Stuck in the mud
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2007
1
22
46
Trip End
Ongoing
Trinidad,
Bolivia
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The bible (Lonely Planet) had said it was not possible at this time of year in the wet season to travel from Rurre to Trinidad to get to Santa Cruz because the roads were not passable, so I was prepared to pay the $50 or so for a flight. Then I heard in town and from other travelers that it was in fact possible and as we had noticed the roads were bone dry. A German couple I had met on the tours had left a few days before on the same journey, and I thought.. ´well it will be an adventure´
On returning back to Rurre from the jungle I found I could get on a bus that night for Trinidad, but it would cost 100 Bolivianos and I only had 110 on me... I wasn´t confident of changing US$ in some small town, so I didn´t take the bus.
Instead the next day I changed my remaining $US so I had about 100 Bolivianos ($15) and got a bus the next afternoon, well a minivan with seats. Solo I made the five hour trip along dusty roads to San Borja, a small, hot and humid town somewhere in the vast plains, where we would spend the night while waiting to get a bus the next day. San Borja is as sleepy and relaxed as Rurre, the only thing to do was eat ice cream and sit around the plaza in the shade. The young locals have a funny custom of riding their bikes around and around and around town, so you´ll see the same people riding around the plaza in groups talking, but going nowhere..
The next day I went to the bus station and found my bus.. it had plastic for a window with a hole cut out for the driver to see more clearly and nothing of a front bumper, it literally looked taped together.
Everything went smoothly until an hour into the 8 hour journey it started raining. Then the dusty road turned into sticky, slippery mud and we spent the rest of the day pushing the bus through the mud when it would get stuck, or when the back would literally slide off the road.
We arrived in San Ignacio around midnight and somehow I found some tough disgusting steak and rice for dinner. We woke the next day to rain and to be told we were going nowhere today. I tried finding an alternate way to Trinidad but no one was leaving the town that day.. so I spent the day reading and finished Midnights Children (a great book and makes me want to go to India more..) and sleeping.
I also had some money problems as I had expected to be in Trinidad that night, so I was down to 18 Bolivianos. I found a shop that sold some mortadella, but this cos 10 Bolivianos ($1.50) and totally blew my budget! The remaining 8 bols would have to go on bread, bread and bread. I was starting to feel that life can be tough for local people, living in a boring little town with no money...
Early the next day we left, but the roads were even worse, we came to our first patch of mud, which lasted for about half a kilometer and we were literally pulling and pushing the buses through the mud...
Things looked impossible, I thought Id never get to Trinidad that day, and also I had no money or food.. Then two flatbed Nissan trucks passed, converted into passenger vehicles with planks of wood for seats. They slipped and slided through the mud, but being smaller, managed to get through with a bit of a push... I grabbed my pack, felt like a traitor for leaving my fellow passengers and ran for the truck.
I hopped on and we eventually made it through the mud, across two river crossings by boat to Trinidad.. I got a motorbike to get money from the ATM and rushed back to pay the truck driver. Then went to the bus station to get a bus to Santa Cruz as Trini had nothing to keep me around...but I did get an offer from some local guy in the truck to stay the night with his family..
After showering in the terminal and eating a delicious meal of chicken and rice I realised I didn't have my ATM card.. returned to said ATM, it was gone.. and I found my MP3 screen smashed.
I should have just got the plane... but it was an adventure and fun in some kind of trying, tiring but also exciting way, I´d never been drifting in a Bus before!
