South America

Run for your lives, tourists still in Bolivia

Here, en Español, is a recent email sent out to some American Volunteers in Bolivia.

Les pido por favor lean con atención este mensaje. Es de conocimiento de ustedes que nuestro país atraviesa por una situación bastante difícil y de alguna manera peligrosa. Lo propio en nuestra ciudad "Cochabamba". Las calles están bloqueadas, hay marchas y protestas. Hemos escuchado que hay grupos de delincuentes, ladrones, que están robando negocios, tiendas, y otros. Quiero pedirles que por favor tomen las precauciones necesarias, y sean lo mas cautos y precavidos posibles, si alguno de ustedes visita el centro de la ciudad, debe de tener mucho cuidado. No quisiera alarmarlos, pero si hay problemas y deben de considerar su posición y situación.

Just to give you an idea of what happens when there is no control in your country, random mobs start taking over your cities and looting stores. I guessed this would happen in Bolivia, and already it is being confirmed for me.

Keep reading BBC and Yahoo on the situation, but know that on the ground things are always much worse.

Help? Nah! WE don´t need any in Bolivia

The key part of the AP´s assesment of the Bolivian situation is delivered in the last paragraph of their article,

The government, meanwhile, rejected suggestions that international mediation, probably by the Organization of American States, might be needed to defuse the crisis.

Ahem. We don´t need your help, we have it all figured out here in Bolivia. Needless to say, all travellers who planned on heading their have diverted their plans to other countries, and business inside Bolivia has all but ceased, once again.

What´s the worst part of the story? The "evil" international gas companies have already delivered their plans to pull money from Bolivia, and that is based on the revised law that 100,000 campesinos in the streets think is too "soft."

I know I come off like a conservative here, but there has to be some middle ground between corrupt intl. politics and the demands of 100,000 Coca farmers, who make obscene demands while know little of intl. oil exporting.

AND - which was the first intl. oil company to pull cash out of Bolivia? Petrobras, from neighboring Brasil. Not the evil USA that those 100,000 Ché Guevara flag wavers blame for all their problems.

By the way, in case anyone was counting, Bolivia was the country that betrayed and killed Ché.

Brasil is Bolivia´s eastern neighbor, that despite its own racial tensions and a long history of oppression, has built one of the world´s 10 strongest economies.

Life in Peril Volume 1: Bus from Uyuni to La Paz

CLANK. SMASH. BANG. Crick, crick crick, BOOM!

These are some of the choice sounds of nondescript metal objects smashing into the bottom of our bus at 3am.

Liz, teeth literally chattering, slowly and deliberately asked me for my thin, sarong-like towel to use as a blanket, in an attempt to keep some warmth near her body. She sat next to the bus window, which was now frozen on the inside.

Like a scene out of titanic, our bus was stuck on ice, and we were slowly freezing inside. We didn´t know it at the time, but we were about to endure 8 hours of sub-zero temperatures.

Life in Peril Volume 2: La Paz to Copacabana

It sounded like we had been hit by a grenade.

One quick pop, an explosion, and suddenly our bus was careening out of control. In the 2nd seat, I saw the bus driver pull a frantic manuever as the people on all sides of me screamed for god to help them. The indigenous lady next to me, whom I had a lovely conversation with earlier in the ride, grabbed onto my arm for some semblance of safety.

Our bus had just experience a severe tire blowout, one of the more common ways to get seriously injured while travelling in Bolivia.

Though thoroughly spooked, no one on the bus was hurt this time. Liz, who had a rear seat, was bear hugged by the lady sitting next to her, who obviously feared the worst.

Lucky that no serious damage was done, the bus crew fixed up the tire and took us down to the straights, where our bus boarded a boat. I can´t make this stuff up, so I took a picture.

Life in Peril Volume 3: Getting from Copacabana back to La Paz - the long road home.

"EEEIEEEYYYY" was the overwhelming sound heard as our bus rumbled out of Copacabana, taking a speed bump at about 5mph, and causing half the passengers to nail their heads against the bus ceiling.

This one might be the travel story you have all been waiting for.

If only we knew then what kind of road we were about to embark on, I think most passengers would have turned around right then. Here is the story of the Bolivian bus driver that did, in fact, try to kill me. If you have never tried to push a bus out of a river, please do read on...

My first mistake - Salar de Uyuni

"No Busses till 6:30," muttered the world´s most uninterested office clerk, as I attempted to huff what little air was available into my lungs. There I was, just as I had feared, stuck once again in Potosí (my least favorite town in the universe); except this time I had all my personal belongings on me and it was a dreaded Sunday.

The adventure actually began for me at 7am that same day in Sucre, as I arrived lugging my bags at the bus station. I had prepaid my bus ticket to Potosí at the hostal, planning to catch the said noon bus immediately out of Potosí and on to Uyuni, my destination town. One foot out of the cab, a bus company lady grabbed my bags shouting "Potosí, Potosí" and started walking up to her office. I calmly explained that we had already bought tickets, and she calmly convinced me that I had a ticket for her company.

Of course, she was lying. She started to write out new tickets, and even though I was still half-asleep I could tell something wasn´t right. Regardless, she tossed the huge bags on top of a ramshackle bus, literally, and my travel companion Liz and I were about to board.

My bag, my enemy

If I can give one piece of advice to future South American travellers, it would be to pack light.

My bag, weighing in at somewhere around 50lbs or 22 kilos when fully packed, is my arch nemesis. I felt it was important to show it off, before I begin to dive into where I have taken it, and where it has taken me. Though I tried to get rid of excess weight by shipping, tossing, and giving away stuff, the bag remains the weight of a small child.

Just to put it all in perspective.

The sheep that broke my camera´s back

At long last, I present to you... The sheep in Sucre that broke my camera. This is the last picture taken with the old, trusty, piece of junk Casio Digicam.

Lucky for me, Fawad has come to Cusco to bail me out, and a certain Dragonballyee has delivered to me an old friend - The Cyber U.

Big thanks to Fawad and Albert for hooking me up...

Rurre, the jungle in Bolivia

Sometime (I really hope) in the next few days, I will be heading off tourist style for the jungle. Needless to say, I love travelling but sort of despise touristing, and booking this attraction isn´t as time efficient as I had hoped, so I´m first headed for the Peru border and lake titicaca to renew my Bolivian visa. That is the plan for today, at least, to visit the seat of Incan civilization while waiting for the medieval times equivalent of an airline (amaszonas) to figure out if they are flying to their most popular destination this week. As I write this post right now, the entire airline is on lunch. I can´t make this stuff up. I´m writing from the cyber cafe next door.

I´ve had enough troubles so far just trying to get a flight out of La Paz to Rurre, and fellow traveller William from England wrote me a hilarious email about his experience there a few months back. Do read on...

Off to Uyuni

As you read this, I´m off on a tough bus trek (up to 12 hours, no bathrooms) towards the Salar De Uyuni, the world´s largest salt flats.

On the advice of other travellers, who dared to be honest about their experiences, we are going to try and take a one-day salt flat tour, and hurry up towards the Amazon jungle. Yes, I´ve already started my anti-malaria medicine.

Sucre is done, time to travel!