The Van Stops Here

As sad as I am to say it, the Astro won´t be making it to the bottom of the world. It started acting up in the Peruvian desert. At first it was just a few coughs, but eventually it developed into horrible dry heaves, shaking the entire vehicle, whenever we tried to push the gas peddle further then an inch down. With great care it could slowly be driven through the desert and nervously pass slow moving trucks, but mountains were out of the question.

But I have to say that I´m proud of it for making it this far 17 503km (not including boat rides) from Pense to Nasca, Peru where we had to leave it. On the plus side because it died we weren´t in Chile during the earthquake, and the Hostel Owners of Roma in Nasca were incredibly helpful. They found someone to buy the vehicle from us, and we were able to donate all of the belongings to the hostel -- the lady, who knew pretty much everyone in town, would distribute our items to the people who needed them.

Since then we have taken buses from Nasca to Bolivia. Unfortunately we arrived at the Bolivian border when they were having a 48 hour general strike. This meant that the bus could not cross the border and drive us directly to Copa. And the cab drivers had set up a road block / football match on the highway, so we had to walk the 8km from the border to Copa. Luckily it was an absolutely perfect day, and we found a guy with a bike-cart to transport our big backpacks. The only problem with the walk was when a dog bit a hole in Vilosheni´s pants, otherwise idyllic.

After the strike ended we were able to catch a bus from Copa to La Paz. The trip ended up taking a little longer than usual as the highway was occassionally blocked by mobs of thousands of people with stone cold stares, and we were diverted on to kilometer sections of partially washed out dirt roads.

We´re heading to Argentina on an 18 hour bus today that may or may not have a bathroom.

Wish us luck.