Worst Bus Journey Ever (Sucre - Cochabamba)

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Hola Mis Amigos!

So I left off in Sucre, which I was enjoying very much, to continue the trip up to Cochabamba. This bus ride was officially the worst bus ride ever! I am aware that I still have another three months to go and will enounter numerous other buses, but I genuinely cannot imagine anything worse than this. I have yet to experience a good bus journey in Bolivia. The bus from Cochabamba to La Paz comes a very close second to this one!

We arrived at the bus station and checked our backpacks in with the bus company, and were waiting downstairs by the bus, when a very rotund man began throwing our backpacks down two flights of stairs to another guy waiting at the bottom (he, oddly, was wearing a Vauxhall jumpsuit, clearly prepared for the onslaught of heavy backpacks!). I´m sure there must be a better way of getting bags onto the bus than hurling them down stairs, but this is Bolivia...

Everyone was fairly sad at leaving Sucre, as they had enjoyed their time there (even me, though I knew I was coming back), and as if the sky had read everyone´s thoughts a massive thundercloud, darker than any I had seen before loomed over the road leading out of Sucre. Fairly ominous, but I had glanced down the aisle of the bus and noticed a large group of nuns, so we clearly had God on our side. Or not. Driving out of Sucre, the bus, without exaggeration, was plunged into darkness. The small country roads to Cochabamba offer no lamp-posts and are mostly carved into the hillsides. To be honest, I came to realise that the darkness was probably a blessing. Not only could I not see the steep drop into the valley, but Susan who I was sat next to, discovered by the light of her torch while searching for her eyemask, a beetle nest embedded in the seat in front of us! The plot thickens...the beetles had brought along some travel companions in the form of cockroaches which proceeded to climb the walls of the bus! Sound like a horror film? It doesn´t stop there! We stopped for a toilet break (no toilets on Bolivian buses - a far cry from the luxury liners of Argentina!) and took one look at the floor and had one whiff of the stagnant air in there and firmly decided holding was better than going!

The bus had to stop twice for equally long periods after that, once because something was wrong with the tyres. The driver and his mate got out, did a lot of staring and kicking of the tyres for about an hour. Still, they decided this was enough to rectify whatever the problem was, and we were off again. The second time we stopped due to a truck ahead of us that was stuck on one of the muddy mountain roads. We sat there for what felt like eternity, occasionally reversing back which played a multitude of games with everyone´s nerves! Eventually, we were on our way again with continually reckless driving, and somehow I managed to sleep a little bit, keeping my feet way off the floor and as far from the seat/beetle nest as possible, only to be woken at 5am by some serious swaying of the bus - we were passing through a river. By some miracle (I thank the nuns) we passed through ok, although for about 30 minutes I wasn´t sure we were going to make it across without the bus toppling over, it really was that bad!

Sound like a hellish ride? I would not have been at all surprised, had I walked up the aisle and peeked into the driver´s cabin, to find Old Nick himself at the wheel, roaring with laughter at his passengers´ expense!

When we finally arrived in Cochabamba, I felt like kissing the ground! But this undoubtedly would result in some horrible disease. Although later that day I realised I had a tummy bug and became very well-aquainted with the inside of the toilet bowl in my room! To be honest, Cochabamba really doesn´t rank vry highly on my list of places!

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Comments

[Dude Skoodle]

Tough travel is memorable travel. Experiences like this are why we travel. You will remember it with affection. If you want sanitized, there is always Adelaide or Christchurch, but any blog about those places won't be half as interesting as your Bolivia one. Its a great little story and entertaining to read.