Saturday, Sept. 27, 2003 - 6:58 p.m.
The Worst Bus Ride of My Life
The bus left La Paz at 5pm the previous evening and was far from full, only about a dozen of us and half of us were fellow travelers. The guy next to me turned out to be from Australia, but born in Sri Lanka, which explained his skin color and strange accent. In front of me were two girls from England. The guy across the aisle turned out to be from Malta, a tiny country off the coast of Italy. He told us at a restroom stop in the middle of the night about the problems he's had with immigration in South America, having to pay about $200 cash to enter Peru, which was ridiculous.
After the sun went down it got colder and colder, the temperature continued to drop. When everyone was asleep, including the guy next to me, I quietly, carefully changed into my long johns and put my trousers on over them. I had 4 layers on top, a T-shirt, long sleeved shirt, fleece and jacket. I also put on warm hats and gloves as well as an extra pair of socks made of Alpaca wool. As time wore on it continued to get colder...
The other travelers had sleeping bags or blankets. I shivered. And it got colder still...
At one of the bathroom stops, as I was getting back on the bus, I noticed an extra blanket behind the bus driver. I asked if I could borrow it. The driver hesitated and then said okay. "Gracias! Muy amable" I replied as I clutched the blanket like gold, and returned to my seat.
I thought about my Israeli friends that evening, wondering how the festivities were going and wishing I was back in La Paz, at El Lobo, celebrating with them.
At this point we started to spread out in the bus, we had enough space for everyone to have their own pair of seats. The guy next to me, bundled up, blanketless, moved to the back row of seats that spanned the width of the vehicle. The road wasn't always paved, the bus jostled across the dirt road. I huddled up, blanket covering me, still very much cold and then had a thought. I worried about how my film was doing in my big backpack, since our luggage was all placed on top of the bus. I hoped it wouldn't be damaged from the cold.
We rode across the flat plains, nothing to stop the cold once the sun went down. I tried to sleep, nodding off at times, but frequently waking up, about once an hour, shivering like mad. I noticed ice crystals forming on the inside of the bus windows and that I could see my breath like a small cloud of fog. I realized that without the blanket, I would have absolutely froze. The stars were amazing in the clear night air and Orion followed us faithfully during our long and arduous journey.
We arrived in Uyuni at about 7AM. It was very flat and extremly arid. The bright sun gave everything a washed out kind of appearance and the town wasn't very picturesque. As we exited the bus we were immediately greeted by people who wanted us to stay at their hotel or take their tour of the salt flats. I'd already chosen a place to stay from my guide book. One lady approached me to stay at her hotel, but I told her the name of the hotel I planned to stay at and she pulled out their business card and escorted me there.
But first she had me stop and put my stuff at the travel agency office 3 doors down from the hotel. She turned on a gas powered heater, which was like heaven to my frozen body. This was the first time I'd been warm since La Paz. Then she described to me the typical itinerary of a 4 day tour of the world's largest salt flats (called Salars), the real (and only) tourist draw to Uyuni. She wanted me to go on that day's tour, because she explained she had 4 people and needed one more person. But I told her I was really tired and was interested in meeting up with my friends (the Israelis) to take a tour with them. She said there was another tour leaving tomorrow. I said I'd think about it.
I checked into the hotel, my room had a tiny little room with only a bed and a small table and immediately fell asleep.
When I woke up it was getting dark. It was 7PM. I'd slept almost the whole day. Now I needed to get some dinner. I still needed to decide what to do, to go on a tour of Uyuni on my own, wait in Uyuni for my Israeli friends and / or take a 7 hour bus to Potosi and return to Uyuni in 2 days to maybe reunite with my Israeli friends. I started to regret not going to Potosi first, before coming to Uyuni.
