I am currently in Santa Cruz, arriving yesterday afternoon after 18 hours. Normally it takes 8.5-9 by bus. I came with two other volunteers. I wanted to have dinner with Woody Roland, the I-Teams Director of Latin America who was visiting in Santa Cruz and another volunteer wanted to buy a digital camera. I thought I could eat dinner and then help this volunteer find a good camera since I know a fair amount about the city.
Anyway, things were going as normal (apart from a downpour of rain we had), but about 4.5 hours into the trip, we stopped at a town called Guarayos, and sat there. Usually we stop there for a 20 min break for people to get off and use the bathroom, buy food/drink, etc. This time however we were stopped for about 45 min and I suddenly wondered what was going on. I got off and noticed a lot of other buses were there too and wondered why they hadn't moved either. I walked up the street a bit (still in a bit of rain) and then saw Lucho, who was traveling to Santa Cruz as well, but on a different bus. Lucho told me that he had heard from some of the locals that there was bridge that had collapsed in an area where there was a lot of runoff from the rainwater in the area and that it was impassable. He said the buses were planning to wait until morning and then see if the people could cross on foot and transfer to buses on the other side of the same line to continue on and then vice versa for the people wanting to get to Trinidad.
After a little while longer a car pulled up and a guy got out (it's now about 4 AM) and he said the hole was about 30 feet wide and 15 feet deep and that the water was raging through very deep. Shortly after this, Lucho's bus (and Lucho) turned around and went back to Trinidad. Rumors kept spreading, some saying we were turning around, others saying we were staying. In the end, the rest of us stayed though and in the morning everyone started gathering their belongings and hailing taxis to take them over to the hole so they could see about crossing.
When we got to the hole it was not an exaggeration the guy had said, as those literally were the dimensions of this break in the road. However thankfully it had stopped raining hours ago and so the water level had dropped significantly, so much so that people were able to wade across. There were easily 500 people on each side with more coming every minute. A few Bolivians cut down a couple of trees, lashed them together, and then put them across as sort of a crude footbridge and then threw a rope over to help people keep their balance. We kept trading off 5-10 people per side crossing at a time. Myself and the two others with me maneuvered ourselves to cross (at this point there is complete chaos and a mob of people) and after about an hour finally did. However, when I and one of the volunteers crossed, for whatever reason they had taken off the rope and so we had to be careful not to lose our balance (or get wet). Thankfully I didn't fall, although in hindsight it would have caused some problems since my wallet and cell phone were in my pockets. Immediately after we crossed, they moved the rope back into a different, higher position that was much more useful than before. The third volunteer then crossed and me and the other guy said to each other, "that would have been nice to have!" a bit jealous that he had it easier. But most of all we were thankful for being able to get across. Others were wading across further over where the water was calmer.
Then all of a sudden I hear a couple of voices yell "Jimmy!" I look around and eventually spot one of the teachers from La Palmera, another lady from the church and a student from the Senior class, who were all in the same predicament, but trying to get back to Trinidad. Ah, the places you find people you know . . .We chatted for a minute and then I and the others were on our way. Since of course there was no order as to when people from certain buses crossed when, people just climbed on whatever bus and then as the buses filled they were leaving for Santa Cruz. We happened to get on a different bus, which agreed to take us, but for an extra 20 Bs, which seemed more than fair to me at this point. So we continued on, without further delays (except for a lunch stop) and arrived in Santa Cruz about 3pm yesterday. The three of us were completely exhausted, but I decided it better to fight the fatigue and just make it until bedtime so my body clock didn't get messed up. I managed to later get in touch with Woody and we had an excellent Italian dinner with the two Canadians as well, and the food was probably the best non-Bolivian meal I have eaten since coming here, and certainly well deserved since I hadn't eaten in about a day (although I did have a brief snack after arriving in Santa Cruz).
So there you have it . . .a true Bolivian bus adventure . . .gracias a Dios I am here. I don't know when the road will be fixed, we may have to FLY back to Trinidad. . .
