Back in Sucre ...

Yes we are back in Sucre. How on earth did this happen I hear you ask? Well apparently there is something called a nationwide roadblock going on in Bolivia at the moment, making it impossible for us to get the overnight bus from Potosi to La Paz. We are desperately running out of time in Bolivia so this roadblock is a little bit annoying to say the least.

Originally we wanted to spend just 2 nights in Potosi and then travel to La Paz on the third night. We had heard of the blockade on day 1, so we went to the bus station to make sure that we could travel the following night. We were assured that the blockade would have finished by then and we were even sold a couple of tickets. We turned up at the bus station the next night naively assuming that since we had some tickets, it would be easy to get on a bus. We were then told the bus would be leaving two hours late. This turned into 3 hours, then 4. Finally we were told that there would be no bus that night and were given a refund. However, we were assured, the blockade would definitely be finished by the next night.

Like fools we returned the next day, only to be told that no busses were running whatsoever because of the protests.

Since we were short of time, and since there was no guarantee the blockade would finish anytime soon, and since we were in one of the coldest places on earth with no central heating anywhere, we decided to splash out and get a flight to La Paz. Only problem was, Potosi, despite having a commercial airport, didn't appear to have any flights (commercial or not) going to or from it. The nearest airport that did some flights (and mercifully one going to La Paz) was in ... yes, you guessed it ... Sucre.

We were then faced with another problem - how to get to Sucre when no busses were running. Fortunately we fell into conversation with another group of travellers who also wanted to get to Sucre. They had spoken to a a couple of taxi drivers who were prepared to try and drive round the blockades ... for a price. To be honest, the price was around 3.50 GBP per person - for a 4 hour taxi ride. In London, you'd be lucky to get to the next set of traffic lights. We hastily agreed and set off on our way.

The journey wasn't especially eventful ... unless you count all the off-roading to sneak round the blockades. Or having to get out of the car as our driver negotiated especially bumpy or steep areas of terrain. Or waiting for the driver to push burnt-out cars off the road. We are beginning to learn that this sort of thing is a pretty standard part of travel in Bolivia.

We eventually reached a half kilometer long blockade on the outskirts of Sucre that certainly wasn't circumnavigable. We got out of the taxi, walked through the blockade, and got a local bus to the centre of Sucre ... and here we are!

We have since booked a flight for tomorrow morning at 11.30. The problem is, relations seemed to have soured between the protestors and the government, and there are now plans to blockade every street in every major city - including Sucre - starting at 7.30 tomorrow morning. We will therefore have to get up very early tomorrow and attempt to get a taxi to the airport before the blockades begin. Even if we manage to get there and catch our flight, who knows what's going to happen when we get to La Paz. We may be forced into a very long walk from the airport to our hostel in the city - with all our luggage on our backs. More to come as and when it happens ...

PS. To date I have no idea what these blockades are all about! I will try and find out and post more details soon.
PPS. The picture at the beginning of this post is not of one of the blockades that we saw en route. It is in fact just a picture of a truck from Google images. We cannot take any more pictures at the moment as all our camera memory cards are full up, and the internet connection is so slow in Bolivia that we have not been able to transfer the photos to online storage. The blockades we saw were similar to the truck above however - just many more of them, in much worse condition, and all parked across the road next to each other ...