Tuesday 26th April
Checked
out of hotel and short walk to the bus station where I collected the ticket I'd
booked on line. Since there are no trains from La Paz I booked a combined bus
and rail ticket; bus from La Paz to Oharu and Tren Express del Sur from there
to Uyuni. The bus station was better than I expected but unlike Argentina and
Chile where you need to be at the bus embarkation place 15 minutes before
departure and the bus leaves on the dot, here I could see the man in the office still
selling tickets after 7.00 am when we were due to depart. As we pulled out of
the bus station a woman was shouting the destination and selling tickets as we were
moving. Drove up to El Alte where a street seems to have become an informal bus
station. More tickets were sold as we edged very slowly down the street. It was
well after 8.00 by the time we left El
Alte. From there we proceeded reasonably fast along what looks like a new road,
dual carriageway with overhead U turns and pedestrian bridges at intervals.
Can't believe anyone uses them. The land is arid, almost desert but still
cultivated. Pass a few small townships and stopped occasionally to let people
on or off.
 |
| La Paz Bus Station |
 |
| Dry and Dusty Landscape |
 |
| Small Settlement |
Arrived on Oharu, quite a large town, about 11.00. No problem getting a taxi to
railway station (10) but when I got inside I saw an ominous looking notice on a
white board referring to my train Express del Sur today, Tuesday 26 April.
Learnt a new Spanish word "suprimido" = ”cancelled”. No sign of any
replacement bus service. Man at the ticket office gave me piece of paper with a
name on it but when I eventually found the man whose name it was he explained
that because I bought ticket online refund can only be done on credit card. I
wasn’t worried about the refund it’s only a few $. More concerned with how to
get to Uyuni. Taxi back to the bus station (8) where I could only see departures
late evening but then I heard a woman calling “Uyuni” and saw she was offering
departure at 1230 so bought a ticket for 30 Bolivianos.
 |
| Nice Train; Going Nowhere. |
Again
the bus didn't depart on time and people keep getting on as we left but then we
had a fairly good journey along the new road
two lane now. Unfortunately the bus seems to have an unbalanced wheel so
there was a lot of vibration. Problems started about 40km from Uyuni when we
stopped on the road and lots of discussion in Spanish which seemed to add up to
the fact that there was a problem on the road ahead and we needed to take a
diversion. We turned off onto a dusty dirt track which was OK for about half an
hour but then we got stuck in the sand about 6pm.
 |
| Stuck in the Sand |
The
driver and some of the guys were trying to get us unstuck but I couldn’t work
out the strategy. Lots of digging sand from around the wheels and putting bits
of bush in front of and behind both front and rear wheels. Not sure whether he was
trying to move forwards or backwards. Many other vehicles on the road; all the
four wheel drive ones got through fine and although most of the two wheel drive
cars got stuck, half a dozen guys could easily get them moving again. Not so
easy with a fifty-seater bus! By about 7pm it was pitch dark, cold and people
started getting back on the bus since there didn’t seem to be any progress on
moving it. Great place to see the stars!
At
8pm it doesn’t look like we will be getting to Uyuni tonight. Just before 10 we
saw the
moon rise. Whenever I see stars and the moon where there is clear sky
and no light pollution I realise how much the night sky must have influenced
the beliefs of ancient cultures.
Much
to my amazement, the driver and some of the guys were still trying to get the
bus out of the sand and sometime after 11 they succeeded in getting it to
reverse out. It wasn't initially obvious how this helped us but obviously the
driver had learnt that the blockage on the main road was cleared so we turned
back and arrived at the main road about half hour later. Didn't stay on it for
very long before turning onto another dirt road into Uyuni arriving about 1.30
am. Found the Jumari hotel easily, just a couple of blocks from the bus station but took me a while to
rouse the manager. Luckily once she let me in everything was sorted out quite
quickly and I was incredibly happy to get into the room, basic but infinitely
better than the bus. Sent an email to the tour agency confirming my arrival and
that I would be joining the tour in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment