Jan. 9, 2003
Quite literally, it turns out. Or was it my bus? I'm not quite sure what happened. But I need to preface the story by saying that several times during my trip, I've been on a bus and been kicked out, sometimes for hours, along with everyone else. I'd grab all my stuff and sit there like a dope, looking around to see if anyone else knew what was going on. We'd wait around for a while and then when the driver seemed to feel like it, the bus would return and we would all get back on and resume the trip. On the same bus, too, so man, it was a great thing I grabbed my luggage only to be able to throw it back on the bus. I'm sure these were all legitimate layovers, but since I don't speak much Spanish, it always caught me off guard to have to leave.
Anyway, having said that. . . coming from Lake Tititaca on the Bolivia/Peru border to La Paz in Bolivia, I was riding a minibus. Basically, a van with lots of people crowded into it. And a little girl next to me leaning over every two seconds to toss candy out to any kids we happened to see along the side of the road. It was great, I highly recommend this form of public transportation to one and all, particularly if you're generally prone to motion sickness. At some point, we happened to stop along the water. And once again, we were all asked to leave. Tired of this game, I stepped out, no luggage this time and wondered how long we'd have to wait this time.
OK, I gotta also add that I was pretty hungry by this point. It hadn't been a long trip but I had missed breakfast. And remember that I'd been staring at candy for most of the way too. So I saw food along the side of the road and was momentarily distracted. And then I happened to run into my friend Mike who i had been traveling with the first week of my trip. Dude, the travel circuits are crazy sometimes. I don't know how many times I've run into the same people over and over again. So anyway, what with one thing and another, I didn't notice everyone on my bus getting into a boat. Well, I guess I did see my bus get onto a boat but figured it was just a nice outing maybe for the driver. All the other buses and cars seemed to be doing it, too. So i sat down to wait. And wait. And wait.
Finally, it hits me (about an hour later - ok, I'm totally slow sometimes, don't mock me) that my bus might not be returning. And no one from my bus was anywhere in sight. At that point, i got suspicious. And consulted my handy dandy travel guide that I should read more closely earlier. Guess what? The driver wasn't getting some fresh air during his break. We were all supposed to cross the lake along with him. On a different boat. And meet him on the other side. where we would then continue the trip. I don't know why there's a separate boat for the passengers and the bus itself, but that's the way they do it. Of course, by the time I made my way across the river, my bus was long gone.
It was ok, though. This way, I got to pay my fare a second time to ride a different bus. One that smelled of fish and had even more people in it than the first. And briefly got to meet some German guys who gave me their bag of chips. AND I got to wander through the bus station in La Paz looking for my bag that had still been on top of the first bus. It all took a little longer than planned but I eventually did get my stuff back. And got to know the bus station well in the process. I don't know if I would really call it a station though so much as an area of about a square mile or seven where buses seem to congregate, pretty much non-distinguishable from the areas where the buses didn't congregate. Basically, the system seemed to be, lets all pick a spot to just hang out and wait for passengers, but just to confuse, you go around the corner, I'll wait a mile down the road, and lets just make sure there are no other buses nearby so as to not suggest anything remotely like a bus stand.
And wait, there's more. The last few days have been a total comedy of errors. I don't think I told you guys about Daniel. . . I should have taken bets on whether he'd show or not. Those of you who have heard me talk about him will be happy to know that he continues to entertain. (If you haven't, its probably enough for now to mention that this is the same friend who didn't show up to meet me in Istanbul on a previous trip. I had pretty much vowed to never count on him again for anything, and was only vaguely expecting him to actually show up in South America, but he kept wanting to come, so I figured it didn't hurt to tell him fine, I suppose).
Anyway, we had a plan to meet at Copacabana in Lake Titicaca. He was flying into La Paz at 7 in the morning. It seemed silly for me to go all the way down there to see him. And honestly, I didn't feel like putting myself out even a little. Which was probably for the best, it turned out. I told him to take a bus that same morning and come to Copacabana. It's only a 3.5 hr ride (assuming you know to follow the bus when it crosses the water, of course). I picked a restaurant for lunch and told him I'd be hanging around all afternoon. And then if he couldn't make that, he should come to the hotel.
So 5pm rolls around. Still no sign of him. So I went back to the hotel. Still no sign of him. I finally went to bed.
Next morning, I check email and whaddya know. I got something from his mom telling me that he got sick from the altitude and went down to a more "comfortable" height. That worried me right off the bat. There was no where nearby where the altitude was lower. You had to travel at least ten hours by bus. Even La Paz is at an elevation of 4000m.
Finally, I heard from him, too, in another day or so. And sure enough, he was in Arequipa, Peru! Ten hours away. He had come to the restaurant before I had. I guess he was feeling the altitude. And rather than waiting, he decided he was too sick to stay. And hopped back on the bus. And found himself on it for 10 hrs. I'm sorry. Who does shit like this? Rather than coming to the hotel around the corner, he took a bus and traveled for the rest of the day? Ok, apparently, he was stumbing and throwing up all over the place. And I can testify that altitude sickness is not pleasant. But really? I mean, I managed to hike for 4 days despite feeling miserable. And I wouldn't really call myself exactly tolerant of any kind of sickness.
And THEN to make matters worse, he decided that he didn't want to take the bus all the way back to Lake Titicaca. He'd rather fly, but the only flights were to La Paz, which again, can I remind you, is at an elevation of 4000m. So I don't know what difference it would have made. It turned out too that he had all sorts of issues catching a flight, but by this point, I had lost interest, so I couldn't really tell you how it all went down.
It turned out he made it after all, but I pretended not to be checking email and ignored him for a couple of day. Came to La Paz early and hung out without him for a while. And now, he has so many restrictions that I've given up on him again. I'm on in the middle of the jungle, about to start a jungle tour. For some reason he decided to come with, though he doesn't actually have time to do a tour. I don't know what he's doing and honestly, I'm not sure he does either. I think we traveled together for a total of 20 hours or so. And most of it consisted of me trying to figure out how to get here to the middle of nowhere, and him tagging along. Now that he's here and doesn't have time for a tour, he's trying to figure out how to get back out, since the flights to and from aren't all that frequent. So I hope he has a better time the rest of his trip. I think he has to be in Chile by Sat where he meets up with relatives.
The plane ride here was exciting. It was on a military plane in an unpressurized; they gave us cotton to stuff in our ears. Never checked our ID once! But we figured that since everyone on there had machine guns, they didn't have to worry about us hijacking the plane. It was either this or apparently riding a "meat plane" with dead carcasses. Since the accident rates on those things seem phenomenal, we opted for the military plane.
Note that even in a little village in the middle of the rainforest, there's an internet cafe.
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