I had done my research and found out about a bus line that travels direct from La Paz to Cusco. What I didn't plan for was it being sold out. I dropped the ball by not purchasing the tickets a few days in advance. On Sunday morning we showed up at La Paz's main bus terminal only to find the bus full of tourists with backpacks.
Fortunately, we had one of the embassy drivers dropping us off, he offered to take us over the the Cementerio district in El Alto. From there, vans depart towards the border as soon as they fill up. Not quite as fancy as a double-decker bus, but it worked.
The air freshener almost brought a tear to my eye.
This particular van would take us to Desaguadero which is located on the border between Bolivia and Peru at the South end of Lake Titicaca. Interestingly, there was a Brazilian family with surfboards that was traveling all the way to Trujillo, Peru. According to the father, the surfing is better on the Pacific and Trujillo is one of the best spots is South America.
It's about a 2.5 hour drive from La Paz to Desaguadero.
Desaguadero, like many border towns, is a bit chaotic. The van dropped us off about 1/4 of a mile from the bridge. It seemed like kind of a hassle to load all of our stuff up and climb up onto one of the many bike "taxis", so we just walked - once again, another situation where a backpack would have been nice. We then had to wait in line at the Bolivian immigration office to get an exit stamp. After crossing the bridge, we waited in an even longer line on the Peruvian side to get an entry stamp. Fortunately, Peru doesn't charge Americans or Mexicans for a visa.
At this point, we really didn't take anymore pictures. After going through immigration, we got into a shared taxi that would take us to Puno, Peru. There was a French couple in the taxi and it was rather cramped (I was basically smashing Ale against the door the whole time). That drive lasted another 2.5 hours or so. Our original plan was to store our luggage at the bus station in Puno and then try to go tour part of the lake or something and take a night bus to Cusco. However, we found out that the last bus for Cusco left around 9pm which would arrive in Cusco around 4am. I had no idea of what to do in Cusco at 4am. We were also already feeling pretty worn out. The idea of sleeping on the bus and then touring Cusco the following day did not sound very appealing. We decided to catch a bus to Cusco right then.
Coincidentally, I ran into to one of my former mission companions at the bus station. This turned out to be a blessing as we almost got taken advantage of by a hustler selling bus tickets for buses that weren't even at the bus station.
The bus we ended up taking was a relatively comfortable double-decker. However, about an hour into the trip a lady informed Ale that the bathroom was out of order. We still had 6 hours to go and the bus made no stops. After more than an hour Ale was almost in tears. At that point I decided to go investigate for myself. It turns out the bathroom was not out of order, the door was just really hard to open.
Since our original plan was to spend the night on the bus, we didn't have a hotel set up for Cusco that night. Since we would be arriving late, I wanted to have something reserved so we wouldn't be running around Cusco with our suitcases at midnight looking for a hotel. I decided to call the hotel where we had reservations for the following nights to see if they had vacancy for us to check in a night early. The lady at the hotel informed me that she couldn't find any reservations in my name. Moreover, she said they were booked for the whole week. Needless to say this was very frustrating.
There really wasn't much I could do from the bus with my cell phone going in and out of service areas. I called my brother, Daniel, in Texas and asked him to see if he could look online and call some hotels to try to reserve something for that night. About a half hour later I called him back. He informed me that he had found a place and made reservations and that he would text me the information. It turns out he made reservations at the SAME EXACT HOTEL which had lost my previous reservation! I called the hotel again and they were able to sort it out. It turned out to be a great hotel in the end.
With the bathroom and hotel situations resolved, we finally sat back to try to relax and enjoy the rest of the trip. I had set my Kindle tablet on the floor under my seat. A few minutes later when I reached down to retrieve it, it was gone. I got on my hands and knees to started looking everywhere for it. I emptied Ale's purse, my backpack, we started going around the bus asking the other passengers if they had found it. It was nowhere to be found. After a while we gave up the search. As much as I just wanted to put it out of my mind and try to enjoy the trip, it drove me crazy suspecting that someone in that very bus had taken my Kindle.
A few minutes later, the bus suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere. A police officer boarded and began shining his flashlight down the rows. Apparently, he was searching for contraband. After he left our area, I decided to go out and ask him if I could borrow his flashlight to get a better look under the seats. I got off the bus and walked over towards a group of officers. Before I could even finish asking them for a flashlight, Ale yelled to me that she had found the Kindle. It "magically" appeared right under my seat, a place we had searched probably 50 times. While I'll never know for sure, I suspect that the thief, seeing me go out to talk to the police, got scared and returned the Kindle.
Thankfully, the rest of the trip passed by without incident. However, I did commit a major tourist error on the taxi from the bus station to the hotel. In Bolivia, I had never really negotiated with taxi drivers prior to getting in. They had always charged me fair prices and I never had any problems. As a result, I failed to agree on a price with the taxi driver at the bus station in Cusco before getting in the taxi. On top of that, I had no idea where the hotel was in relation to the bus station. I was completely at the driver's mercy. A few minutes into the ride, the driver advised me that it would cost $10 US. I thought that sounded rather pricey, but I figured it was late at night and the hotel must be on the other side of town. Less than a minute later we arrived at the hotel. It was less than 2 miles from the bus station. Oh well, I was just glad to have finally arrived. Although, out of curiosity, I asked the front desk attendant at the hotel what a taxi ride from the bus station would usually cost. He said 4 soles (less than $2).
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