Bus station - exactly the way you imagine it

Ok... I know that I already wrote an entry today, but apparently - when you travel all alone you find yourself stuck in boring places from time to time with no one to talk to. So now i´m at the bus station, waiting for my 18:00 bus to Cochabamba to leave, hopefully it will drop me off in Villa Tunary as promised.
At first I heard that it´s 6 hours drive, then it became 3. Now the person who sold me the ticket said that we´ll get there by 20:00... Bolivian time is not so accurate I guess.

How difficult do you think it is for a man, who can hardly speak Spanish, to get from his hostel to the bus station in Santa Cruz and purchase a one way ticket to Villa Tunary?
Well, this story should give you a clue about it.

Leaving the hostel behind was fairly easy, although I will miss it a little. The calm environment, the kind hostel owner, my odd looking bolivian neighbours who, for some reason, live in a hostel and not in an apartment (???). I just asked the hostel owner ¿El estacion de autobuses esta lejos? which means - is the bus station far away? He said yes, and recommended a taxi.
Following his advice I exited the hostel and stopped the first car that looked like a real taxi.

At this point it might be crucial to clarify a few things about taxis around here. In Santa Cruz about 60% of the cars on the streets are ¨Taxi¨. They have a sign permanently stuck to the windshield and Voilla - A taxi! If they feel like it - they´ll take you. If not - they´re not really a taxi... A few of these cars have a logo printed on the car and a phone number, those are probably the real taxis... the others are just trying to make a little extra something.

I asked the alleged taxi driver ¨Cuanto cuesta para la estacion de autobuses?¨ at which he replied ¨Quarenta Bolivianos¨. 40 Bols? It seems a bit too much... so I said ¨Es mui caro! Veinte boliviano es bueno?¨meaning - that´s too expansive, are 20 bols good?
He didn´t reply and just drove away. Am I mistaken? I thought to myself. 40 bols are a lot of money around here... So I decided to test my hypothesis and asked a local resident in the hostel, a bolivian guy who makes cheap jewelery out of strings, to help me. He stopped a taxi for me, and sure enough - now the price suddenly became only 10 bols! I thanked the guy and off I went to the bus station.

Seeing the central bus station at any city around the world is usually intersting and authentic. the same thing works here - you see really poor people, less poor people, women with authentic Peruvian/Bolivian outfit with long braids carrying huge braided sacks on their backs with food, junk and kids, dirty children crawling on the floor and the smell is unmistakable - welcome to our bus station.
As I entered the station - a wonderful sign attracted my attention ¨Information¨. In english! ¨This is going to be very easy¨ I thought to myself as I approached the young lady behind the counter. ¨Hola Señora, hable engles?¨ ¨No¨. Of course not... I´ll just use my bad spanish to ask her where I can purchase tickets to Villa Tunary. ¨Uno momento por favor¨ she said in reply and simply went away. About a minute later she came back with a kind smile. ¨Hay no autobuses para Villa Tunary¨... In case you missed it - ¨There are no busses to Villa Tunary here¨.
Great. What do I do now?... well, after just a few days in Bolivia I realized that sometimes you really just have to ignore what people tell you... So I proceeded deep into the station and there it was - the Bolivian way of travelling. Dozens of bus companies heading to all directions at different hours and different rates. It was really a market selling tickets. What a mess!
I went from one counter to another saying ¨Villa Tunary?¨ And they just said ¨No, La paz, Sucre, Cochabamba¨ etc... after 5 or 6 of those I finally got a ¨ci, Villa Tunary, Siete¨. I didn´t want to wait until 7 P.M so I just kept on walking and found another one leaving at 6P.M.
I purchased the ticket and made sure that I understand what´s written on it (Bus number, seat number, dock number). I was about to exit the station to the bus area but a women stopped me and asked for a ticket. I showed her what I have and she explained, in spanish of course, something that sounded like I need a different ticket to just LEAVE the bus station. Lucky for me there were 2 tourists behind me who told me that I have to pay ¨Tax¨ to use the bus, and that there are tellers behind the information center. I went there and bought another ¨ticket¨ - which costs 3 Bol.
Finally I´m ready for my first bus ride in South America, I´m sure it will be fun... I´ll keep on asking the bus driver and people around me ¨Villa Tunary¨? Just so I don´t accidently find myself 500 miles away...

Wish me luck, I´m boarding in 30 minutes.

Talk soon!

Gilad.

P.S.
Thank you for reading all that, It was written out of pure boredom... Next entry should be much more interesting...