Death Bus – Coroico to Rurrenabaque

OK, I haven't really had a good rant in these blog's and I wanted to remember how bad this journey was! It all started badly with being rammed in a back of a taxi with our bags and a angry female taxi driver from Coroico to Yolosita, then followed by an hours wait in Yolosita (the town where our bus was picking us up from) this place just smells like toilets, we also got raped my mosquito's here.

The bus eventually came and as we got on we learnt that our seats had been taken by a family and they pled to have them! Being us we didn't mind and had to respect that they were locals. So we ended up on the back row (where the seats don't recline), I had two dutch people on my right, Mish on my left and Mish had a local guy next to her who didn't like having the window open.

Have you ever lost concentration on the road and your wheels hit the tinny little bumps that instantly get your attention? If our driver had done this we all would have been goners, as it was at least a 300 metre sheer drop, on a 3 metre wide unpaved road, with massive lorry's coming the other way, passing on wider bits of the road, I remember looking out the window of my middle seat and seeing no road just a sheer drop, ahhh, Mish kept going through procedures of covering up to prepare for the drop and I kept thinking how upset everyone would be back home, and if they would ever find our body's! Freaking right out I tell you!

The bus stank, and was silly hot, about 3 hours in we burst a tire and had a half hour wait. They replaced the tire with a wheel that had a massive hole in! We got to a random town and had it changed properly, so had to wait another hour here. The uncomfortable bit we can take, because it comes with traveling on a shoe string and is funny some times, but we like to feel safe on transport. The only bonus we had on the bus is that it wasn't raining, I couldn't imagine what it would be like if you also had the chance of land slides etc.

In the middle of the night Mishee was keeping her eye on the road as we were at the highest point of the road, after working our way down we realised how high up we had been as the lorry lights that had passed us looked like distant stars! Also our bus driver was so polite that whichever side of the road we were on he always let passing traffic pass on the mountain side putting us in further danger!

The death bus took 16 hours and we have never been so terrified in all our lives, our bungy jumps and sky dives weren't as scary as this bus! This road is a joke and I think fly, OK its only a 8 seater plane but its 40 minutes from la Paz, you'd be much safer on here, also the same guy drives the bus the whole way, which is insane. The flights sets you back around £50.

The dutch people talked from 3pm to 1am, really loudly too i just wanted to elbow them I really did, they just wouldn't shut the hell up, they also hadn't brushed their teeth for years or had showers in months, lush. Thanks again Apple for designing the IPOD, it has saved me so many times!

The woman in front of me to the left thought it was OK to rest her long hair on my knee and tickle it and the guy in front of me on the right kept flicking his hat at me, no idea why! 10 hours in we all got off and had to walk a bit as the death bus couldn't make it through the mud, we were so happy as we could go to the bush for a wee. Drinking liquids is a bad choice on the death bus you never know when you will stop!

So tips for the death bus to Rurrenabaque, wear as little as possible, try to get a seat next to the window, close the curtain, don't get on if you don't really have to. This road is identical to the worlds most dangerous road. If your not concentrating on dieing the views are amazing, for once I didn't care for the views, and just wanted to get off. Also its only 160k away from La Paz and would be a good idea to cycle it and camp. If your also wondering if maybe there a better bus company? Wrong they are all rough.

To top this all off something bit me and swelled my foot up to a size of a football, and by the time we got to Rurre I couldn't feel it and couldn't walk on it!! Mish was great and got a very very very angry ads onto a motor bike and got me to a bed and ran straight to the chemist to get the drugs and made it all better.

So after football foot had gone down and the pain had gone we went to get a bite to eat, we saw a cheap little restaurant and dived in for a massive piece of chicken and chips. Nice meal to taste and everything was all good, 5 hours later 2am, Mishee wakes up with tummy ache, and had severe diarrhea, she asked if I though it was the chicken, I said course not! 15 minutes later I had my head in the toilet projectile vomiting to the point it was hitting me back in the face, sorry not nice! This carried on through the night and Mish and I were constantly on and off the toilet, being sick and having awful diarrhea. Its so lucky that we got a bathroom, we have been sharing bathrooms in S. America so far and for some reason decided to get one this time, very lucky indeed! We were in room 13 on Friday also :[

We have come through the worst of it now I think and will start having fun again soon. In Bolivia they don't store chicken at the right temperature and if they don't sell it in the night, it will be there the next night. They don't care! To be honest though we both said we wouldn't eat chicken 2 days before in Coroico because of how we saw it on the streets, so our own faults really we were thinking with our budget not our health, never again.

Mishee's mum said there would be bad days to us and she was right 3 horrible days the worse in 10 months of travel!!!

Maybe in years to come we will laugh about this, but not for a while, screw you death bus.

WOW that feels better for a rant!!!!

Ads and Mish

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