those days

so i booked a direct overnight bus from cuzco to copacabana, bolivia. alex alex alex, you should know by now that direct and bus are oxymorons in latin america. silly girl.


first, it decided to pour rain, and that hostel that we were staying in that gave such magnificent city views posed a slight problem. it was only reachable by steep winding stairs, slippery and difficult normally but a death wish in flip-flops, my two backpacks and torrents of water. needless to say, things did not go well, and i have the bruises to prove it.


then at the bus station, i was told that there was a border strike or my bus had crashed, i wasn´t too sure, but either way, my direct bus was dunzo and everyone had to be redirected. i found myself on a rusty puno-bound bus at 11:30 pm next to a woman and her puking child, was dumped unceremoniously at 4 am at the bus terminal and tried to keep myself from freezing during the 3 hours i had to wait until the borded bus decided to show.


another four hours and then bolivian immigration, oh joy. forking over the $135 for the visa was painful enough, but then they demanded passport photos, itinerary, a letter of welcome (what?!?) and tickets out of the country, of which i had none. after some wheeling and dealing, downright begging, they finally let me in. not the warmest welcome.


icing on the cake? i realized that at some point during all those joyous hours of traveling, some evil-doer nabbed my camera. arghhhhhhhhhhhhh. exhausted, sleep-deprived and just frustrated, i dropped into the nearest hostel in copacabana and was done. just done.


everybody has those days while travelling. the days when you are just tired--tired of living out of a backpack, tired of constantly being misunderstood, tired of nothing ever working as it should, tired of nothing running on time, tired of everyone staring, tired of never knowing what you are eating and then finding two grizzly chicken feet in your soup, tired of ice cold showers in freezing mountain towns, tired of everyone constantly telling you to be careful, tired of being starving and everything being closed because it sunday and this is catholic country. tired of being tired. you have a moment of feeling bad for yourself. you want to go home. but then, you´re in a new town, a new city, a new country, something fun and different and you get to explore and see beautiful things from all corners of the world and lose your center over and over again, and you feel bohemian and free and independent and liberated and really really really lucky. and i think i can live out of this backpack forever. siempre adelante. always onward.