Sucre & Tarija

Traveling is not all fun, part of traveling is that things do go wrong sometimes, I did not plan to spend a night in Madrid, but my flight was delayed for the next day (the airline excuse was that the pilot got sick), but the latest mishap was rather more interesting, it is not unusual that buses break down, or road get blocked because of weather or some human related activity, but how about getting stuck on a bus in the middle of a river, now that's special.

Bolivia is a large country with a low population density, it is about the size of France, with a population of only 9 million people, concentrated in a few cities, with vast empty landscapes in between. This makes investment in roads relatively expensive for this poor country, and in the south of the country the situation is further exaggerated, as the population density is even lower, and the landscape is very steep, this results in a situation where the even the major cities in the south are connected only by a dirt road, and traveling between them means a long, bumpy and almost unbearable ride.


Starting my trip in Santa Cruz, my next destination was Sucre, a 16 hour bumpy bus ride away from Santa Cruz. Sucre is a small tranquil city, that used to be the capital of Bolivia, but is now only the home of the supreme court, a city of lawyers and bankers. At the central plaza lies the 'Museum de Libertad' telling the very interesting story of how Bolivia became independent from the Spanish, and paying tribute to the heroes of the revolution. In 1993 a rich archaeological site was discovered next to the city, with thousands of dinosaur tracks preserved on a wall of rock, taking advantage of this they build a dinosaur park close to the site, with real size dinosaur module, including a giant 40 meter long herbivore, and dozen other smaller modules, all the modules are well crafted and impressive. From a view point in the park one can also see the rock wall were the dinosaur tracks were exposed.


Our next stop was Tarija, a 16 hour bus ride from Sucre, going through the city of Potosi, or maybe I should rephrase this: It was supposed to be a 16 hour bus ride, but it ended being 26 hours long, and a bit more interesting than I expected. At about 4 am our bus stopped, ahead was a river, because of the rain the water level had risen, and the bus driver decided it is too dangerous to cross the river, near by there is a bridge, but it is too weak and too small for buses and trucks to cross, and there is no other way to cross other than through the river. The bus driver decided to wait for the water level to drop before crossing. But for some reason at 6 am our incompetent bus driver decided that he was going to try to cross anyway, I was not awake then, after not sleeping for most of the night, because of the bumpy trip, I needed to catch up on some sleep, I could hear all the bustle around me, and could feel the buss was not moving, I had feeling something was wrong, but I just couldn't be bothered, I needed to catch up on some sleep first. When I finally woke up, it was already full day light, and the situation we were in was revealed to me: Our bus was stuck in the middle of a 25 meter wide river, engine dead, water gushing against the bus, probably entering the luggage cabin and soaking my backpack (we couldn't know for sure because without air pressure it was not possible to open the luggage cabin), half of the bus passengers had left, crossed the river on foot, and hitched another ride to Tarija. I called our driver incompetent for a good reason, about ten other buses passed by while we where stuck, and none of them got stuck, apparently there is a point were the water level is low and the buses and trucks passed with no trouble, but our driver crossed where the water was deeper, another small truck made the same mistake as well, and both got stuck. Most of the buses did not even stop to offer us help, either because they did not want to or maybe they just couldn't.


I find it astonishing that a road between two major cities in this country gets cut by a river flow when ever there is rain, and still no body feels urged to build a proper bridge there, sure Bolivia is the poorest country in south America, but my opinion is that an investment in good roads is one of the first things this country should consider, not just for the comfort of its citizens or for it's image in the eyes of tourists, but I think that such an investment repays it self. They buy brand new buses in this country, but they get worn down in a few years riding on these terrible roads, and then they have to buy new ones. Besides that a good transport system increases effeciency and helps spur economical growth.


Anyway after being stuck a few hours in the bus, our bus driver managed to find a truck to tow us out of the river, but the engine would start, and after a couple more hours of waiting, the bus was still not moving, and the bus company still did not bother to send a new transport to pick us up, this is one other things about transport in this country, they will sell you a ticket, but if the bus can't make for some reason, well tough luck, the company will not take responsibility, although some of the passengers were talking about trying to claim a refund from the company, once they made it to Tarija. by then most of the passengers had given up and hitched a ride on any moving vehicle willing to transport them, we decided to leave the bus as well, along with the last group of passengers, by then they had managed to open the luggage cabin, by bumping air from the rescue truck, luckily my back pack was on the upper level and did not get wet, other passengers were less lucky. Anyway we hitched a ride on a small truck, that took us to a nearby shanty town, a town lying on a road cross, with a figure of Jesus watching over the town from a nearby hill. From there we took another truck to Tarija, it was a long bumpy windy and dusty ride, alternating between chilly wind and burning sun, depending on our altitude at that moment, as we scaled up an scaled down the steep landscape. On the way we got reunited with some more of the bus passengers, who's ride apparently failed to get them all the way to Tarija, but we finally made it after 26 hours of traveling, covered with dust and completely exhausted, but never the less relieved to finally make it.

Tarija lies a 1800 meters, a tranquil town with great weather, the best in Bolivia I think, it does not have the extreme changes in temperature one encounters at higher altitudes, and its heat is not as intolerable as the plains of Santa Cruz. The chicks here are also the most beautiful I have seen in Bolivia, although they don't seem to age well, it was hard to see a women in her 30 still looking good, they probably get married and have kids young. The people of this city seem to be doing well financially, one does not see as much poverty as in the rest of Bolivia, sure there are still beggars in the streets, but most of the people seem to have it well. The main source of income seems to be cattle, and wine, and they do make good wines in around here, 'Campos de Solano' and Kolberg seem to be the best two brands. Good weather, beautiful woman, lovely wine, no wonder the Tarijans are not so enthusiastic about building good roads to connect them to the rest of Bolivia, they probably have little desire to visit the rest of Bolivia, I would have if I was living in such a lovely city. Tarija just shows that being in Bolivia does not have to mean being poor, it all depends on having a mentality of taking initiative and taking responsibility.

One of the things that travelers find most disappoint about South America is the cuisine, in a place with such diverse and strong cultures, one would not be blamed to have high expectations of the cuisine, but there is no rich cousin similar to India, Thailand or China. Never the less if one looks a little bit more under the surface, one finds a few special dishes in each country, my favorite dish in Bolivia is 'Picante de Lengua', beef tong cooked in a spicy sauce with vegetables, and serviced with maize on the side. We decided to try out the local food of this region, for that we headed to a small town near Tarija, where they serve local dishes, my first dish as a peanut soup with a chicken leg in it, the chicken leg caught me a bit by surprise, it was a full chicken leg with claws an all, I felt uncomfortable eating my soap while looking at it, so I decided to remove before continuing with my soap, the second dish was a crispy fried mix of tiny fish and tiny lobsters, each a few centimeters long, one just eats it in one bite, and eats it whole, it actually tastes good.

After my little adventure coming by bus here, I decided that I was not going through that trip again, actually I decided that already before that incident, after my first trip 16 hour trip to Sucre, but that getting stuck in a river for a few hours, sealed the matter for good; I am going to fly to Cochabamba, a two hour flight, instead of a 20 plus hours bus trip from hell.