*Pit Stops*

The following is an excerpt from my pretty little blue journal, regarding a recent trip to Sucre. Let me warn you now, it does mention bathrooms and their contents rather frequently. A ''rebound'' exchange student once told me that exchange students become very comfortable talking about any bodily functions in public. This is the proof of it.


We made it! After an eighteen tour bus ride we are here in Sucre, fairly alone and on our own. The freedom is exciting, invigorating, and a tad bit scary. I love it.
The bus ride wasn’t half bad either. Part of this was because of the incredibly positive moods of both Sarah and I. We boarded our semi-cama, con DVD y baño flota* to discover that it lacked the baño. Even so, chairs that reclined and a TV present were good signs.
We talked for the first four hours or so of the trip. Sarah had provided dinner: two tuna sandwiches and a bag of gummy Lifesavers. There was also a two liter bottle of Mineragua, but we only allowed ourselves a few swallows each, not knowing the bathroom situation.
That turned out to be very wise, seeing as said situation was fairly awful.
About three hours into the trip we pulled into Samaipata for a dinner and bathroom break. Already having a delicious tuna sandwich in my stomach, I skipped dinner, but did go to the bathroom. It was terrible. The toilets didn’t flush for one. Also, the ladies in line kept yelling for all to hurry up. Believe me; I was not trying to extend my stay in that stall. The men had it easier; they had a room with a long trough—communal urinal? There was a sink for hand washing, but back on the bus I dug out my hand sanitizer. It’s impossible to feel truly clean after using a roadside bathroom in Bolivia, though that may be true for all roadside bathrooms.
Back on the road, exhaustion took over. I would’ve fallen asleep immediately, but the TV was set up and soon Marley and Me (in Spanish of course) was playing. The noises of the road drowned out almost all dialogue, but I had seen it a couple months before at the cine with Mary so could guess at most of the lines. Unfortunately, several large road bumps made the DVD skip to the point where it didn’t work anymore. A man came out of the front of the bus and fiddled with the DVD player. When he was done, Marley and Me had been replaced with Good Luck Chuck and a viler and more disgusting film I have never seen. I learned rather quickly to turn my head away from the many, many sex scenes. I’m glad I couldn’t hear the dialogue. Thankfully, around eleven o’clock the TV screen abruptly went dark.
After that, Sarah and I switched iPods, then drifted in and out of sleep for hours. In my completely irrational mostly-asleep brain, I thought the woman across from me was trying to steal my camera. She kept leaning down towards the aisle, probably to do something completely normal, like adjust her shoe. I thought she was reaching for my backpack, so first I picked it up to make sure my camera was still there, then hooked my leg through its strap and fell asleep again.
Around one in the morning we stopped for another bathroom break. I left Sarah with the gear and walked outside. I followed the line of fellow bus passengers around the corner to an empty road. They all proceeded to squat in the grass. I looked for a spot, and upon finding one, changed my mind. I hate squatting. What if I were to miss and hit my jeans or shoes?. I didn’t really need to go. I got back on the bus and resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be anywhere near a real toilet for at least another five hours.
I fell back asleep, and actually slept for several hours before waking to find us in mountains very different from the ones we had left. The road was white; the cliff walls were white with layers that implied depth of…something. The trees and bushes (they’re practically the same thing) were white with softer lines. I nudged Sarah awake. She looked at me bleary-eyed. I said, ‘’Sarah, look outside!’’
‘’What?’’
‘’It’s white and fluffy. What’s white and fluffy and lives in the mountains?’’ She stared at me. I answered my own question. ‘’Snow.’’
She looked outside, said, ‘’Oh, snow,’’ and fell back asleep.
I stayed awake, watching the snow until it abruptly disappeared. I blinked, and squinted, and stared, but the snow didn’t reappear. I now blame it on lights on the rocks and sleep in my eyes.
Well, I finally slept until the next bathroom break—was it at five or six am? I didn’t bother getting off then because I doubted the existence of a toilet, or even a hole in the ground (not being time to dig my own.) We slept more, though Sarah was woken by the girl sitting behind her, pounding her headrest and repeating, ‘’Choquita, choquita.*’’ So much for a please!
We finally arrived in Sucre at eleven am. I guarded the bag while Sarah used the bathroom, then she guarded so I could go. It wass so wonderful. Haha, eighteen hours with only one bathroom break. I felt much better afterwards.



*Some phrases just don't work as well in English as Spanish, but for those of you who don't speak both, here are some explanations:

semi-cama, con DVD y baño flota: semi-bed, with DVD and bathroom bus
Choquita: blondie. I'm fairly sure the word ''choco(a)'' comes from the verb ''chocar''--to crash. A choco(a) is a person with light, or blonde hair. That makes it sort of a dumb-blonde nickname, though is often used affectionately.