Road Blocks

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So it seems as though trouble seems to follow me everywhere, the whole point of going to Lima was to avoid the road blocks, but it looks as though I didn´t get the memo.

Truth be told, the day that I bought my ticket to Nazca, the road blocks were actually over, so I could have avoided the whole trip west and avoided the expensive flight more importantly.

Well, I arrived in to Juliaca and found a quick cheap bus to Puno. I arrived in Puno and found a room as recommended by Lonely Planey and was swiftly taken to my room, shown the toilet etc. No cost was discussed about how much my room was going to cost (it was about 11pm at night and the brain wasn´t at it´s peak performance).

Well I slept like a log that night, woke up and had the owner tell me how to use the shower. Water was scalding hot for a change and sure enough I enjoyed it. A short time later a Korean girl approached me and asked where I was going. I stated that I was going to Copacabana, the pituresque village on the Bolivian border on Late Titicaca. She said she was doing the same and pretty much dragged me into a taxi. I remembered that I had to pay, and the hostel had no-one at the door and I could very easily have left without paying. Instead I ran up the top of the stairs and payed the 15 soles (about 7NZD) and went on my way to the bus station.

As soon as I arrived at the bus station I was approached and offered a mini bus ride for 30 soles or a taxi for 50. We decided that we were being ripped off so politely declined both offers. Shortly afterwards we were told that there was a strike on and the roads to Bolivia were blocked...

So we asked around the taxis and all of a sudden the price of a taxi went from 50 soles to $US100... a person. We told them, not so politely this time, that we wouldn´t pay this much. Asking around a few more people we found out that there was a potential bus coming later in the day and we´d have to wait around since we didn´t know what time it´d get there.

So we waited around, saw several other tourists trying to find a cheap way to cross the border. We were told that if we wanted to go when the strikes were on, today was the only day we could since every day the strike goes on more and more people want to get money so they setup their own road blocks. Also, the Korean girl told me that she was strangle mugged in Puno and was desperate to escape.

So we waited. And waited. And waited. Along with a plethora of gringos.

While we were waiting we were offered some different offers. $80US a person, 100 soles a person, $150US a person or a boat early tomorrow morning for $80US.

Finally, one of the locals managed to score a taxi for 100 soles for the entire taxi and we jumped on it. The Korean girl, two Canadian guys and myself. The local looked a little bamboozeled as we had just pinched his taxi, but we offered him a seat and he declined.

The taxi driver then took off his taxi sign, his rear vision mirror and proceeded to scare the shit out of me with his scared actions.

I now understand why road blocks are dangerous. I wish I had photos, but felt that they wouldn´t be appreciated by the people laying the rocks on the ground and decided against taking any photos. The Korean girl on the other hand didn´t have the same logic that I was playing with and at one stage proceeded to get out of the taxi and take a photo of the 40 odd protesters at our first stop.

Never before have I had an old lady wave a crowbar at me while banging on the hood of the car as we drove slowly into her. Never have I seen seven little kids make the best road block ever by pouring oil over the rocks on the road and setting them alight. I was amazed at all of the broken glass on the road, the sheer number of rocks.

At each of the road blocks we had to pay between 2 soles and $10US. in total we payed around 60 soles. We were told this was cheap, but this is still expensive for Peru considering the bus to the border should only cost around 10 soles per person at worst.

We paid the taxi driver 100 soles and tipped him (the first time I´ve tipped a taxi driver) another 50 soles. The taxi driver suddenly claimed that he wanted $100US, then changed that to 100 soles per person. Lets just say that he didn´t get any more out of us and received a look of scorn from the locals around him.

So late at night we arrived in the border town of Yungoro or something like that and had some street food and beers to celebrate. The night was capped off by a peruvian guy, who I wouldn´t be surprised if he was homeless, talking to us for about 3 hours. None of us understood a word of what he said, and he didn´t understand a word of what we said. I´m not sure he was speaking spanish, so I guess Quechan. But from what we could determine, he lived on the moon and his brother was going to pick him up sometime.

Slept in a hostel, the cheapest I´d been in for 10 soles a night. No hot water, but that was the least of my problems for the day.

The next morning we walked to the border (now I can say I´ve crossed a border on foot) and crossed into Bolivia.

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Comments

[Alex Wong]

Gangsta
title says it all. Man you've gone through some shit bro!