Friday, February 19, 2010

A Crime of Opportunity...

Just in case my mother is reading this, a ¨friend¨was asleep in a hotel room, two stories up in down town Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Before going to bed she locked the door and considered locking the window, as one could easily jump from one room to the next but no one was in the adjacent room and she needed some where to dry her towel.
After a long days travel, ´Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance´ had served as the perfect sleeping pill and by 9pm my friend was sound asleep.

For some reason at about 1.30am this peaceful sleep was interrupted.
There sitting on the end of her bed was a man of about 30 years old.
¨What the FUCK. Are you doing in MY room?
No answer.
A quick consolidation of my (I mean my friends) travel goods; purse, passport,money, credit cards, camera...ipod?
" Where the fuck is my iPod?"
She had left it charging on the bed head and now missing, was: the cable, charger and iPod.
It could have been a good score if her iPod wasn´t five years old and the clumsy fool hadn´t woken her up.

The same clumsy fool was now trying to get back through the window, but she wasn´t letting go and he was really scared he would would fall two flights below. She didn´t care but noted the smell of alcohol on his breath while he pleaded to be let go.

In the adjacent room sat the accomplice.
The two must have arrived shortly after mid night. When they turned the lights on, the light would have shone through her blind-less window and onto the sleeping face of a single white female (a sleeping beauty, if you must), a charging iPod, an open window and an opportunity.

Fast forwarded to her waking up and screaming profanities.

Too drunk and too stupid to hide the iPod properly, the accomplice decided to hide it in his hands, and it could be seen easily.
Pointing she screamed at him, "Give me. My. FUCKING iPod NOW! You, you..yooooou CUNTS!"
The guy in her room was now extremely panicked, he hadn´t looked in her eyes the whole time until now. "Tranquilla, senorita por favour! Tranquilla" And motioned hastily for the iPod to be passed back through the window.
Satisfied, but wanting revenge, she said with some sarcastic tones, "No! No, "Tranquilla por favour" I´m calling Policia!"

Now that she had her iPod back, she allowed him to go back through the window, which she locked after him and ran to the door to scream for help.
Management had heard the noise and was there to greet the shaking girl at the door.
Armed with air freshener (aka mace), the manager and his daughter began banging and yelling at the door for the men to leave.
The men were now hiding behind the bed with the lights off. (She could see them through the window)
The idiots were trying the old "If they can´t see us they wont know we´re here!"
It hasn´t worked since I was about five and small enough to actually not be seen but this 30 something and 40 something year old men thought it might just work, it didn´t.
Eventually the thieves came out, the older one jeering at her in Spanish, something about not doing anything to her or not having anything of hers. It was greeted with a push out the door my the manager. Good riddance.

In the end there was no policia, when you don´t speak the language it´s too much trouble.
Her Chilean friends, who she had travelled with from Sucre, explained to the manager in Spanish what had actually happened in her room, before they arrived with their air freshener to save the day.
Everyone agreed that me friend was very brave, no, no a legend, a real modern day heroine, she had taken on the bad guys and won!
Please don´t try this at home, it scares her to think what if they were armed, but she also realises that she was very lucky indeed.

P.s Please no one tell my mum.. I mean her mum!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Bolvia; Dust, Salt and No Showers!


In Boliva now...wow it is backwards here! But so, so beautiful and different every minute.
Arrived a few days ago at the boarder of Argentina and Bolivia, we walked crossed the boarder (I attached myself to some other English speaking tourist who were headed in the same direction), walked through a very slow customs (which advertised bano´s but they were locked (crossed legs for a very long time!)), then waited in line for 8hrs for the last five tickets for the train to Uyni.
We arrived at Uyni about 3am (2hrs late) and quickly sorted ourselves out with a hostel.
Introducing the hostels of Bolivia; no toilet paper and you have to use a bucket to flush (understandable in the desert but in the city???), toilets (banos)/showers are locked until your allowed to use them, you pay extra for a shower (if they have showers) or you pay extra not to have a cold shower but the rooms are cheap and clean, the staff have been friendly (even if they have to put up with me not speaking Spanish) so far the beds have been comfortable and warm, so I`m just going to suck it up and hope my attitudes improves.
Last night I paid $30 bolivianos; aka the BOB ($4.85AUD) and got my self a hotel room. I wanted to pay $50 BOB ($8.09AUD) for a single room with bano but they didn`t have any left.
For the last three days I have been on a tour to the salt fields, hot springs and Bolivia’s largest desert. It was a lot of driving through a hot, dry, and dusty (salty in the salt lakes) but impressive country side.



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More photos of the three day trip are available by clicking here
We stayed in hostels all the way, they were as above clean and comfy beds, but the last one didn`t have showers, electricity was available after dark only and my iPod, I think it´s broken! (cry cry cry) I need to charge it up and see what happens; hopefully it is ok... pray for me!

I have been suffering from altitude sickness for the last few days, out of breath, dizzy and dry lips from breathing through my mouth but mostly headaches and wanting to throw up. I have been to the “farmacia” today. She didn`t speak English but I mimed a headache and she said "Ahhh..?Latitude. Sick?"... "SI! Senorita" and she game me something in tablet form for the headaches and the occasional wish to vomit.
Latitude sickness didn`t take my appetite away though...

Today I am going to Sucre on the 7pm bus (12 hours of bus, no bano!). They have an artist market there and I`m hoping for cheap presents and handmade goodies to take home.
After there I will probably head to Santa Cruise and into the jungle. If I have time I`ll head to Copacabana and Trinidad for a couple of days before heading to La Paz (to do the "Death Road Ride" it`s ok Mum, I won`t die but I will get a free t-shirt at the end!).
On the 25th of Feb I have a flight to Mexico from La Paz

Fin. Now go look at some photos.