Asuncion -> Cuzco
5th of April:
Roused from my sleep at 5:30 in the morning as we have made it to Mariscal Estigarribia, which although far from the Bolivian border is where the exit stamp from Paraguay is given. I also believe that the officials were as sleepy as me and everyone else (except the driver, I hope) as they stamped the wrong day in my passport, so now I left Paraguay on the 4th instead of the 5th. Back on the bus I went back to sleep, much like all the other passengers.
I woke up again around 8.30, and started The Odyssey and this time finished it, what an amazing book, truly it has held up the test of time, and is a worthy recommendation for everybody. Back in the real world, I still couldn’t get the Swedes to talk, I don’t know why, but they will rather sit and quietly stare out the window, all 3 of them, so I just let them do so. Instead I start reading a book I have been anxious to read for some time now, when I was in Buenos Aires I picked up the sequel to Master and Commander, called Post-Captain. However it was also around this time I discovered, that my water bottle had broken open and my diary, which had been in water for some time now, had taken heavy water damage, especially the spine, and the pages with writing (my pen was lodged there, giving the water easy access) have been badly damaged, so at a later time I will have to carefully dry it.
Later on the trip, deeply taken in by my book, we had stopped for one of the countless checks you have to endure in Bolivia: I had crossed into Bolivia around 10 or 11 o’clock, a process that was very painless and gave a beautiful blue and green stamp, much like the Chilean, except for green instead of red. Anyway the checkpoint soldiers were waving my rucksack around, calling out in an aggressive tone for the owner, so I pulled out my passport, toughened myself and went to see what was wrong. I was immediately asked why I was carrying questionable substances, which normally means drugs, but in my case meant contact lenses. so after having explained the nature of contact lenses, they let me have my rucksack back, allowed me to repack it (they tore everything out, possibly looking for white powder), and the bus was off again.
After a long and uninteresting drive (after the drug check(, I arrived in Santa Cruz, and instead of crashing on a bed somewhere, I decided to take a second bus, straight to La Paz, and instead get some time there, and then take a a night bus the day after to Cuzco and arrive on the 8th in the morning, thus getting more or less 1,5 full days in La Paz, although I o intend to return.
But one has to be way in South America, this is also a tale of how I got my money cheated away from me, although I wasn’t aware. I went into the terminal to buy my ticket, and found a nice looking company which would take me straight to La Paz, only 18 hours (on top of my initial 23 hours) and at the meager price of 250 Bolivian peso. Since I was a new arrival I had unfortunately not checked what a Bolivian peso was worth, and since the bus left about 10 minutes later, I thought I might as well just seize the ticket, so to speak.
On board the bus I sat next to a very kind Bolivian named Lorgio, who frequently travels around the country (he is a farmer with 5 different estates, a sort of engineer). The bus left at 20 o’clock, but we talked for a long time into the night, and I really do swear that my discussions become more advanced; not only did we talk about the usual stuff, but also immigration problems in Denmark, caused by the Muhammed cartoons. This would also be a good time to point out, that I do not master Spanish to such a degree, far from. What I do is make up sentences from simpler words, gesticulate or make the other person guess it, and learn the word that way. That being said, I have never set out to say something, and not gotten it across. He lives in a city called Rurrenabaque, which is a place I am going to, as the nearby park holds the worlds greatest biodiversity, including 10% of all known bird species. But sleepiness overcame me, and I eventually said goodnight and tried to get some sleep. However this was a domestic Bolivian trip, which meant screaming babies, horrible seats with knees in your back, and around 1 o’clock, I was woken up as someone was shouting something about a police/military search of the bus. It turned out that the driver had just thought it a great idea, that when everybody in the bus was sleeping, to stop at a roadside place, where there are toilets and food to buy, who wouldn’t want that in their sleep?
One thing I forgot to mention is how to use public toilets, you go up and pay a ridicules sum of 1 Bolivian peso, you then get some toilet paper and a ticket. The toiletpaper I get, but you are right at the entrance, why would I need a ticket, to verify that I purchased my entrance, I’m already there. It is still a funny concept however.
