Finally the end of the cycling, just a couple of buses and a flight, and we would be fully fledged tourists on the opposite side of the continent. At least that’s what we thought… There was only one little problem. We were in Arequipa, Peru and we were flying from La Paz, Bolivia, 600km away in 72 hours, and there was a 3 day bus strike.
So how is it done?
72 hours to flight – Spend 24 hours watching demonstrations and visit every bus company in town to see if any bus will go in our direction48 hours to flight – Repeat the process until you find a bus going to La Paz at 8pm that evening. 6pm find out that the bus is not going to La Paz, but there is one going 200km to Puno at 10 pm. 10pm board bus with yesterdays demonstrators!
33 hours to flight – 5.30am get kicked off the bus 50km short of Puno, at Juliaca, with the assurance that there will be a bus from Puno to La Paz. Start cycling.
30 hours to flight – Arrive in Puno, find the bus station and discover there are no buses to La Paz, or for that matter anywhere. Continue cycling.
28 hours to flight – Get puncture.27.50 hours to flight – Get another puncture27.48 hours to flight – Flag down a random mototaxi load bikes and head for Bolivia25 hours to flight – Road blocked by barbed wire, rocks and glass. Unload bikes. Cross the barricade to cheers from the protesters!
24.5 hours to flight – 100km to the border and 6 hours until it closes. Cycle, like mad.
19.45 hours to flight – Reach the border with 15 minutes to spare having cycled 150km in total, and passing countless blockades.
18.45 hours to flight – Cross the border and lose an hour!
18 hours to flight – 8.00pm Copacabana, Bolivia, look for a bus to La Paz. Discover the last bus went at 7.30pm. Find a taxi willing to drive us the 200km to La Paz, but there is a ferry crossing half an hour’s drive away, the last ferry goes at 8.30pm and the time is 8.10pm…
17.5 hours to flight – 8:29.59 Catch the last ferry, just about alive.
15.5 hours to flight – Reach La Paz, find hostel and relax after 24 hours on the go. 600km, a bus, mototaxi, ferry, taxi, and 99 miles cycled. We’d made it…
3.5 hours to flight – 10.30am, wake up late. Book taxi to airport for 12.00, and go and look for bike wrapping for the plane.2.15 hours to flight – 11.45am find shop that has bike wrapping; at the work shop, 30 minute walk away, get taxi to work shop, buy 2 bike boxes and try and find a taxi that can fit 2 bike boxes
1.45 hours to flight – 12.15pm arrive back at hostel
1.15 hours to flight – Arrive at airport, and pack bikes.
1 hour to flight – Check in. Get told that we cannot take the bikes on the flight. They have to go ‘cargo’ possibly taking 2 days. Take bikes to cargo.
½ hour to flight – Return from cargo with bikes, and permission from the manager of the airline that we can take our bikes on the flight. Check in.
¼ hour to flight – Customs, John gets stopped for (accidentally) trying to take a knife onto the flight.
5 mins to flight – Board plane and sit down, and wonder what all the stress was about, we had 4 minutes to spare…
