Overnight Bus Uyuni to La Paz

I praise myself on being organised enough to book a bus which left at 8pm last night (although I had to be there 45 mins prior to check in and have dinner allegedly), 2 and a half hours after the tour ended. During that time I would have time to change, freshen up and do more researching. Perfect. Or so I thought.

Half way through the tour it became apparent that we would see the sunset. Great I thought. I wasn't expecting that. Bit weird that the sun goes down that early but hey. As it got about an hour away to what I thought was finishing time (530), the sun was still high in the sky. I spoke to the driver who told me that actually the tour finishes around 715! I explained my predicament and he said he would happily drive me to my hostel, allow me to grab my bag, then drive me to the bus station. That would all take 5 mins. The only thing was, I had forgotten the name of my hostel. I knew exactly where it was from the tour agency where we would have been dropped off, but without a name it was impossible for the driver to know where to go. Ah! It's near the clock tower I said!!

We dropped everyone else off at the tour agency at 725 (the sunset was beautiful - who could blame them) and sped off to the clock tower. We got there and I jumped out. Omg I don't recognise anything! I ran across the street. Still nothing came to mind! I ran back to the car. I kind of drew an imaginary map on my hand saying, "tour agency, plaza, clock tower, round the corner my hostel" He understood and then helped me re orientate. I was looking at the clock from the wrong direction! I ran across the park to the other side, ran into the hostel (bearing in mind Uyuni is 3650m above sea level so even breathing when standing still can be a problem), shouted at the guy to please get my rucksack, then crawled back across the park to the car! Go Go Go I wheezed! He got me to the bus at 5 mins to 8 and I stormed on to find a sea of faces stop their relaxed meals to stare at me.

I made it though and the journey was uneventful. A toilet that worked, a blanket and pillow, and even wifi, which was available to use at 1am should we so wish.