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Bob and Nicks excellent adventures
Ok, i couldnt find a picture from bolivia so youll hve to make do with the christ from rio.
Having survived rio, safe and sound we got ready for the flight to bolivia. What a pain in the f***ing arse, rio airport was a disorganised shambles, our flight due to take off at 7am with us still waiting in the queue at 6.30, it wasnt a fun situation to be in. This was just to get to sao paulo aswell. Anyway in the end we boarded, went straight up and straight down and got to sao paulo, before a few corrections to the craft allowed us to get into santa cruz. We had already decided that after such a hectic week we were going to stay in a hotel, to get away from stinking dorm rooms, so we got a taxi to hotel viru viru in the centre of town. It was ok but i think we may have aquired a few fleas on the way!!!
As far as santa cruz is concerned, for saying it is supposed to be a cosmopolitan city, it distinctly lacked character and hussle and bussle, with possibly the only redeeming feature being the main plaza where it was quite enjoyable to eatch bolivian scamps tearing it up, aswell as steet venders obviously becoming frustrated with the days sales and resorting to drinking there profits.
As it was we were uninspired by the whole affair and decided to go after two nights, planning to head to vallegrande, a small, market town...thank god we didnt...although it would have been an experience....but more of that i a bit. First to the bus ride to sucre.
We got a cab to the bus terminal at about 3.30, having not booked a bus or checked the times or owt, as organised as usual!!!
there were a few companies to choose from but only a cuple go to sucre, but lo and behold all the tickets to sucre were sold out...the quetion was what to do next. This question was answered for us by a "friendly" ticket tout who sorted us out with a couple of tickets. Things always seem to be suspicious when some random guy just provides some tickets for you from thin air so we had our concerns. So we paid for the tickets and were ushered down to another region of the terminal. Looking at the tickets it all seemed a bit suspect because they had other peoples names on and different prices etc so to be honest i was starting to worry...but the guy assured us that the tickets were valid and as for the names.."no importa"..well...having been f***ed over by taxi drivers before we still had our reservations over wether we would be getting this bus or not. The guy waited around with us until the bus finally arrived about half an hour late, and made sure we got on the bus ok, so it would seem that we werent f***ed over too harshly...but we have now learnt that you cant trust anyone!!!!! especially if they want your money which most do.
Having been used to the plush argentine buses we were in for a taste of bolivian reality when we boarded a substandard bus with air con in the form of an open window and insufficient reclination...but its all relative i guess!!! We were also in for a 16 hour trip having not eaten or owt for hours. The first stop we made was in a little town..if you can call it that, out in the sticks, and this was for a tioilet stop because the bus didnt even have toilets..can you adam and eve it??? and this is what i meant about being glad about missing out on vallegrande, because if it was anything like this it is a bit of a hole...not that you expect too much when you come to bolivia but really it wasnt somewhere where you would chance a bite to eat...unless liike us you decide to buy a packe of wafers from the back of a wheelbarrow.
But overall the journey wasnt too bad and we got here to sucre at about 7 this morning, found a clean hostel and had some brekkie in quite a cool little cafe/bar. And as far as bolivian cities go, sucre seems nicer than santa cruz with its nice coloquial buildings and cathedrals, and a bit more of a hussle and bussle vibe. Also its pretty interesting to wonder round and see all the bolivian people, women especielly in thir traditional dress of old fashioned dresses and top hats...its pretty strange, almost like stepping back in time a couple of hundred years. pretty strange...but theres not too much to do here and weve missed our chance of going to the nearby market so were gonna head off to potosi perhaps tomorrow to see some working silver mines...should be a bit of an eyeopener....but youll here all about it no doubt
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