I made it back and in time for classes, which began anew today after a just long enough winter break. I also got new roommates, who had just moved in when I got back, and a found one o them cleaning the bathroom. A good sign. They're both americans (drat!) but they seem laid back and easy to live with, especially now that I have the private bedroom. They were horrified to find that David, one of my previous roommates, ate a beef heart every day. Excellent.
Getting back was an adventure and I'm glad I got to have the experience, as trying as it was at times. I left about 900am on the 26th from La Paz on a bus to catch the train from Oruro, which is a shitty, dusty little town three hours south. Or rather, it's supposed to be three hours south. The problem was that protest groups had thrown up barricades around all approaches to the city.* So, we took a detour, but that was blocked too. Luckily the bus driver was able to negotiate our way through.
I got harrassed by a thief posing as a cop for a while, too. He kept asking to see my passport and asking me to come with him. It was pretty obvious that he was a lying piece of shit, though, so I kept everything and got on the train, which was really quite spectacular. For the first hour or so we went through the middle of a giant shallow lake called Poopo, which was full of flamingos and other sorts of interesting and somewhat exotic waterfowl, and then it was through absolutly empty, surrealish desert with some occasional hills, llamas and indigenous people scattered about.
Anyway, it took me forever to go to sleep once it got dark, despite the fact that it was the first heated place I had found in Bolivia, and I awoken about 6am when the train stopped. But I didn't think much of it, so I went back to sleep until 730, when we were supposed to be pulling into Villazon, the nasty little border town where I was to cross into Argentina. But I looked out the window and realized that we hadn't moved since about six. Hm. We were surrouned by...cacti. And that's about all that was around.
The conductor eventually told us that the locomotive was broken and totally unfixable, and it would be about five hours before one could arive and push us somewhere. Either we could wait or try our luck waiting for a campesino camión that would take us into Villazòn. Eager to get back to Buenos Aires, I opted for the latter, and I can easily say it was one of the most frigid experiences of my life, riding in the back of a flatbed truck (with a little corral) down a dusty, windy road to the Argentine frontier with a bunch of Bolivianos and a couple of other formerly train riding gringos. I crossed in about an hour and bought the first tickets I could get to BA. I'll spare details but it was about thirty hours from here. Finally, though, I arrived about 700pm on the 28th, just in time to see an incredible sunset over the city.
Man, it feels great to be home.
*A favored- and in my opinion, stupid- means of protest.
4 comments:
not that you don't already know it, but you're hard core, Nate.
keeley
(lo siento...no se donde estan los accentos..entonces, cuando hay una letra mayuscula...deberIa un accento)
Tenia 0130 hora hasta que el programa para los jovenes (en la iglesia) comienzaria. Decidi caminar; necesitaba ahorrar mi plata para el omnibus (76 a mi casa). Menos que la plata estadounidense para ofrecer, solo llevaba 15 pesos. Despues de 45 minutos, llegaba en la AV. Italia en 3 cruces, yo podria ver la iglesia, estaba cercisima-1/4 cuadro. Lo que paso es que un hombre, tal vez sin techo, se acercaba a mi; se parO en el camino mio y dicIa algo como, "mira, no preocupas no uso armas pero dame toda tu plata". Al principio, pensE que tal vez querIa plata cuando se acercaba a mi, pero el momento cuando dijo El, "mira"...y sus ojos miraban a cualquier lado y El dijo "dame tu plata!" yo supe en esta instante que El era un ladrOn y querIa robarme! Yo le dije entonces, "mira, yo no tengo plata, (bueno, solo los 15 pesos pero tenIa que llevarme en Omni todavIa), si yo tenIa plata, no estarIa caminando." Me insistiO El, "entonces, permitame ver en la bolsa". RespondE al ladrOn, "lo siento, pero solamente tengo una manzana y la BIblia aqui. ¿Quieres una manzana?"
Pensaba si El es una persoina sin techo, por lo menos podrIa ofrecer algo para comer. No tenIa miedo de El durante todo el tiempo-tal vez porque entendI la situaciOn, pero creo que la razOn era que la iglesia mia estaban alli-cercisima y dios supo que querIa entrarla.
No! Las manzanas son del diablo
dijo el ladrOn.
Oh no! Como puede ser? mira, no sE comno se dice en español, pero yo sE que ´Eve´ comiO una manzana, pero a todos modos la manzana es una fruta y las frutas son de Dios.
Ahora, cambiE la situaciOn: usaba mi inteligencia para parecer que El era nada mAs que una persona sin techo que querIa comida (aUnque yo supe que el era un ladrOn).
"Huh?" Su cara parecIa muy confudido. Otravez, insistiO,
mira, dame tu plata.
respondI,
tienes hambre?.
Si
me respondO.
Pero no quieres una manzana?
No!
Testarudo era.
Entonces, yo no puedo ayudarle.
el, finalmente, abandinO la idea a robarme. SUCKA! Yo soy un estudiante de extranjero, pero a todos modos, cuando tengo dios en mi lado, no tengo que preocupar...y no preocupaba todo el tiempo. Yo sE que podrIa ser una situaciOn mAs grave...si El tenIa arma, por ejemplo, pero gracias a dios, no.
Es un poco cOmico que usaba la oportunidad para enseñarle una poca de la BIblia y dios y sobre compartiendo.
Bueno
el me permitiO salir.
Bueno. Chao
dije y salI para la iglesia. ExplicO a un señor que pasO y El llamO a la policIa. No sE que pasO despuEs porque fui al baño. Pero,era mi primera vez alguien tratO robarme en la calle.
Un hombre en la socidad de jovenes me dijo despuEs el servicio (cantabamos y veimos una pelIcula larga) que no serIa una experiencia llena en otro paIs si alguien no trataba robarme.
Entonces, ahora puedo decir que yo fui a uruguay, oficialmente.
...
bueno cuento no? espero que tengas clases mas dificiles que antes. :)
What?? Who are you? Lam?
-Nathan
what? no lo entendiste? har har
good guess. how is it going there?
L
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