Challenges in Ecuador and beyond...

Where to start?
At the end of the last blog I was telling you about the ‘bum pinch’… well after that came a rather unexpected challenge… of just riding in a trole bus. I found myself getting extremely anxious, panicky even, on the packed trole, anticipating being harassed again with every slight brush… it really was horrible to feel like that, being on edge all the time but I got over it with God’s help!

Buses…
Bolivia provided an interesting challenge in terms of their bus service!! They seem to be road-block happy… the number of times I’d heard my friends talk about blocks and somehow didn’t think it would happen to me… but it did happen, and just when I had a reasonably tight schedule. After visiting Lago Titicaca and the Isla del Sol (which was very lovely), I was getting a bus back to La Paz with an hour and a half in lieu to catch the night bus to Cochabamba where my strider chums are… all went well, got back from my boat trip (which I thought was a bad idea to begin with as I very quickly brought back up my breakfast, but turned out to be quite good! Worth the £1.75), got my 6pm bus, but then, disaster struck. The road between Tiquina (where you all have to get off the bus, and it goes across on a wee raft, you on a boat for 10p) and La Paz was blocked for a fiesta, so we had to take a roundabout cross-country route which involved firstly, a few getting off the bus so it could make a tight turn, then secondly, in another part of the road we all had to get off, as it was too dangerous (!!!!) for us to stay on it ! We finally arrived at 12.15am!! I’d seriously missed the last bus , didn’t have a hostel, couldn’t contact my friends, I was gutted!!! But I did manage to find a hostel, got a room, and promptly burst into tears from the disappointment, frustration and sheer '¿y ahora?' (and what do i do now?)!!! slept and it all turned out fine… I rung Niki at 7.30 the next morning just as she and james (strider from Uruguay) were about to catch a bus to meet me, so they went back to their beds! And I went to catch a bus!! So I finally arrived in Cochabamba at 3pm on sunday which meant I had less than 24hours to catch up with James – which was a shame but we made the most of the time we had!

It was a dark night…
And the final challenge came once I was back in quito… I’d just left the house to go and say goodbye to Anne before she flew back to Alemania… walking just a few minutes from my house, to get a taxi… and boom, I get mugged!!! Would you believe it?!!! I couldn’t! I was so utterly dazed and phased that I didn’t feel scared when the guy pulled a knife, I didn’t even think of just taking out my wallet and giving them my money, but they got it anyway, and (most annoying of all) made off with my ‘snow’ jacket (which also annoying still had my toothbrush and paste in it)! I didn’t have a clue what to do afterwards, I continued walking the direction I was going for a minute, but then realized what I was doing and walked rather rapidly back to my house… they’d taken my wallet so I didn’t have my keys, I didn’t have my ecua-parents mobile numbers, and I didn’t have even a cent to ring them if i did have their numbers… so I just sat on my ‘doorstep’ until Paquita and Armando arrived half an hour later…
So I must say that that rather took the wind out of me… I was full of questions and worries, and felt pretty shaken – I shan’t be going out in the evening again alone!! but you know one can't live in fear, one has to get on with living!!

What I got up to…
So yeah, back to my holiday in Bolivia, I saw the famous Lago Titicaca, which was impressive, just the sheer size of it… to get to Copacabana we were going round the side of the Lake for 2 hours!! Then I had thought that after spending a few days with my fellow striders in Cochabamba I would go to the salt flats… but once I was with my friends, I decided I’d stay the whole time with them – they were afterall the main reason for the booking of my trip, not sightseeing!!! So I spent 4 full days with Niki and Rosy… visiting their projects, hanging out – even got a chance to get creative, creating 2 new designs for Niki’s ‘Freehands’ business www.vivabolivia.org/freehands
It was really lovely to hang out with james for a wee bit, with the girls and their friends… it was a great holiday – though taking the journey back to la paz on the night bus wasn’t easy – I hardly slept a wink! My last day in Bolivia I spent with Remar Bolivia, and they were sooo lovely, so hospitable, so open, taking me to see the kids home and the couples home…felt very at home! By the end of it they were even trying to match-make me and ‘kidnap’ me from Ecuador!

Randoms…
Oo random bits and bobs… on the flight to Bolivia, they showed a programme about the history of the London underground!! Bizarre!!! Also saw a Jamie Cullum video, him looking slightly ridiculous pushing round a grand piano! In Bolivia I saw the long lost relative of Gumdrop – remember him? It was also well bizarre to see David Beckham’s face plastered on a wall – that pesky globalisation!! urgghhh!!

Patience run out…
Man, just before going to Bolivia, I was just sooo fed up with men’s comments and people’s stares that I just could not cope with it anymore! I was really hoping that Bolivia would be different, and it was!!! What a needed respite, I still got a few comments but the people are nothing like here!! However now I’m back and the stares have started again, and to be honest I’m just so fed up with it… I love my work, the friends I have etc, but I just can’t stand ‘people’, and the machista culture! It is just getting too much, can’t wait to be back in England so that I’m normal!!! Or maybe I should get a bottle of self-tan??!!! And dye my hair darker!!! Not sure it would work though!!

So there are challenges, but I’m overcoming them, and fighting on!! just over 2 months and i'm back!!
Love to you all
Me xxx