please excuse the frustration expressed in this blogpost:
March 4th rolls around. Emily and I have planned our Titicaca trips around the hope, dream, wish, to do a 2day, 1 night, canyon tour in Arequipa, Peru that leaves 3am March 5th. March 3rd we had a wonderful trek over to Isla del Sol, got harrassed by some little boys who wanted our watches, but everything was easybreezy because we were going to do the COLCA CANYON TOURRRRR, second deepest canyon in the world were you get to be one with condors(ish=) as they soar up and around the canyon.
9AM, March 4th: show up at bus agency to find that BOlivian transporters (bus drivers, minibus drivers, taxi drivers) are on strike. Is it for an honest wage increase? Better safety on the roads or on the job? No sir, no ma´am. Bolivian drivers are protesting for 48 hours over their right to drink and drive without the threat of having their license taken away (for life) hanging maliciously over their heads. DEEP frustration. Warned against walking to the border because the night before, protesters had harrassed the tourists for protecting their bolivian guide to the border. Told to wait until the evening. BUT it is around an 8hr trip to arequipa, no way that we can wait AND leave to do our canyon tour the next day. so, we sweetly ask a man with a boat to boat us over to the border. he obliges, after we agree on a reasonable price for him risking his new, shiny, boat being pegged with angry rocks.
11AM: arrive at border. sweet relief! for two seconds. oh, wait, Puno, the capital of Peruvian Lake Titicaca region, has also decided to go on a transportation strike (for a somewhat more noble cause, not that it was that hard: water rights). as we are walking around ghost border town of Yapumpá (or something) with our backpacks, snickers follow us down the road, coming from tinted-windowed pickup trucks and coughPATHETICcough moto-taxis, which are tricycles with a motor. Weave our way through rocks and carparts that have been strewn in the road to prevent passage of vehicles, and sit on side of road with other travelers, hopeless.
long story short: since the puno strike was local, not national, we were able to bend rules and take 4 minibuses to reach puno (taking us 7 hours which should have taken us 3 from copacabana) by 430 bolivian time. buy a ticket to arequipa, and spend arrive by 1130 peruvian time, magnificant! oops, wrong again.
even though we had sent email updates of our ABSOLUTE DECISION to do the canyon tour on the 4th, and inability to change those reservations, and inability to arrive to hostel quickly due to multiple transportation strikes in multiple countries, our hostel was jusssst a bit too incompetant to follow through on their part. they had not booked us the tour, but offered us the chance to do the tour with an alternative company, still waking up at 3am. ghladly accepted. woke up at 3am, whoopsies, that tour is full, too, no other options.
ON VERGE OF TEARS, slump and slide our way back into our bunkbeds to sleep away sorrow. not that lucky. but, they eventually offered us a free white water rafting tour for tomorrow. which we will accept.
sorry for length and frustration, we have since perked up with the help of fresh plums, church visitations, and frappachinos!
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