Adventures in Cochabamba

Scotty and I took a trip to Cochabamba, the city I used to live in, on Sunday. We decided to take the bus, since it only cost $5 each for the 8 hour bus trip. (By the end of this 8 hours, we decided it would have been much more enjoyable and efficient to drive our own vehicle...info we'll store away until next time) We chose our favorite panoramic seats, which are on the second story of a large bus, in front of a picturesque window that allows us to see just how very close we are coming to those cliffs we are driving next to. The views really are spectacular and we settled in with plenty of snacks, a Sudoku puzzle to work out together, and some books to pass the time with. Bolivian bus rides are notorious for showing awful, late 80's or 90's action flicks staring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Swartzenegger, or in this case, Jackie Chan followed by Chuck Norris. It's pretty bad that they're dubbed over in cheesy Spanish voices, but at least they're extremely loud too... On arrival to the smoggy, but lovely city of Cochabamba, many memories came flooding back to both Scotty and me as we passed my old apartment building and headed toward our previous Spanish teachers' house. Mauge and her husband, Jorge, quite excitedly agreed to be our hosts for a couple nights and we enjoyed the late evenings of eating, talking, laughing, and catching up on life. We explored the city, visited old friends, took care of some SIM paperwork, and managed to squeeze in an afternoon at the pool.

This morning we left early to see what bus we could catch and were blessed to find one leaving just as we arrived to the station. We hopped on, paid $5 in total for this trip, and settled in for another LONG ride back home. Our first sign that this was going to be rough was when they put Titanic on the TV. As if that wasn't bad enough in itself (sorry to you Titanic fans out there), the VCD skipped about 2 minutes into the movie and would start over again with a high-pitched Enya singing in our ears so loud that distortion was occuring and deafening decibels were being reached. That only happend about 9 times before someone informed the driver. So, the solution was to put on another VCD of the top Bolivian songs which also was stuck on the opening screen where you select which music video you would like to watch. This scene featured a man singing in a whiney drone, the same 15 seconds of his song, at which point it would start all over again. We were lucky enough to hear those 15 seconds about 20 times so that the music was burned into my brain for the next half hour. I'm afraid we were being brain washed and if I was to ever hear that song again, I might do something terrible. Soon after leaving Cochabamba, we came upon a bad wreck between a bus like ours and a large truck that had probably happened yesterday or sometime during the night. There have been several fatal accidents like this since we've returned and I was a bit nervous at the thought of traveling so far in the bus system, where drivers sometimes drive drunk or fall asleep at the wheel. In reality, there is a small chance that an accident would happen, we are safer going during the day, and God is in complete control of our lives, when we live and when we die. I settled comfortably with that thought and was thankful that whatever was to happen, I knew the Lord and did not fear for my life. We did have our own little blow-out as we reached Caracollo, the half-way, potty and snack-break point. As our bus pulled off the road, a tire blew, but was replaced in the time it took us to share a bowl of soup, buy a 2 liter of Sprite, some bananas, and the famous sweet bread we always see Bolivians buying at this stop. The rest of the trip was uneventful, I finished Don Miller's Through Painted Deserts which I had started at the beginning of our trip, and we happily welcomed the breath-taking La Paz landscape as we neared the city. Our kittens were sleepily awaiting us when we returned to the apartment, and it feels good to be home.
Wandering around Caracollo with my Sprite and sweet bread.