Getting stoned...literally!!!
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2004
1
20
25
Trip End
Jul 27, 2004
Illave,
Bolivia
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
we crossed the bridge that was littered with broken glass and barricades, and eventually made it into town...for a short while i was aided with my bag by an older aussie man, but he very shortly retracted his genorosity as it was much to heavy for him and his short arms...a few blocks into town, a bicycle cart carrying some of the others luggage passed us by, and thankfully our guide, jesus(seriously), loaded my souvenir bag on it as well...this would turn out to be one of the best things to happen as u will shortly find out...
about five minutes later as we turned a corner, we were greeted by jeers and taunts by some local young men, shouting "cuidado gringos", basically meaning "take care" or "be careful"...a couple mnutes later and the bolivian guy in our group who was walking in the rear, comes running up shouting, "they're coming"...i thought he was joking at first, and thought it was kind of funny, albeit inappropriate for the others who might not see it as humourous as the situatrion was a little intimidating as it was...
unfortunately (or fortunately for the sake of the story and the memory i guess), they really were coming, and a mob of locals came running around the corner a block behind us...so the 15 of us made a mad dash to the end of the block where we could see our minivan waiting for us...had i been carrying all my shit, there was noway i would have made it to the van before being overtaken...we just made it in time to throw our stuff on the roof and jump in the van and close the doors...at which time we were pelted with stones, bottles, and who knows what else...15 of us crowded into a minivan, hiding behind our packs in case a window smashhed and a rock came flying thru...thankfully, they either were poor shots, or werent actually aiming at the windows, because none were broken...
now i wasnt exactly fearing for my life, but i was definitely the scaredest i had been on the entire trip i think, except for maybe my near drowning experience with the kayak...i knew they werent trying to kill us, but i thought we might get injured, or at least have our bags stolen from the roof of the vehicle...after about 20 minutes, one of the locals that our man jesus knew, had tipped the police to what was going on, and they came and dispersed the protesters...i never actually saw this happen, but apparently ( i was told later, by another traveller) tear gas was in full effect...
now we were able to press on, and wandered thru the town to the other side, where we were once again met by a blockade and protesters...they started advancing on the van with sticks and stones as we pulled up, so we backed off and headed back into town, after our guide failed to negotiate/bribe our way past...this is the point where i started to analyze the situation and really wonder wtf! i had gotten myself into again???now i am stuck in the midddle of a village during a protest and couldnt get out in either direction...after a bit of driving and inquiring of helpful locals, we eventually took a road out into the country for about 45 minutes, and bypassed the town completely, thus ending our dodgy situation...altho, i think we collectively inhaled about 10 kilos of dust on the ride...
we safely arrived in puno, where we stored our luggage at a hotel while we waited for the next bus to leave for arequipa...i lunched with some frenchies, and upon returning to the hotel where we were to meet our guide and depart for the bus station, he didnt show...therefore we were forced to take a taxi and thus avoided paying him for the trip... i would have liked to pay him for his help but he wasnt there and we needed to catch that bus...so theres a little lesson for a latin american to be a little more punctual in his business dealings...
while waiting for the bus to depart, an elderly lady easily read the "sell me stuff" sign painted on my forehead, and convinced me that i needed more alpaca hats and socks and gloves for the trip...like i said earlier, once i started buying stuff, i couldnt stop...since the bus departed later than expected, it was even later in the middle of the night when i finally arrived in arequipa...i had kind of made friends with a couple on the bus, and assumed i would have someone to journey to a hostel with, however, i had been in dire need of using a toilet for the last few hours, and made a dash for the bathroom as soon as we arrived...upon returning to the bus for my bags and friends, i saw that there wasnt a soul to be seen, other than the luggage handler, waiting for someone to claim their bags(mine)...i guess the time i wasted finding a staff poerson to unlock the bathroom doors for me meant that i was now the only one at the bus terminal...i gathered my belongings and headed outside and jumped in the first taxi i saw(unregistered of course...what could happen at 3 in the morning in a strange city???)...
i told him which hostel i wanted to go to, and he told me it was full...seeing this as the lie and scam that it wass, i insisted that he take me there anyway...proud of myself that i had avoided being taken to another hostel that he likely worked for, we arrived at the hostel i stated, and he said he would come with me because i would soon find out it would be full...wouldnt u know it, he was right!!!damn honest taxi drivers, who knew they were out there???his choice ended up being quite expensive, and when i told him i wanted cheap, he took me to a dodgy lookin place and rang the bell...
after entering the courtyard/hallway, i entered a huge room, with a huge queen sized bed, and a ginormous wardrobe and mirrors...it was the biggest room i had stayed in yet...it wasnt overly fancy but it was awesome....best of all, it was 10 soles, roughly 3 bux...sweet...i settled into my huge bed and drifted off to sleep, thankful that the day had ended safely...
