When we arrived in Bogota from Rurrenabaque, a cold spell had definitely hit. Early the next morning, we rode to the bus station in a light rain. By the time the bus took off, it had started snowing. Pretty cool, right? Wrong. It took us an hour and a half just to get out of La Paz, and for some reason, the driver decided heat wasn't necessary. Can I just say that the window panes were not weather resistant?
Luckily, they played Force of Execution, dubbed in Spanish, a couple of times throughout the trip. Although a stupid movie, at least it helped the time go by more quickly.
With only one stop in the journey, we were thankful the bus had a bathroom....until we tried using it. As I went down the stairs, I discovered three older people hanging out in a four-foot-squared hallway with their huge bags of who-knows-what blocking the john. The lady even seemed a bit put out when I couldn't squeeze through the two-inch crack I was able to open the door. Relieved to finally get into the small bathroom, I saw piles of stuff covering every available space (except the toilet, thank goodness). Who needs to wash their hands anyway?
As we approached our destination of Cochabamba, we suddenly came to a standstill. At this point in time, we were ready to exit the bus as for the last two hours, some man in front of us had been trying to listen to a soccer match on his portable radio....while going through the mountains. I am sure you all love static as much as I do. It turns out that there was a traffic jam at the bus station, a mere hundred yards ahead of us. We were told that only the people without luggage under the bus could get off, so we waited another hour in stopped traffic before stumbling off the bus with glazed-over eyes. The station was packed with people...on a Saturday night. We figured it was because Pope Francis was arriving in La Paz in a couple of days and people were trying to be there. The bus ride was nine-and-a-half-hours long, about two hours longer than they said it would be. Oh, the joys of buses!
Do you eat with those hands?
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