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Bus rides in Bolivia are always an adventure. On Thursday night we tried taking a bus from Sucre to Cochabamba, what was supposed to be a 9 hour ride. We left at 7pm and made it as far as the police checkpoint, about 20 minutes outside the city before the bus broke down. We were told the police had called us another bus but we waited for over an hour and none came. The 2 drivers were both under the bus working on it using only the light from a cell phone, while meanwhile the other passengers were starting to turn into an angry mob. There was a lot of shouting, the words of which we didn't understand but we got the gist, and many very frustrated people. This was the second time we've had a bus break down on us in the couple weeks we've been in Bolivia, and we have heard some horror stories about Bolivian bus travel at night. Drivers drinking and driving, horrible roads, many accidents and injured people, fun things like that. Given all that we decided there was no way we were getting back on that bus, so we grabbed our bags and went to talk to the police. There were no taxis in the area and they wouldn't call us one, but the officer did speak to a local man who lived in one of the small houses lining the street, and this man gave us a lift back to Sucre for 50 Bolivianos ($7.25). He asked for 40 but we were so grateful not to be on the awful bus that Lauren gave him 50. We didn't get our money back for the bus ride, nor did we expect to, and when we pulled away in the car 20 minutes after grabbing our packs the bus was still sitting there. As we headed back to Sucre we decided that we didn't want to deal with the Bolivian bus transport any longer, so we agreed we would just book a flight to Cochabamba instead. While most inter-country flights in South America are ridiculously and inexplicably expensive, we had heard that same-country flights are relatively cheap. We decided to spend the night back in Amigo Hostel and head to the airport early the next morning in the hopes of catching a last minute plane.
The next morning after breakfast we caught a taxi to the airport for 30 Bolivianos and arrived a little past 9. We asked all 4 airlines if they had room for 2 more passengers on a flight to Cochabamba and only 1 of them did. TAM is the most popular airline (and possibly the cheapest) but they were booked up so we booked our flight with EcoJet instead for 315 Bolivianos each ($46). We checked our bags and luckily both of us fell just shy of the 20 kilo maximum, so that was awesome. Then we hung out in the airport for an hour or so until it was time to board. We passed through security, which was a breeze. No strip searches, no creepy X-Ray machine, no taking off your shoes and jacket before walking through the metal detector, and best of all, they let me keep my giant bottle of unopened water! In the states they seem to think that we are somehow able to create an explosive detonator using unopened drinks, so they throw them away. It's perfectly logical and not wasteful at all.
*****I had written a whole lot of other stuff that we did but technology seems to hate me so this is all it published. Cochabamba was ok, we didn't do too much. We walked to a Laguna and watched the birds, went to dinner at a kebab house where I had an amazing Turkish coffee, and we spent time at the hostel playing with the cutest little dog that lives there. Our first flight to Cochabamba on EcoJet was so great that we decided to fly to La Paz as well because we were tired of the Bolivian bus system. On Sunday the 7th it was the Día de los Peatones, a national Bolivian holiday that encourages family time and awareness of the environment. There were no cars allowed on the street all day, except for the occasional taxi, and tons of people were playing fútbol in the street. It was a very quiet and peaceful day, and we enjoyed listening to the sound of laughter and human voices instead of the ever constant honking and sounds of traffic.
Today we are taking a 14 hour bus to Arequipa, and then we will continue on to our volunteering site on the coast of Jihuay where we will stay for 2 weeks. I will let you all know how it goes, assuming my blog doesn't get deleted for the third time. Bolivia was great but now it is time to get back to Peru for a quick minute before heading up to Ecuador and Colombia, which we are most excited about. See you in 2 weeks!
- comments
Vigo That spunds like a pretty wild/ frustrating part of your trip! I am glad you guys found a way to sort it out and keep going :)
myeomanvagabond Traveling can always be frustrating but we've become pretty adept at sorting things out. Glad you are reading along, hope all is well!