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Cochabamba, Bolivia
17° 22' S 66° 9' W
May 12, 2006 11:39
Distance 208km

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Keep Bo-leaving...

Text written in: English

Our night flota to Cochabamba arrived before sunrise. This was not a destination for us, more a transitory stop on the way to Puno, on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. When we went to book our tickets from one of the roadside agents, we were met with the unanimous response that it would be much quicker, and maybe even cheaper, to return to Potosí, from where we would find it a lot easier to get to La Paz. However, as we had only made the journey from Potosí to Sucre the day before, it seemed foolish to go back on ourselves. Though we were not planning to stay any longer than was necessary to get a bus to La Paz, Cochabamba was a new city to clock up and our instinctive stubbornness led us to ignore all advice to the contrary.

There was no onward transport to La Paz until daylight, so we slept on the bus, or tried to, for a little while. Ben sorted us out with two seats on a relatively comfortable minibus, though it didn't leave until after 7am. The "4hr journey" took about 7hrs and became increasingly stressful. A couple of games on our new chess board and Ace Ventura - When Nature Calls were not enough to relieve our boredom. It became clear we had made an error in not going back to Potosí. If only someone had warned us!

However, when we arrived in La Paz, things went surprisingly well. We enjoyed a late lunch buffet at a 5 star hotel in the centre, I managed to postpone a flight from Lima to Quito in only 2mins and we then got on the last bus of the day to Lake Titicaca.