…..
And it was my first day of six years in Bolivia…. Wish me luck!!!