Friday, May 13, 2005
Rude Awakening
The bus ride from La Paz to Oruro was great. We arrived on time, it was smooth and the scenery was spectacular.
The bus ride from Oruro to Uyuni, on the otherhand, left much to be desired for. It was crowded, it was dark and it stank of diesel. This was to be a 7 hour bus ride through the night that stretched into 10 hours. Water froze on the INSIDE of the window panes and the bus stopped nearly every 10-15 minutes to make repairs.
At one point, we woke up to locals on the bus yelling and whistling for the driver to stop. "Do you smell burning?" we overheard the travellers next to us comment. The tires were indeed burning and it took the driver a good 10minutes before he decided to stop and take a look.
The best/worst part (depending on how you look at it) was the road itself - or rather, lack thereof. About 2 hours after the bus departure, the bus began to rattle furiously. The chairs we were sitting in *almost* felt like massage chairs - except they weren't. It was absolutely nuts.
I'm surprised we were able to sleep at all that night!
The bus ride from Oruro to Uyuni, on the otherhand, left much to be desired for. It was crowded, it was dark and it stank of diesel. This was to be a 7 hour bus ride through the night that stretched into 10 hours. Water froze on the INSIDE of the window panes and the bus stopped nearly every 10-15 minutes to make repairs.
At one point, we woke up to locals on the bus yelling and whistling for the driver to stop. "Do you smell burning?" we overheard the travellers next to us comment. The tires were indeed burning and it took the driver a good 10minutes before he decided to stop and take a look.
The best/worst part (depending on how you look at it) was the road itself - or rather, lack thereof. About 2 hours after the bus departure, the bus began to rattle furiously. The chairs we were sitting in *almost* felt like massage chairs - except they weren't. It was absolutely nuts.
I'm surprised we were able to sleep at all that night!
# posted by doris : 5:50 PM
