8am board the Litoral bus to Cusco. tons of leg room, double decker. I´m on the top. Unlike the city, the bus station in la paz is highly organized and calm.
8:30 bought a newspaper, La Razon... includes articles about Bush´s attempt to play cricket, pictures of Evo during carnaval, interview with a Russian chess player, big spread about the upcoming Manu Chao concert in La Paz.. and more of course
9:00 still havent left La Paz, sitting at the gas station
9:30 finally on the road
10:30 first of several immigration check points, passports out.
12:15 formal immigration stamping in Desaguadero. 1 hour spent there. I eat a egg and french fry sandwhich, watch a carnaval related procession go by, drink some coffee, and for desert eat an ice cream sandwhich.
1:30 continue reading Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, a mediocre trade in La Paz. eccentric old man, half wolf, discovers himself.
2:00 awoken by the nudge of food, a yogurt, cracker snack pack. still following the perimeter of lake titicaca.
1:45 Prompted by my seatmate, I turn my watch back an hour (bolivia is 2 hour ahead of peru). page 65 defining the bourgeous.
3:00 Carnaval continues in Juliaca, big band, drunken woman, showing off the twirling power of their large skirts.
4:15 tired of reading about Steppenwolf´s problems, I read a short story in spanish from this compilation I bought in Quito... we are cruising through the Alptiplano, rain is visible in the distance, clouds are full and dense.
5:15 just passed several llama and alpaca farms. beatiful landscape, soft green mountains, rocky bare peaks.
6:00 pass the town of Sicuani. Elections take place in April. Loudres is ahead in the polls, says the newspaper, but Ollanta has the countryside walls on lock down. blond german girl gets off the bus in a small town, likely a peace corps or NGO worker...
6:15 getting dark.. I start to recognize the music as it repeats..¨sea feliz..¨
6:30 a movie?! it´s about time... King Kong, the original. It´s so poorly pirated it hurts my eyes to even watch it.... at least it´s not bruce lee.
8:30 arrive at the terminal.. movie is not over yet, but no one cares. I call Laura who is watching the academy awards, tells me to look for the land rover, she´ll be there in 15 mins. I grab a sandwhich have a nice chat with the vender, kathy, and wait for my ride to arrive....
9pm snug in Laura´s house eating homemade chicken soup, and getting a rapid fire intro while she hurredly makes pb and j sandwiches for the next morning.. she is waking up at 3am to go to a towm meeting with her group, 3 hours away. She stocks me up on books about Andean culture and religion, and I sleep soundly on the inflatable couch.
