I had time for breakfast before one of Eva's colleagues arrived by cab and escorted me to the bus station, which was some way away. She then guided me through the intricacies of catching a coach. First you had to go and pay 1 sole at a desk and get a stamp stuck to your ticket, then go to the coach company and register all your details including passport details. Finally you had to deposit your luggage and obtain receipt for same. After a while a coach arrived outside, but there was no doorway for it. Instead you had to double back and go down a passageway walk around the outside of the building and then get to the coach. I grabbed my no 12 seat and endeavoured to nod off. I heard American voices say "We've got seats 11 and 12". The coach driver asked for my ticket and disappeared with it. He came back and told the two Americans to go to 17 and 18.
I had an aisle seat with nobody inside me, that is until minutes before we left when a local old lady squeezed in covered in poncho, blankets and gawd knows what else. She knew what she was doing, because heating seems to be a phenomenon unheard of on Peruvian coaches. I huddled up and tried to nod off. No sooner had I drifted off, the conductor came ground with Bolivian visa forms to fill in. That done I nodded off again, but not for long. Now there were currency forms to fill in. A brief snooze and we were at the border. This involved queuing three times. First at the Peru Police Post, then Peru Emigration and finally Bolivian Imigration. All safely back in the coach we drove about 8Km into Copacabana. A man came on selling tickets for the privilege of going into the town. Although it was only 1 bolly or whatever the currency is I told him I had none of them. Then we were told we had to get out of the coach and come back in 40 minutes. I asked if I could stay in the coach and was told no.
I may not have mentioned it, but the weather was far from warm. I found a cafe where I asked if I could pay in US$, and having been told I could I had a delicious roll with fried egg and ham and molten cheese along with a cup of coffee. I joined the throng awaiting the new coach. We had to off load our own luggage and then carry/drag it the length of the street to the new coach, which was about half the size of the initial one and had no toilet. We travelled for a while and then the coach ground to a halt again. Yet again we were asked to disembark this time to cross a ferry - the ferry couldn't take a coach plus passangers, so we had to board a boat that barely looked seaworthy and it came as no surprise that we were all given a lifejacket! There was quite a wait on the otherside for the coach to arrive in what I can only describe as heavy cold rain.
This is the contraption on which our bus crossed the waterway!
We proceeded on our way towards La Paz, which I'm reliably informed is the highest capital city in the world. The weather turned so cold that the windows completely misted up but I did notice it was snowing.
On arrival at La Paz there was no indication as to where the exit was, and I asked several people the directions for a taxi who just vaguely hung their hands out in front of them. I finished walking the length of the terminal which was not short, and came outside with no signs anywhere. I eventually found an exit and a taxi and showed him the name and address of the hotel. He nodded wisely and off we went. We duly got to the LP Columbus Hotel. It was then that we ran into a problem, the cab driver won't accept US$ he wanted the local currency of which I had none. However the hotel came to the rescue and changed up $20 (which left me with enough for a cab to the airport), and we all parted amicably.
The LP Columbus is probably the best hotel since Durban. A big large room with a settee, large bed, 100+ channel TV including BBC World News, free WiFi, an excellent restaurant. I'm on the sixth floor, the lift terminates on the fifth! Ah well you can't have everything.
(I've been having problems downloading pics on the last couple of posts so will get back to that when I get to Rio - I leave at 4.00am and fly to Mexico - 6 hour break - onto Panama Cityand finally on to Rio).
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