The Blaus - South America and Europe

5 de Abril - Getting to Villa Tunari, Bolivia

It is amazing that we are able to write a blog from the jungle of Bolivia. We are in a small town at the frontier of the lowland jungle in Central Bolivia. We left Sucre on an overnight bus to Cochabamba, arrived in Cochabamba at 6am, then hopped on a 4 hour bus to Villa Tunari. We came here to see the lowlands of central Bolivia, to do some hiking in one of the national parks (Guacharos in Parque Nacional Carrasco) with an ecologist guide, to visit a wildlife rescue organization (Inti Wara Yassi) and to possibly arrange a boat tour of the jungle. It turns out that we won`t be able to go on a boat tour of the rivers of the Amazon basin here. The timing doesn´t work out for us, so we will try to do this in the northern part of the Amazon basin instead (in Rurrenabaque) after we visit La Paz.

The bus ride from Cochabamba to Villa Tunari was incredible. Until now, we had only seen the driest parts of Bolivia where water is hard to come by. As we advanced further into the lowlands of Bolivia, we began to see abundant rivers and manmade lakes. There is much more terracing for farming on the hillsides here, and the scenes outside of the bus window reminded us of our memories of remote and tropical South East Asia. It was breathtaking to watch the land transform from the city sprawl of Cochabamba into the tropical mountainous gateway to the lowland jungle of central Bolivia. The weather became more and more humid and warm as we continued the journey. The mountains were covered with green ferns, palms, banana trees, viney rubber trees...very lush and wild vegetation. We started to see butterflies all around and birds in the trees. There were low hanging misty clouds hovering above the purple mountains as the sun rose and we made our descent. This is why we love bus travel, as uncomfortable as it can be, we wouldn´t notice these subtleties if we weren´t traveling by land. We are lucky to have the time to cover so much of South America by land.

We made one stop halfway through our trip to Villa Tunari, which was a checkpoint for drugs and illegal chemicals. Everyone got off of the bus and the gringos were asked to open their backpacks for a quick search while dogs sniffed all the luggage on board the bus. The lowlands are where much of the coca is grown in Bolivia, so there are a few checkpoints on the road between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. In our Spanish class we learned that the drug laws in Bolivia are basically dictated by the war on drugs that the US has launched. However, very dissimilar to the way the law is enforced in the US, here people caught trafficking cocaine are guilty until proven innocent.

Anyway, back to the bus rides in Bolivia...we wanted to devote some time to stories about some of our bus rides in this country, because they have been entertaining experiences for us. Jen is reminded of her bus travels in Laos when we stray from the gringo trail here. For instance, on the bus from Uyuni to Potosi, we sat across from a family of 4 who occupied 2 seats, and the grandmother was traveling with a kitten in her bag that we could hear meowing throughout the 6 hour trip. That same bus stopped and picked up new passengers along the way who had to stand in the aisle because there were no seats for them. The buses also stop for vendors, who board the bus with everything you can imagine from popsicles to fresh fruit to fried fish with rice and potatoes and all the dressings. The buses that leave on time usually pretend to pull away from the station for about 10 minutes while last minute travelers rush on board. In Cochabamba, we learned that the buses do not leave until they are full, even if they promise to leave at an exact time (en punto). There are no bathrooms on board the buses, so when the bus stops, everyone disembarks and finds a place to squat if there are no baños nearby. Jen had an interesting encounter with a borracho (drunk) while she was doing her business behind a building, so now we go together to find a place to pee. On the overnight bus from Sucre to Cochabamba, we made a stop somewhere at about midnight and we witnessed a very comical situation. There were two harmless borrachos coming from the danceclub nextdoor who were taunting and bothering a neighboring shopkeeper. She had someone inside the shop fill a cup with water and pass it to her through the window so that she could throw water on these two guys. Two buses had stopped at this spot at the same time, so all the pasajeros (passengers) from both buses stood around this spectacle and laughed at the show as the two borrachos got what they deserved.

One last thing about the buses. The luggage is usually tied to the roof of the bus in Bolivia. The bus agencies have designed their ticket offices perfectly for loading the luggage on top of the tall buses. The ticket office (where you check your baggage) is usually on the second floor of the bus terminal and has a backdoor that opens to the parking station for the buses. Once you check your bags, they are weighed, and then they are lowered onto the roof of the bus to a young boy standing on the roof of the bus who ties everything down. This is quite a task for mochillas (backpacks) that weigh as much as ours do (a whopping 17 kilograms).

We have mastered the art of bus travel in South America. We have become quite superstitious about bus travel here, because we have heard many scary stories about the dangers of bus travel (in Bolivia especially). In Potosi, we happened to pick up a local newspaper and read the front page story about a bus accident that occured on the road between Uyuni and Oruro that killed 7 and injured 45 people on board (the story reported that the driver was drunk). A friend of ours who has done a lot of travel in South America wound up in the hospital with a broken back as a result of a bus accident on the windy road between Potosi and Uyuni. So, needless to say, we are usually anxious about the journey ahead as we board these infamous buses, and we have developed a few rituals that we perform without fail in order to calm our nerves. Jen has a lucky outfit that she has worn every time we ride the bus. The lucky outfit consists of a t-shirt that reads, "War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing." The t-shirt is accompanied by a pair of cotton navy blue draw string pants, which were purchased with comfort in mind, but have become a symbol of protection like a security blanket. In La Paz at the witches market, we purchased an amulet, which we were told would guarantee safe travel if one of us kept it in our pocket at all times during a journey. So, Jen carries this strange glass vile in her pocket when we ride the bus anywhere. Inside this sealed vessel are various flourescent color seeds, oil, and small golden charms in the shape of a bus and other travel related miniature figures. The neck of the vile is tied with rainbow colored llama wool, to make it officially authenticated by the witch who sold it to us. So far so good, and we will continue to carry on with these strange habits as long as we are traveling by bus in South America.

posted by The Blaus @ 11:52 AM