6th of April:
Around 8 o’clock, the bus arrived in Cochabamba (Kotjavamba), and the driver told everyone to get out, something that hardly reached me as I was going to La Paz, or so I thought. Turns out that the bus company I was driving with doesn’t go further than La Paz, so although I knew it to be futile, I decided to have some free fun, and went into their office to complain. Not only did it in fact say on the ticket that it was only valid till Cochaama, it also said that I only paid 60 Bolivian peso for it… Enraged by this pathetic abuse of my money, I did nothing, there was nothing to do. So I went with Lorgio to buy a new ticket, and we each bought a ticket to La Paz, this time a somewhat shorter trip (7,5 hours) but at a meagre 30 Bolivian peso. Afterwards we had breakfast, a sort of Bolivian empanada, just with a greater diversity of content and the name “saltena”.
We boarded the bus (Lorgio and I), this last part was rather uninteresting, although for once they showed movies, but as to be expected, they were dubbed into Spanish with no subtitles. We arrived in La Paz trouble free, where Lorgio helped me buy a ticket to Cuzco, although I had hoped for a nightbus the following day, only morningbuses were available, which means I will arrive in Cuzco at 1 or 2 in the morning, but such is life. I took a taxi all the way through La Paz to my hostel, which cost me approx. 1 USD, a sum I am ready to pay. Once in my hostel, I signed up for the dinner that was arranged there, and checked out (as I was leaving so early, having to be at the terminal at 8 in the morning). In my room I met Danny from Cambridge, and we talked for lengths about music, in particular the music he could play on his guitar, right up until the moment when one of his strings snapped.
After such a long bus trip, I really wasn’t up for anything, so I didn’t do anything. Just sat around reading in my book, being unhappy with all supermarkets being closed, so I would have absolutely no food on my 16 hour bustrip the following day.
I had signed up for a good dinner at the hostel, which although was a bit small. But afterwards when I walked back to my room, I met Patrick (of Bariloche fame), that wonderful Irish guy, which is why it almost saddened me that I was leaving the next day. However we did recap on what we had done, since last we had met. But that was also around when i discovered that my DVD’s with my pictures on were gone, stolen. I searched high and low for them, all over the hostel, and with the assistance of Patrick, but they were simply nowhere to be found. Luckily I always burn my DVD’s out to two copies, but it is still very annoying, and would steal them? The only DVD which is now lost, is my DVD #2. The major problem being that the copy my father has (I send them home), doesn’t work. I had the DVD #2 on me along with #4 and #5 as I was hoping to send them home by post, but that wasn’t possible as the post service in Paraguay is horrible, and here in Bolivia the postal workers are on strike.
But I was tired and hungry, so instead of prolonging my pain, I went early to bed to get some decent sleep, something I really needed after two horrible nights sleeping on a bus.
7th of April:
I woke several times during the night, it is a lot colder here (La Paz is at an altitude of 3000m, which gives a lot of new arrivals headaches, but my only problem is the air being too thin to whistle), but the beds are well equipped. I woke several times during the night, as several people came back at different times, causing somewhat of a ruckus. However at 6.15 I had slept for a long time (went to ed at 22), so I got up, packed my bag, confirmed my reservation for Cuzco, the destination of today.
I caught a taxi to the terminal, and sat around for an hour waiting, before I bought some sandwiches and some water for the trip, and just like that I was off for Cuzco. As we came closer to the Paraguay border, we had to endure more and more searches, more and more stops; but nothing happened. And then after some 2,5 hours we arrived at the border. Here we had to leave Bolivia, cross a bridge and officially enter Peru.
Furthermore we also had to change bus, as our own bus was tiny, and a lot more would join us from other buses. Unfortunately for us, they left on later buses, so we had to wait for a very long time. But the time passed and we boarded our second bus, which took us as far as Puno. In Puno we once again had to change bus (by now, only two of us who left La Paz were left).
After a busride which felt unbelievably long, not helped by the Spanish dubbed Chuck Norris film, which was so worn (VHS) that you couldn’t see anything, just hear it; the bus arrived in Cuzco. So Florian (a German I had met on the bus) and I took a taxi to a hospedaje (guesthouse), as the hostel I was gonna stay at was full (my reservation wasn’t till the following day). I went straight to sleep, and just like that… I was in Cuzco.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 18:24. It is filed under Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru.
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