Back in Bolivia

What does 60 hours of bus travel get you - besides a very big crook in your neck and a pain in your behind? It gets you a long way from Buenos Aires; 1823km to be exact as the crow flies. Add in a few pit stops along the way – a night in Santa Cruz, one in Villa Tunari, and a quick stop in Cochabamba and you get a very long journey.

The reason for such a big trip? We had plans to volunteer at an animal sanctuary for 15 days before settling in Sucre for a month of Spanish lessons.  Sadly, Inti Wara Yassi had received a record influx of volunteers - Gap Adventures bringing 14 people the day before, and at least 7 turning up the morning we arrived. Such big numbers left us with the opportunity of doing construction work for the park. We decided against it. While no doubt rewarding, I definitely had my heart set on working with a little monkey rather than logging rocks and sand on my back up a very muddy hill. We would no doubt have quickly got our fitness back, but my back deserves a rest from heavy lifting. Jobs such as cleaning up animal poop was much more what I was after. Hopefully we will get the chance to volunteer further along the line – I’m already looking into it.

Arriving late in the afternoon, we spent the night in Villa Tunari, shooting off a few quick emails to try to rearrange our Spanish lessons that we had (uncharacteristically) already booked for the middle of March. With no response by mid morning the next day, we decided it best to head to Sucre anyway and take our chances. The journey involves a pit stop in Cochabamba anyway where we could change destinations if things didn’t start going our way.

With me on bag watch, Claire stood by the side of the road and hailed down a bus going to Cochabamba (Villa Tunari is so small that there is no bus terminal). She did very well – managing to hail down an entirely empty cama bus with big comfy seats that recline to 160 degrees for our 4 or so hour journey to Cochabamba. We guess that the morons driving the bus (at top speed over the mountain) had just picked up the coach second hand and were making their maiden voyage for they had no customers, had no idea what to charge us, and then questioned us as to whether we wanted to keep going to La Paz. No way was I going any further with those driving ‘skills.’

I spoke too soon regarding driving ‘skills.’ Our next bus driver for the 10 hours from Cochabamba to Sucre was an absolute nutter. My nervousness was compounded by the fact that we were driving in the dark, at a speed that felt like it was way to fast, over an enormous mountain, that had no safety railings (passing what looked like where a vehicle had just gone off the edge), nor was this ‘road’ paved. To make the night even more ‘fun’ we were on a normal bus, with seats that just fit your behind, and hardly recline. (Yes, I have to admit, I have been spoilt by Argentine buses.) Combine this with very crappy suspension, and a driver that thinks he’s driving Daytona, and you have a very uncomfy ride – so much so that we should have worn sports bras :s

By some miracle, we arrived in one piece in Sucre. And even more luckily, we have been able to bring our Spanish lessons forward 2 weeks – we start on Monday with orientation that includes oral and written tests so they can place us in the right class. For some reason they have ignored my plight of ‘absolute beginner’ and want to test me anyway. It will be strange having homework again after all this time. Other than the homework aspect I’m rather looking forward to it. I’m over having people ask if I speak Spanish and giving me rude looks when I reply ‘nada.’