Cochabamba3 Dec 2007
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| So i arrived in Cochabamba yesterday morning from Uyuni, I tell you it was quite an effort to get here and a bus ride from hell. When I got back from my Salar de Uyuni trip Oasis Tours was not open but they had my main luggage and my bus ticket to Cochabamba, so another agency was kind enough to call them and they came and opened up gave me my ticket and said they were open till 7pm so i decided to leave my bag there because my bus was at 8 and told them I'd be back before they closed. Of course when i go to get my bag at about 10 minutes to 7 it was closed, I asked at an agency next door who said she'd gone to the bathroom or to get something to eat and would be back, they than sat outside waiting and occassionaly calling out Öasis tours. Then someone I knew who spoke spanish came along and found out that these women actually had no idea where the woman was and were just guessing. So i go and call the lady who comes back and then acts all annoyed because i hadn't gone back at 7 like she told me to (of course she hadn't). When i finally make it to the bus station, i find that they have put me on the worst bus they could find, it looked like a death trap, and was definately not a tourist bus. Put it this way the majority of people on it smelt like they hadn't bathed for a week and looked like they couldn't afford to. I nearly refused to get on. Luckily it was only an 8 hour bus ride! Then I had to change buses, which i wasnt told i needed to by my agency (but then they didn't feel the need to tell me that i was being put on a different and cheaper tour, without a refund and with a guide who didn't speak english so i shouldn't be surprised that i wasn't told about changing buses) my luggage was covered in dirt, like an amazing amount. But surprisingly the second bus was quite nice, so the next 4 hours on the bus was not too bad. Yesterday when I was walking around a man asked me for directions and I told him that I couldn't understand spanish but he kept saying stuff to me so i started trying to walk off and kept saying no. Then a man came up to us and flashed a police identification I kept walking but he told me to stop but one of the scams that I've been warned about countless times is fake police, he was wearing the right colours but it wasn't an obvious police uniform so I kept walking off saying no (i guess i was panicking a little) but in retrospect I think he was a real police officer who thought I was a tourist being harrassed and wanted to ensure I was ok. So now i think it was kind of funny. I only planned to stay in Cochabamba last night, get my visa extension today and then planned to head out to Villa Tunari to start my volunteering. Well that was not to be as when i eventually found the immigration office (travel hint don't ask people for directions in Bolivia because apparantly they don't want to disapoint you so they make it up if they don't know, so sometimes it helps but a lot of times is hinders) they kept all my documents, my passport included, and said to come back tomorrow afternoon late. So I probably wont leave for Villa Tunari until the following day because I don't really know where to go and hate arriving in a new place at night. This kinda sucks because there's nothing I acually wanted to do in Cochabamba other than extend my visa, but what can you do. I've been sick since Sucre so perhaps it's actually a good opportunity to try and get better. |
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