A story you won't want to miss

Today June 26th started out with us flying from Uyuani (where the salt flats were) back to La Paz so that we could see Jesse off. It was a quite morning with breakfast and cards together at the airport to help Jesse pass the time. At about noon we bid Jesse farewell.  It was hard to say good bye since we had gotten so comfortable as a traveling trio.

Sidney and I feeling brave decided to attempt public transit from the airport to the city center where we hoped to catch a bus to Copacabana, Bolivia by lake Titicaca.  It was a tight squeeze with our two big bags in the mini bus but the man riding next to us slightly squished by our bag smiled graciously.

We made it with ease to our destination even making a connection to shorten our travels with the help of friendly drivers and passengers. Sweet success and we saved significantly with our bravery. We couldn't believe our luck wither when we found a bus departing for Copacabana in 15 minutes.

The bus ride was gorgeous and Sidney and I almost solved all of the world's problems with our deep conversations. I guess I could post our solutions in the future ;) Lake titicaca is the highest lake of its size in the world and looks like a ocean holding many little habitated islands.

At one point along our ride all the passengers were asked to disembark the bus and cross the lake via boat...While the bus would cross on a barge and meet us on the other side. I had read about this and was prepared but the problem is we weren't quite certain if we were at the right stop so we decided to wait and see if everyone else got off as well. They did...no big deal right?

We walked over with the last of the passengers to buy our fare across the water. I fumbled to find our change as Sidney purchased the tickets before we headed for the little boat.

But this is where things get interesting..we were stopped since the boat was full... and we were forced to watch the rest of the passengers on our bus disembark on the boat without us. We were kindly redirected to another boat that would take us across. At first I wasn't worried I had read that the barge takes a lot longer to cross than the little boats so we should have plenty of time. But then we sat... and sat and slowly watch our bus with our "muchilas" (AKA our giant sacks with all of our worldly traveling possessions) float further and further away towards the opposite shore. Of course we were getting more frantic but the boat wouldn't depart without more passengers and there were only 4 of us. We were close to paying for the boat to cross with just us when another mini bus arrived. We too were finally on beautiful blue lake with sparkly water chasing our bus across. They would wait for us right? They knew they had our bags and possessions ?

I turned to Sidney half way across the lake as our bus gradually disappeared from sight and said "I wish I could appreciate this moment more". She agrees and took 20 seconds to take in the beautiful scenery before she rejoined me in worrying about our bus.

We thought we could maybe see it a corner of it parked behind a large building...but we couldn't be certain.  As soon as our boat docked the boat driver let us off first. Sidney shot off like a rocket running and I was in close pursuit as soon as our feet hit the ground.

I almost had time to sigh with relief with the sight of our bus parked behind the building before the bus pulled out and started to roll down the street.

If Sidney and I weren't at full speed before we were now. Half a block behind our bus we started to scream...

WAIT

STOP

Sidney screamed HEY at the top of her lungs.

I who has learned to say hello, Thank you, count to 8, and some other very basic Spanish decided to scream "Escuopa" my best attempt at excuse me in Spanish.

But the bus continued on... and that is how we have come to be south American adventures with a sling bag and two little purses.

Just kidding the bus went about half a block with us screaming in pursuit before it stopped and let us on. All the passengers were having a good laugh so it's hard to say if the bus departing was a joke or if we were really 30 seconds away from only having the clothes on our back.
A day I won't be forgetting...more on our trip in the Salt flats to come. For now I hope someone has a good chuckle with us as we our counting our blessings tonight that we made it safely to Copacabana.