A hell of a day
Bolivia is a LDC (less develop Country) which means that only 10% of the roads are paved; that gives a bit of spice to the adventure it is to take a bus. We left Sarah yesterday (she is going to Lima, and then Guatemala), and Mette and I went for Tarija.
The bus was surprisingly only one hour delayed when we started, so it looked good. However, we had been warned, by our guidebooks, to travel by bus around Bolivia in Feb. and March, because of the rainy-season.
Nevertheless, the first.....1 hour went fine, until the bus stoped for 30 min., because they drive felt like going around the bus and knock on different parts. Nevertheless, we got to go again, and it was not before 06:00 in the morning that we ran into new problems. As I wrote, most roads in Bolivia is not paved, so when big trucks gets stucked on the middle of a dirt-road, it often makes obstacles for small innocent busses like ours; we (all the men) had to start moving stones on the side of the roads, to make it bigger, so the bus could cross. At the meantime, Mette was sitting in the bus (together with all the other women). It happenend a second time that we have to "increase the side of the road", this time I got some cheap points for carrying all the heavy stones, and Mette got even more popular when all the "locals" discovered that she spoke Spanish..... From being the "unpolite, smelly, ignorant Americans", we turned into being the "hardworking, spanish-speaking and friendly gringos". The rest of the trip was followed by a drive through a small river (in a overloaded bus), and driving up and down the Andes mountains in a thick fog.
Driving through the countryside in Bolivia for sure makes you a socialist, all this poverty and people living in the most remote and poor conditions makes you hate "right-wings"....nevertheless, comming to Tarija (after 23 hours) and discovered that it is impossible for you to leave the city as planned, because of a strike, made me go back on my "old political track"..... We are lucky if we get our bus at 03:00 in the night to the border at Aguas Blancas, and then I hope I can get to Salta or Mendoza from there...somehow...... I just hope that San Cristobal (the saints of travellers) will take care of me...or to quote my EE book:
"Dear Lord, you better take care of me now, or else you are going to have me on your hands".
Bolivia was great, I am quite sure that I will come back - I still have a lot to do there!
Hasta Luego!
The bus was surprisingly only one hour delayed when we started, so it looked good. However, we had been warned, by our guidebooks, to travel by bus around Bolivia in Feb. and March, because of the rainy-season.
Nevertheless, the first.....1 hour went fine, until the bus stoped for 30 min., because they drive felt like going around the bus and knock on different parts. Nevertheless, we got to go again, and it was not before 06:00 in the morning that we ran into new problems. As I wrote, most roads in Bolivia is not paved, so when big trucks gets stucked on the middle of a dirt-road, it often makes obstacles for small innocent busses like ours; we (all the men) had to start moving stones on the side of the roads, to make it bigger, so the bus could cross. At the meantime, Mette was sitting in the bus (together with all the other women). It happenend a second time that we have to "increase the side of the road", this time I got some cheap points for carrying all the heavy stones, and Mette got even more popular when all the "locals" discovered that she spoke Spanish..... From being the "unpolite, smelly, ignorant Americans", we turned into being the "hardworking, spanish-speaking and friendly gringos". The rest of the trip was followed by a drive through a small river (in a overloaded bus), and driving up and down the Andes mountains in a thick fog.
Driving through the countryside in Bolivia for sure makes you a socialist, all this poverty and people living in the most remote and poor conditions makes you hate "right-wings"....nevertheless, comming to Tarija (after 23 hours) and discovered that it is impossible for you to leave the city as planned, because of a strike, made me go back on my "old political track"..... We are lucky if we get our bus at 03:00 in the night to the border at Aguas Blancas, and then I hope I can get to Salta or Mendoza from there...somehow...... I just hope that San Cristobal (the saints of travellers) will take care of me...or to quote my EE book:
"Dear Lord, you better take care of me now, or else you are going to have me on your hands".
Bolivia was great, I am quite sure that I will come back - I still have a lot to do there!
Hasta Luego!
posted by ...The eyes of the world | 4:47 PM
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