When we arrived at the Cochabamba bus station to catch our pre-booked bus to Oruro (the day before......we wanted good seats at the front for the scenic trip) we were handed our money back. There was a local protest and road blockade on the main highway so all the buses in that direction were cancelled with no indication of when the road would open again. Apparently this happens frequently in Bolivia so the locals seemed unperturbed. Cab drivers showed up and started offering their services for much higher rates, taking backroads around the blockade. While we and some German girls were negotiating a price with a driver, one of the bus companies announced they were going to try the detour and everyone then flocked to their counter. The ticket price was the same as with our first company ($3.50) but instead of a 3 hour ride it was going to take 4 hours and they were using an older bus since it was mostly a secondary, dirt road to get around the blockade. We made it successfully to Oruro with only one unplanned stop when the bus bottomed-out at a low point in the road..........everyone had to depart to lighten the load and then they placed rocks in front of the tires to raise the carriage enabling the bus to carry on with minor damage to the front fender.
As soon as we arrived in Oruro we booked into our hostel close to the train station and then went there to book tickets for the next day on the scenic train to the salt flats in Uyuni. The train only runs a couple of times a week and fills up fast. However, we soon learned that there was another protest and blockade happening in the south end of the country preventing the train from going there. Since our only reason for going to Oruro was to take the train, we quickly went back to the hostel to get our bags (the hostel manager was cool with us not staying the night) and being the flexible travellers that we are, we changed our course to visit Sucre and Potosi before Uyuni (which we were going to do after), hoping the protest would be over in a week so that we could catch the train on it's return trip to Oruro. Before taking our overnight bus to Sucre we had a fabulous dinner at one of the best restaurants in Oruro, Nayjama, which was highly recommended by the Lonely Planet and run by a celebrity chef with whom we had a good conversation while we were there........his English was good and he had been to Vancouver and Alaska checking out our seafood. We had chicken soup, kingfish and lamb (2 meals)........it was fabulous but the three of us still couldn't eat it all so we took our leftovers to leave with someone less fortunate before catching our overnight bus.
We had a good one day visit in Sucre, walking around the town, spending time at the market (note the clever use of an umbrella to prevent pidgeon-poop from contaminating the unrefridgerated meat), and visiting a Museum with indiginous artifacts.........their weaving skills were awesome but time consuming, taking up to 3 months to complete the more complex design items. This morning we took a 4 hour bus ride to Potosi. We had to pay a departure tax at the bus terminal which has been common in the poorer countries. It was only .40 cents but it's amazing to see how many locals flag down the bus one block from the terminal to avoid paying the tax.........we have seen this many times. I have tried to point out to the ladies that we could save 15-18% of our bus travel expenses by doing the same thing but they think that my financial thinking became permanently impaired after spending a couple of years as a Controller at Xerox.
The bus ride through the mountains and along the altiplano (plateau) was wonderful, passing many small villages where the locals lived in small, 100 year old stone homes, and the women did the family laundry in creeks and rivers. We are now in Potosi and have found a lovely hostel (the first hot water shower in a few days) so we are going to stay here for 3-4 days and explore the area. It is supposed to be the highest city in the world at just over 4,000 metres. Even though it is late fall here the daytime temperatures are still in the low-20's C but in the evening it drops to the 5C range, reminding us a little of life at home.
Buenos noches.... familia Hevey
No comments:
Post a Comment