T.I.B - This is Bolivia

We made it out of Potosi. Yes... yes, we did. We had to take a taxi to the blockade and walk across. The street was congested with large trucks and boulders fallen from the nearby rock face. We heard the occasional explosion of dynamite nearby, which was probably how they were breaking the rocks loose. Jessie and I just walked right through, for about 30 minutes, past the blockade and hundreds of people just sitting around with Bolivian flags or sleeping. After we cleared the blockade we walked past loads of trucks, buses, and cars jammed on the small road entering Potosi. At the end there were groups of people waiting to catch a ride to Oruro or Challapata, a town an hour outside of Oruro, so we waited, too.

We met two fellow backpackers, one from Argentina and the other from Spain. They offered us water and food and we all waited together to hitch a ride, which came after about an hour of sitting on our backpacks and watching the Argentinian balance juggling objects on his nose. We all piled into a small microbus headed for Challapata and sat on top of eachother for 3 hours until we reached the bus terminal where we jumped on another, larger bus headed for Oruro.

We arrived in Oruro after 1 1/2 hours and then made the hasty decision of jumping on yet another bus to Cochabamba. Jessie started feeling ill and actually puked 4 times in the terminal... I felt horrible for buying the tickets and making her go to Cochabamba that night. On her way to the bathroom on one of her vomit runs she collided with an older gentleman, spilling the change he clenched in his hands all over the floor. She bent down in attempts to help him pick it up, amidst the laughter of the onlooking ladies in the terminal, but the nausea from her belly was beckoning her to get into the bathroom, pronto. She looked at the man after handing him one Boliviano (the currency here in Bolivia) and said, "Lo siento, estoy enferma" (I'm sorry, I`m sick). She turned and hustled toward the bathroom, but it was too late. She pulled the classic hand-to-the-mouth tactic and met her unpleasent bowl sensation face first. Sorry for the graphic account, Jessie wanted me to tell everyone =).

We boarded the bus, anxious to get to a bed in Cochabamba where we could sleep comfortably. It is 4 or so hours from Oruro to Cochabamba. I slept most of the way... until I awoke to the bus coming to a halt behind a line of other vehicles an hour and a half outside Cochabamba, in the middle of nowhere.

Another blockade.

We waited an hour, hoping we would be able to pass, but when we saw everyone on the bus making themselves comfortable, we knew we would be sleeping on the bus that night. It was around 12:30 AM. So, at this point, Jessie was not feeling so great, I was on the verge of becoming considerably irritated, and we had no food and little water. So, we did the only thing we could do: sleep.

At 4 AM I was awoken by the rustling of a family on the bus getting their bags from the overhead compartments. The oldest woman, probably the mother, told me they were going to walk half a kilometer to the blockade and get a ride on the other side. I woke Jessie up and told her I was sorry, but it was time to walk. We gathered our backpacks and began walking, flashlight in hand, with the Bolivian family. It was much longer than a kilometer, but we were too tired to care. I was happy we decided to walk instead of waiting for the blockade to end (some people on the bus had said it would dissipate around 6 AM. They HAD to be wrong). We walked, again, past loads of traffic jammed trucks, buses, and cars, only this time the stench of exploded dynamite permeated the early morning air. When we reached the end of the traffic jam, we found ourselves weaving in and out of hundreds of sleeping bodies covered with blankets in the middle of the road, complete with boulders and debris for blocking traffic. There were huge bonfires in truck tires with loads of men standing around them, warming themselves. The tension was thick in the air... it was almost eerie silent, save for the mild chatter of the protesters who were still awake. We walked over a bridge past a second bonfire and had to duck under a long Bolivian flag stretched across the road. The Father of the family we were walking with ordered us to stay in a group as we walked right through the horde of men standing on the bridge. A few whistled as Jessie passed, but other than that, they made no attempt to talk with us and they weren't violent in any way.

Once we made it past the blockade there were microbuses waiting on the other side. The Bolivian man said we could go with him and his family to their town then catch another bus or taxi to Cochabamba. We were fortunate, however, to find a microbus going straight to Cochabamba and the man and his family were let off along the way, since they lived right outside the city. The microbus took us to the bus station in Cochabamba where another man who rode the bus with us politely directed us where to go and which taxis were safe and which ones were not. We got a taxi and arrived at our hostal at 6:30 AM. We watched an early episode of Desperate House Wives in our room before sleeping until noon.

Today, we have walked around the plaza area of Cochabamba, eaten some vegetarian food, and looked for a plane ticket to La Paz. We are gonna have to suck it up and spend the money to fly out of Cochabamba because, according to many locals, the roads into La Paz are "conflicted" with blockades. With less than a week before our plane leaves for the states, I don't want to risk another night like last night. As reassurance to our parents, we are totally fine... we just experienced a minor inconvenience.

To anyone considering traveling to Bolivia, especially the areas of Potosi, Sucre, Cochabamba, La Paz, Santa Cruz, and Uyuni, I would advise you to wait, unless, of course, you want to see for yourself what is happening. Just be prepared. We called the US embassies in Cochabamba and La Paz and they were no help at all... they offered no assistance and no advice on how to get out of the country. They didn't even know what was going on. Yay for the US.

The computers here don't have USB ports so I can't upload photos yet, but I tried to capture what was happening the best I could. When I upload them, I will let everyone know.

We will post again soon! Much love to everyone back home! We can't wait to see you all soon!!