It’s been a LOOOONGGG week to say the least.
IN BOLIVIA:
It all started Friday, December 29th when my team and I decided to visit the Salt Flats down south in Uyuni before meeting up with the rest of our squad. This meant taking two buses– one from where we were, Santa Cruz to Sucre, an 12-hour bus ride, then a 8-hour bus from Sucre to Uyuni. Before making it over, we also had to take into account the altitude difference, as were we lucky to be in a fairly low altitude in Santa Cruz and were going to gain elevation on the way over. We took Sorochi pills as a means to compensate for the sudden altitude change.
And thus we were on the road again. After a night of travel, we made it to Sucre early in the morning, where we spent 12-hours waiting for our night bus over to Uyuni. Why did we wait 12-hours at the bus station, you ask? Or why didn’t we take a day bus to Sucre then the night bus to Uyuni, you ask? Simply put, because of time and money–there would have been no way to guarantee we would have made it in time for the night bus to Uyuni and it was cheaper to take the night bus.
After 12-hours of waiting– spent exploring the city of Sucre, sitting at the bus station, watching some movies on my teammate’s laptop and more sitting, we were finally on our way to Uyuni, where we arrived around 4:30 the next morning (December 30th). The thing about Uyuni is, there is no official bus station there. Their “terminal” is a street with buses parked on either side and a public toilet area, which if you’re lucky may be open, otherwise this means going pee right on the street behind a bus. And that’s exactly what my teammate did. Thankfully we arrived early enough in the morning where it was still dark out with very few people. Also, another side note, a lot of the time buses do not have bathrooms on them. We then enjoyed a splendid couple of days at the flats (check out my Instagram: @pacificsourpatch) before we were on the road yet again.
Onward to the bus terminal in La Paz, Bolivia, an 8-hour bus ride from Uyuni where we met with the rest of our squad to being our travel to Cambodia (January 1st).
Altogether once again, we packed our bags onto two buses and began our travel to Puno, Peru, as our flights began in Peru. Along the way to Peru, we crossed a small strip of the highest lake in the world, Lake Titicaca (o Lago Titicaca en español) by ferry. We first had to board smaller boats while our bus rode over in a bigger one. Then we finished our Bolivian journey an hour and a half later and walked through Peru’s immigration, that is, before the driver had us inconveniently switch buses with all our packs and all, for reasons I am still unsure of.
IN PERU:
After walking on through, our bus picked us up again and took us to our final destination of Puno, Peru where we stayed at a hostel for 3 days and 2 nights. I wished I could’ve experienced all that the city had to offer but I was unfortunately hit hard and fast with altitude sickness (nausea and a fat headache) and thus spent the days resting, thankfully to a nearly full recovery. All thanks to my teammates and roommate Jacklyn who helped me feel better/get better. With just a headache leftover, I was able to make it to a small, cute cafe called “Colors” with my bestie/squad mate Jacklyn where I had the most scrumptious meal I could keep finally down.
Later that day, we packed our bags with only an hour notice given prior that we had to be packed and checked-out of our rooms. However, all of my squadmates and I made it in time, in World Race fashion, fast and without surprise– training camp definitely helped in this regard. And off we were again, this time to Julianca, Peru, an hour and a half bus ride away, where we would ascend into the air over to Lima.
We arrived in Lima with about 9-hours to figure out where to sleep and to actually sleep. In other words we were going to be sleeping on the floor of the airport, be it in front of a airport store or next to a wall of a busy walkway, with our big backs and all (since we couldn’t check in until a few hours before our flight), and that we did. After a restless night of sleep, we made our way through security yet again and onto our 6-hour flight to Miami, U.S.A.
IN UH’MERICA
And just like that we made it back to the states. It was a strange feeling, being surrounded by English-speakers again but also to be able to hear a different dialect of Spanish in the international hub known as Miami. It was nice to be back in the U.S. for a bit nonetheless, where we spent our 11 hour layover (from 5 in the evening to about 3 the next morning) with Rhi’s mother, Nicole who so kindly booked a room for my team and I, and even rented a 10-passenger van just to take us around. She even took us out to dinner at Olive Garden, which was a first for Carolyn (seeing her reaction to endless plates of salads was priceless). And then we made our way through Walmart to stock up on face wash, snacks and the sorts. We finished the night off re-packing our packs and setting aside a pile of things (clothes and souvenirs) to send back home. Such a blessed night it was!
Then bright and early, 3:15 the next morning (December 5th), after only about an hour and a half of sleep, my squadmates and I made our way back to the Miami airport. We took a short flight to Atlanta and made it to our flight out to Korea which was delayed by an hour. This effected us when we arrived at the Seoul-Incheon Airport as we were rushingly escorted by airport staff– all 43 of us, conveniently associated with one another to our flight for Phnom Phen, Cambodia.
But first had to go through the Seoul-Incheon airport security/customs section, which was packed to the rim already, but we made it though 30 minutes later. It was also nice knowing they wouldn’t fly without us– who would want to re-book 40+ passengers anyways? Natural VIP status right here 🙂
And here I am in Cambodia, where my team and I met our lovely hosts, Dom and Thyveen. I am currently feeling well-rested, happily sipping away some delicious iced coffee.
Until later,
Blessings from Cambodia!
