Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

I am transposing exact journal entries from my Rurrenbacque adventures…. Heres the first one. There should be many more to follow in the next few days.

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April 22nd

Currently I am aboard a bus in Bolivia, getting the textbook experience that everyone speaks of….Pure, unadulterated HELL. The roads are unpaved and terrible, and they keep letting more and more people on the bus. The aisles are filled . One woman in particular keeps bumping into me. I think currently there are 45 people on bus that holds 20. Of course, I do not even come close to fitting and my legs are in the aisles further complicating things.

A little kid next to me has been crying for the last hour and the funk is like a post game locker room with some sort of interesting Bolivian rank twist.

I did not sleep AT ALL last night and Martin and I have been enjoying the sedentary effects of Valium to make even light sleep possible on this hell hole. Honestly, I do not know if I could make it without them. I am just way too big for these buses. Next time I am buying two seats.

For about 5 hours I had the premier back seat of the bus(In the back there are 5 seats across and the middle seat has ample leg room in the aisle). So, its about 2 o´clock in the morning, I am asleep, and I get tapped on the shoulder. I look up and its a local Bolivian guy who actually had the ticket for the best seat in the world that I am sitting in. He also has, in his hands, a giant machete. So….I very graciously went back to my old seat next to Darkhorse Al.

The bus just stopped again for no apparent reason. We are supposed to be in Rurrenbaque by the middle of the night sometime. I’ll believe that when I see it.

Darkhorse Al and I are currently sharing earphones listening to Radioheads Kid A on my iPod. With any luck, we might start moving soon. Did I mention its about 90 degrees.

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