Cora and I often talk about how entertaining it would be to put our lives (especially this trip) on a reality t.v. show. Several times a day we find ourselves in situations that could only possibly happen to the Cora-Marlana combo. Many of these occur in regards to transportation....which is why we are taking the liberty to write a special Bolivian version.
First of all, en camino a Bolivia, we took a flight on little sleep, no food in our stomachs, and no air conditioning. Both Cora and I had a billion wet paper towels pasted all over our bodies throughout the duration of the flight to avoid passing out and a little girl staring at us the entire 4 hours due to the ubsurdity of the entire situation. Lets just say....we were famous on this flight.
Then we arrive in Bolivia.
Bolivia is AWESOME. We have had a wonderful time in the country and amazing experiences that cannot possibly be expressed in a type-written blog.
However, Bolivia is also famous for its transportation flaws, and Cora and I got the best of it. As follows....
In order to avoid another 28 hour bus ride across Bolivia, Cora and I went in search of cheap plane tickets, which we found with the help of a local tour agency. Excited that we had outsmarted the bus system, we pranced up to the front airport desk with bags in hand ready for our short, 90 minute flight.
One tiny little problem....not both of our names were in the system. So after some diplomatic Spanish interchange, pleasant tones, and persistence, we were allowed on the flight without knowing exactly what strings had been pulled to permit us to do this. Other than some slight double booking problems we arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia successfully.
4 days later.... Our return flight.....
We headed up to the front airport desk with a little more hesitance this time, hoping that for this flight both of our names were in the system. To our surprise, they were BUT they had decided to change the flight time to 1.5 hours later without notification. So we complain a bit, realize thats not going to work, and then try to get over it and seat ourselves in the airport with no air conditioning and scorching hot weather. About 30 minutes before our flight is supposed to leave, we have still not been allowed into the boarding area and a nice woman begins to make conversation with Cora. After about 10 minutes of this, Cora and I head upstairs to find something to eat and before our food had made it to the table, the woman from earlier frantically runs up the stairs, yelling at us in Spanish that we HAVE to hurry or we are going to miss our flight. Cora runs downstairs while I try to tell the waiter that we do not have time to wait anymore. They still do not allow us into the boarding area, however, because our plane had not yet arrived....despite the fact that it should be taking off in the next few minutes. We walk around the airport a bit, only to find the same woman following us again yelling directions at us. She would not leave us alone and was convinced she was right. Cora and I cannot handle the commotion at this point so we go upstairs to try and recover the food we had had to leave and to get away from the entire situation.
We eventually do board the plane....really late....and are a bit frustrated at this point. Lucky for Cora, another nice woman sits next to her on the plane who also feels the need to take good care of the foreigners and repeatedly asks the flight attendants for our food even before the flight takes off and wakes the sleeping Cora up throughout the flight to inform her of our location and tell her about various landmarks. Cora loved it, Im sure....
We were happy when she got off the plane. She got off at the second stop.
YES. The plane landed about 5 different times for a flight that should have taken only one hour directly. Thats like flying from Austin to Dallas....and taking off and landing in Texarkana, Houston, El Paso, Waco, and finally.....Dallas. We spent a lot of time trying to make sense of it without success.
Needless to say, we arrive to La Paz 4.5 hours later than the original ticket stated and desperately rush to catch our overnight bus that was leaving to Uyuni. I will not bore you with those details, but catching the bus successfully involved sprinting down the streets of La Paz, completely out of breath from the extremely high altitude....imagine.
We had a wonderful day in Uyuni and saw the beautiful salt flats (pictures to come). And then....
Just when I was about to write this entry, we had another comical event. After boarding our bus to head back to La Paz (thinking nothing else could possibly go wrong with Bolivian transportation), we walk on to see that they double booked our seats. So we sit down in some empty seats to wait until things get sorted out. The people who had the seats we were sitting in walked on the bus, yelled at us in Spanish because they thought we didnt understand, and hovered over us trying to make us move. (Just for future reference, talking in an elevated tone does not generally increase understanding on the receiver´s end.) We could not budge due to the fact that we were crammed in with all of our stuff in this crowded bus. We simply asked if she could bring the bus manager up so we could sort it all out before we relocated. This was not okay with the woman and she expressed this with continued commotion. To add to it all, in the midst of all of this, someone walked by and accidentally dropped their child´s underwear on my lap....
To make a long story short, we were relocated to the back of the bus, on the bumpiest bus ride ever. I dont think we were even driving on a road, and several times (and I say this with all seriousness), Cora and I thought the bus was going to flip over, and we had our heads covered to avoid glass shattering injuries .... no exaggeration. About an hour into the bus ride, despite a dehydration process in preparation for the bus ride, I had to go to the restroom as did Cora shortly after. The bus did not have a bathroom, and the driver only stops 6 hours into the ride. So for 5 hours, on an incredibly bumpy road, Cora and I, while also fearing for our lives, miserably awaited the bathroom break.
5 hours later, we were able to sleep. And now, all of it is extremely hilarious.
Well, we are about to head out with my really good Bolivian friend, Gustavo, whom I befriended in the uni in Chile. And then we are heading to meet Matias in Peru!
Love you tons,
Marlana
Unidos por Noe. Para siempre, te recordare!
