So after an awesome two month holiday in Australia, I headed back to South America. My trip back was perfect; everything went well. I caught my bus in Canberra on time; got to Sydney airport no problem; checked-in with plenty of time and had a smooth and safe flight to Buenos Aires; I managed to negotiate my way in to the city and check-in to my hotel. All good.
But after that I had a bit of a shocker. An expensive one too. My first night I had an upmarket hotel but the next day I moved to a cheaper one in my old neighbourhood in Buenos Aires that I had booked online. But when I showed up, there was no sign of life - no hotel. Plus it was a holiday and getting around town trying to organize another place to stay with all my luggage and in the rain pissed my off. So I took off to Rosario, five hours north of BA, but after a night there I realized Buenos Aires would be the best place to celebrate my birthday (Friday 3rd). So $160 later in bus fares and hotel I went back to BA.
So for my birthday I travelled four hours back to Buenos Aires. But there was a bus strike so I took a minivan which cost double the normal price $60,normally $30, which I didn't know about until too late and it rained all the way, all day actually. On the highway we saw the end result of six serious accidents on the road within ten minutes of each other. Needless to say I fastened my seatbelt.
In the evening I had a great night out at one of my favorite rock bars in Buenos Aires, The Roxy, and saw a really good rock show from these guys; Madison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3depndYxF9s
So after a glorious sunny weekend, come Monday I was all set to travel to Bolivia, except there was a bus strike – no long distance travel available. Normally I’d expect this sort of problem in Bolivia but now I faced the prospect of staying longer than expected. However, I’d been told by a bus company that travels to Bolivia, that it was still possible to catch a bus from the bus terminal on the outskirts of town but when I got there early Monday morning there was no sign of life and the strike looked to be in full swing there as well. So I checked in to a hotel across the street, ready to wait out the strike. Half hour after checking in I went for a walk and found a bus company situated outside of the terminal that had a bus going to the Bolivian border later that morning. Awesome. So I checked out of the hotel and was on a bus to Bolivia despite the bus strike.
As far as 25 hour bus trips go, this was a good ride. The buses in this part of the world are very comfortable with huge big seats like in first class on a plane that recline back more than 45 degrees and food served on board and included in the price and regular stops. I managed to sleep well which Is rare for me, and we made good time. I was the only non-Bolivian on board and at each of the check points along the motorway the officers were surprised to see me and were very curious to know where I was from and where I was going. They all also took an interest in my guitar which was still wrapped up in plastic and bubble wrap from my flight over. They wanted me to open it to see what was inside but I wrapped it so good that it couldn’t be opened with bare hands and I didn’t have a knife so each time they decided to do nothing about it.
Even though you’re sitting on your arse the whole time, a long bus journey is very tiring and when we reached the border I was very keen to get off the bus and take in some fresh air and stretch the legs. I had been at this very border crossing at Villazon between Argentina and Bolivia only three months earlier and it had been a nightmare. Three hour queues to get through immigration and in my case even longer because I didn’t have the correct paper work to enter Argentina. Plus I had to lug a backpack, large suitcase, guitar and my man-bag around; it wasn’t a travel moment that my friends back home would have been jealous about.
This time however I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was very little human traffic going through the border and I was processed and through immigration quite quickly. Once in Bolivia I learnt why there were very few people crossing the border. The miners were striking all across the country and had created road blocks. Welcome to Bolivia. The country of road blocks and fireworks. Whenever anyone goes on strike in Bolivia they create road blocks. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve had to stay somewhere longer than planned due to road blocks. So hardly anyone was reaching the border because of strikes on both sides.
Another characteristic of Bolivia was in full swing, and that was the weather. Being winter in this part of the world means the dry season and the days are just gorgeous clear sunny days. It gets cold at night but I can handle that. I much prefer winter here than summer, as summer is the rainy season and it is just cold and wet most days. But today was beautiful.
After the long trip I was keen to relax a little, take in the fresh air and sunny weather, check some emails and get something to eat. But no time for that as there were minivans leaving then and there for Potosi, (a town a few hours north) via old dirt tracks bypassing the blockades on the motorway. Although I wasn’t quite ready for another road trip I didn’t want to get stuck in Villazon, for God knows how long, and felt I should take the opportunity to move on whilst it was there.
So there were eight of us in this minivan including the driver and I was lucky to have the front passenger seat. The van was all decked out in colourful trinkets and even pimped out with a DVD player. The driver put on some national Bolivian music accompanied with the music videos on the TV monitor. I chose to listen to me mp3 player as Bolivian music is like the Swedish band Aqua but with even more annoying and winy vocals.
So we drove along some rough and bumpy dirt roads that passed through the countryside. Twice we were stopped by ingenious farmers who had set up road blocks and charged us to get past. There was also a very hairy part where we drove along the side of a mountain with a very steep drop off the side and barely enough car space along the track. The drop was on my side of the van and being a van I was seated high up and able to look down the mountain edge far too easily for my liking. But after about two and a half hours we rejoined the motorway having bypassed the blockade. Nice one. Only another four hours to go. By the time we reached Potosi I was sooooo tired and my legs were hurting from being cooped up for so long and I wanted a bed. It was 11pm when we arrived and the rest of the passengers were keen to find transport to Cochabamba, which was where I was heading too, but I left them to it. The driver dropped me off and I went across the street to a hotel.
‘Single room for the night please.’
‘Sure, that’ll be $7’
Oh, yeah. It was good to be back and take advantage of that other great Bolivian characteristic – cheap prices. After effectively 32 hours on the road, I slept like a motherfucker.
The next day it was no surprise to find out there were blockades between Potosi and Cochabamba as well. However, if I got a bus to Sucre three hours up the road, there was a better possibility of getting transport to Cochabamba from there. But today I was in no rush. In the week since I’d arrived to South America I’d spent quite a bit of time on buses travelling so I was keen to have a rest day and travel the next day. I’d only spent a grand total of three hours in Potosi before, it was another beautiful sunny day so I was keen to stay and see more of the city. For those trivia buffs, in the 16th century Potosi was the largest and wealthiest city in the world. Bigger than Paris, London and Seville with a population of 160,000 due to the mining of silver. It's also one of the highest cities in the world at 4,090 metres (13,420 ft). To think that when I went skydiving over Sydney once, we jumped at 12,000 feet. Gives you some perspective.
I had a nice day walking around the city but come late afternoon it was all action station again as word on the street was that there were going to be blockades the next day between Potosi and Sucre. So at 7pm I was off again in another minivan. The trip went smoothly and we arrived around 10pm. The bus terminal was all closed up so I’d have to enquire about buses to Cochabamba tomorrow. I asked at the hotel across the street about a room for the night. I was in luck they had a vacancy but it was going to set me back $4. Geez, where do they get off charging so much? Ha ha, I was sure my budget could manage that. The next day I was at the terminal bright and early and, success, there were buses to Cochabamba. I bought a ticket for an overnight bus and chilled out in Sucre for the day. Actually, that's where I'm at now. I'm in the middle of enjoying that day. There's a great ice cream place here that I'm off to now. Fingers crossed for a smooth trip to Cochabamba tonight.
cheers
Space
