Cochabamba to La Paz (Second Worst Bus Journey Ever!)

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I believe I left off at the point of arrival in Cochabamba. I wasn´t in the best mood, due to hardly any sleep, and I kept thinking "I left Sucre to get on a cockroach-infested bus with the devil at the wheel to come here?" Cochabamba is pretty much a big city and that is it. There is nothing particularly special to do, apart from get a cable-car up a hill to look at a big statue of Christ (five centimetres taller than the one in Rio de Janiero. Brilliant). We dutifully went up in the cable-car, looked at the Christ, took some photos then headed back to our hostel for a lovely little siesta. Siestas are the best thing in the world I have decided! Now I am currently back in Sucre I have a siesta every day - it fits in so perfectly with my routine - get up and have Spanish classes in the morning, come back and have a siesta, multitask by sunbathing and studying Spanish! ¿Es un día perfecta, no?

Anyway, I had a little sleep, then woke up feeling a bit odd. We were meant to be going out for dinner and an evening of bowling which I was looking forward to, but alas! The moment I got dressed and was about to head out to join everyone that wave of nausea which makes you think "Shit, I need a bathroom and I need one now!" came washing over me and I legged it back to my room, and the rest I think you can figure out, but I was very well-aquainted with the inside of that toilet bowl by the next morning! Unluckily for me, we had an early bus from Cochabamba to La Paz (you really only need one night, if that, in Cochabamba). I had been up all night, was feverish and could hardly move, but I had barely unpacked, so I threw stuff I had unpacked into a bag, somehow got dressed, and was put in a taxi at 7.45am. We got on the bus (I was so out of it, I don´t remember the taxi to the bus station, Cochabamba bus station or anything about getting on the bus!) and I curled up on my seat and passed out for the seven hours to La Paz. I was so lucky I was on a tour at that time, it meant everyone else took care of The Beast (my backpack) and I was well looked-after (Susan kept bringing me water and Gatorade!).

At several points on that journey I woke up and wished I hadn´t! Firstly, a load of Bolivian women got onto the bus to try and sell food. One rather large woman found it pretty difficult to negotiate her way down the bus aisle while holding a big tray of chicken and squeezing past the other women with fruit, bread, hamburgers, and all manner of odd-looking snacks! As she made her way back towards us, the squeezing got too much, her tray tipped, and suddenly everyone was covered in chicken, which had been marinated in BBQ sauce! Mmmm...the worst thing was that she proceeded to go about collecting all the chicken off passengers, overhead compartments and the floor! Yes, she picked the chicken up from the floor of a public bus and arranged it back on her tray, no doubt to try and flog it to the next unsuspecting bus of people! Secondly, a family next to us had bought one of the weird-looking snacks from the bus ladies. I saw this, fell asleep, then an hour later I woke up to see the boy hurling up whatever the hell this snack was into a see-through carrier bag that just wasn´t quite big enough to hold everything! For someone already feeling ill, made a thousand times worse by being stuck on a hot bus, this nearly pushed me over the edge! Lastly, the bus stopped to pick up some more people, so I awoke at the point a Bolivian lady (again, quite large!) was putting her stuff in the overhead compartment next to us. She had the absolute cheek to move another large Bolivian lady´s stuff about ten inches along the compartment, which caused a big bitchfight to ensue about whose stuff should go where! I have never seen anything quite so bizarre as these two big ladies with the traditional Bolivian pigtails and bowler hats trying to slap each other while alternately pushing each others´ bags out of the overhead compartment!

I was very happy to arrive in La Paz and get to our hotel, which turned out to be lovely! I got straight into bed and slept all day and night, waking up to watch a bit of TV and drink Gatorade. The following morning, I was like a new woman! I had a shower and some breakfast and went for a little walk. A big achievement for someone who the day before had been lying curled up in the foetal position crying for her mum! And the rest of my La Paz experience (pretty crazy as it turns out) will continue in the following blog...

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