Bolivian Bus Hell

I hate taking buses in South America. You know this already. I hate it even more in Bolivia. I wasn't going to write about it again, as I know I sound like a broken record, but this journey needs to be shared. 


Our destination was La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. We didn't want to do the journey all in one go as it is many hours so we thought wed take the train via Oruro and then a bus. Wed heard the train was meant to be scenic and it ran on tracks so much safer in my book. Could we get a ticket for the train? no way Jose. The train wasn't scheduled to run until Saturday and we wanted to get out of Uyuni on the Thursday as given that there literally isn't much going on in Uyuni we was keen to get moving...dammit.


The bus companies had us over a barrel. We chose to go via Potosi which is the highest city in South America and famous for its mines. We went with a company that we were told were reputable and safe. Our hopes were raised when we saw the pictures of the buses themselves - they looked newish! We hadn't factored that Bolivia does a roaring trade in false advertising...


Unfortunately Im finding that being overly optimistic in South America invariably leads to disappointment.


The minute the bus (it was certainly not a coach) crawled up, we all looked at each other thinking there must have been a mistake, but no alas, not. Mr you know who upstairs was clearly looking for some entertainment.

False advertising

Our luggage was hauled up onto the roof (minus any system of ticketing as is normally the process) and we boarded the not fit for driving vehicle that was our bus. In true South American fashion, they had sold more tickets than seats. We therefore had every man and his family squished into the aisle. 


Crawling our way out of Uyuni, it was clear to see that the Bolivians don't care very much for disposing of their rubbish in the normal way. There were cans, paper, plastic bags and all other types of waste strewn as far as the eyes could see. Tragic. 

Wasted

It wasn't long, before we realised our driver was drinking beer whilst he was driving. A women who was sat at the front of the bus started shouting at him to stop drinking and that we were humans not cattle he was driving! He declined her request.


Half way through the journey, another passenger raised the alarm that some of the luggage had fallen off the roof. Cue sharp braking of the bus and sudden reversing back to the said items. All this accompanied by loud Bolivian music blaring out of the speakers. Joy.


To make matters even worse, it began to rain. Hard. Given they hadn't covered or luggage properly, everything got soaked.


After five ungodly hours of terrain that would have made our Tupiza Tours Toyota 4x4 weep into its wheel arches we finally arrive at Potosi, all having aged considerably. Janete and I decided pretty quickly that we weren't going to stay. It was tipping down with rain and neither of us were that enamoured with visiting the mines for which the city is famous. I hadn't realised the mines were still active and that the miners worked in awful conditions and even had children helping them?! Shocking.

The only pic I took of Potosi...

Instead we said hasta lluego to Jordi and Tamara and jumped into a taxi with another Bolivian Cholita lady and headed to Sucre which is the Judicial capital of Bolivia. Janete had visited a few days previously and said it was pretty and had plenty more than mines to visit so it sounded like a good idea given where we were.


The taxi ride was actually quick and painless and would you believe on tarmacked road! We even had Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias serenading us via the radio. What more could you want? The sun shader in the rear window also had her Madgesty`s face plastered all over it so I took this as a good sign...

If you squint you can see Madonna's face watching over us...