So we made it to Bolivia, and it was quite an adventure to say the least!!
It started on Tuesday morning when we checked out of the apartment, and got a remis to take us to the bus station. It was a good thing we had him come get us early because he had no idea where the station was! Once we got there, Andrea waited with our bags at the station while Kelli walked around for an hour, going to at least 7 pharmacies looking for altitude medicine. No one had the medicine.
When 11:45am came around we got in a huge line to get on the bus. When it was finally our turn to put our bags under the bus, the lady told us that this was not our bus, she also said that our bus was running an hour late. We had already been waiting for almost 3 hours! So we waited, and finally it came, again we waited in a long line, and while we were waiting a lady in front of us told us that there were blockades on almost all of the roads in Bolivia, because the president was raising the gas prices by 70%, and no one knew when they would stop the protest. So not knowing what we were going to do when we got there we got on the bus anyways.
At around 2pm we recieved a nice lunch, and then around 8pm some tea and an alfajor. When we were about ready to go to sleep, we arrived at a rest stop. The bus attendant lady told us that we had to get off and get dinner. It was 11:30 at night! We got off and these people started telling us to sit at a table. So we did, and they served us dinner! It was interesting, the dinner was nice and didn´t get us sick so thats good, but it was quite awkward sitting at a table with 6 or so Bolivians. They are more reserved and no one said a word to each other. At the rest stop there were beetles everywhere, even crawling on people. It was pretty gross. Anyways, so we get back on the bus to go to sleep, and it was a good thing that we kept a sleeping bag with us in our backpack because it was freezing on the bus. They seriously had the A.C. on the North Pole setting.
We woke up the next morning, and got another alfajor and some tea. Which was fine because we were expecting to arrive in Villazon at 10am, because that is what the bus lady told us. Yeah we didn´t get there till 2pm. But during that time we played a game of Bingo on the bus, which Kelli won, and her prize was a free trip back to Buenos Aires, which we have no use for. When we finally got to Villazon we waited in the bus for around an hour, then we had to get in a line to get our passports stamped saying we left Argentina. It took 4 hours to get through. During this time, we were starving, so Kelli snuck across the border illegally to buy us some food. Also, a huge thunderstorm came out of nowhere after about an hour and a half of waiting in the line. By the way we were waiting in the line outside in the cold. Thankfully when it started pouring we had just made it under a small cover thing.
After this line we walked across the bridge/border to yet another line, only this time it was to get our Bolivian visa. That took around 45 minutes, and it turned out that we didn´t need all of the paper work that the embassy said we needed, and we spent so much time getting!
It was freezing, raining, getting late, and as far as we knew there we still blocks on all the roads in Bolivia! We were a bit worried. So from the Bolivian immigration station, we walked to the bus station to wait for our bags, while we were there we found out that the blocks were lifted for that night. So we had to decide to either go for it and try to get to Sucre before the roads were blocked again or wait it out in Villazon. We chose to go, and ended up on a bus to Potosi, with some Argentine backpackers we became friends with in the immigration line. The bus left at 830pm, and was supposed to arrive in Potosi at like 530am. Little did we know that the bus smelt like feet, didn´t have a bathroom, air conditioning or that our bags would barely fit!
We had heard that the roads were not paved from Villazon to Potosi, but when we left they were all paved and everything was going really smoothly. Until maybe an hour into the ride when we came to a road block at some bridge. So our bus and others were taking a detour down a dirt road then through a muddy part of a river or something. We couldn´t really see because it was pitch black outside. Anyways, buses were getting stuck in the mud so getting through the long line of cars to cross took like 2 hours. We seriously thought we were going to be stuck there forever. When it was our bus´s turn to go through the mud, the driver pulled off to the side instead of crossing because he was afraid that we were going to get stuck. All of the passengers got really angry, and people were even suggesting that we all get off and start demanding that we cross. Finally after people screaming like crazy trying to get him to cross, he did, and thankfully, we didn´t get stuck. That night, which we expected to be freezing, turned out to be super hot! We were seriously sweating so bad all night! Not only that, what people said about the roads not being paved was true. Most of the trip was on the bumpiest road in the world!
We got to Potosi thankfully only an hour late, and then with the help of a nice Bolivan man, caught the 7am bus to Sucre. It was only about 3 hours. Finally we were here, after 48 hours straight of traveling, 36 hours without a real meal, and 3 days without a shower!
We are staying with a host family who lives, around 20 minutes from the main plaza. Since it´s the end of the year and all, we have to wait until Tuesday to start working at the orphanage. We will be here for 4 weeks starting Monday. The living conditions here are very simple, including the internet. We will not be able to post pictures until after we leave. We will try to post as often as we can, but because the internet is so slow it probably won´t be too often.
We will not be able to be on skype either, so please send us an email! Especially if you´re family! We miss and love you all.
Andrea and Kelli
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