Carbon Monoxide
Last night we bid farewell to fair Sucre and hopped our coach to LaPaz, the nation's capital. All started well, the usual worries of no onboard toilet for a trip which would take >12 hours and the occasional siege by food peddlers trying to hard-sell their wares, but nothing bad. I guess my first inklings of worry began when a few bolts and screws fell off the bus, seemingly without cause. Then they went to put the TV on, playing nothing more than pink/green static and the Police Acadamy themesong before being shut back off. OK, it's just an old and tired bus. No problems. There were no working internal lights so as soon as the sunset I was trying to catch some Zzz's, and this attempt was proving to be moderately sucsessful despite the cold. Around 3 o'clock in the morning, however, I was awoken by a very chill breeze. I sat up, saw the window was wide open, and immedietly if slurredly demanded of Hannah to know why in god's name she had it ajar. "Because", she replied, "the bus is filling with carbon monoxide." I looked around and saw in the illumination of oncoming headlights that this was a lot truer than I had thought possible. The air was thick. Acrid. Swirling lethal exhaust had indeed flooded the bus so it looked like what you imagine the Sherlock Holmes london night to look like. Everyone else was asleep, either because they were oblivious of the gas or because they had succumbed to it. Luckily our window was one of the ones even able to open so we were giulping down the semi-clean breeze instead of the raw pollution. After a short while I realise something esle was a bit awry, the sound of the engine was becoming a very unholy "rattle rattle bang" instead of a continious hum. I'm no mechanic but I think these two things were related. The bus sputtered and slowed to a halt, never again to move an inch under it's own power.
After much conversation in spanish and initially hopeful soundeing phonecalls, no vehicle came to our rescue. We decided to wait it out and see what the morning brought, so we slept until Salida de Sol and then, witht he sun still hiding behind a mountain, we opened the baggage hatch, exctracted our gear and hitched a ride on a much more reliable bus the rest of the way into LaPaz. We are now safe and sound, but... for HOW LONG?
After much conversation in spanish and initially hopeful soundeing phonecalls, no vehicle came to our rescue. We decided to wait it out and see what the morning brought, so we slept until Salida de Sol and then, witht he sun still hiding behind a mountain, we opened the baggage hatch, exctracted our gear and hitched a ride on a much more reliable bus the rest of the way into LaPaz. We are now safe and sound, but... for HOW LONG?