22/06/04 Death Train, Bolivia

I know we don’t usually give descriptions of the journey but this was so completely weird that it has to be one of the best/worst experiences of the trip so far. I imagined that in super Pullman we would have facilities that were similar to those offered in the 1920´s by the Orient Express. I could not have been more wrong. The train was basic to say the least, super Pullman just meant that we had a seat each, lights after dark and nobody sleeping in the luggage compartment above our heads. Food was provided by the locals in passing towns and the entertainment was a cross between swatting hundreds of huge mosquitoes and watching the locals fighting for space in the carriage behind. At the end of the journey we were so exhausted that we decided to get straight on an overnight bus for Sucre.

Just to say that I am glad I am not a poor Bolivian trying to drag their mountains of duty free tupperware through cattle class and sleeping in their own mess (long journey- twenty something hours- their access to our smarter carriage and lavatories hampered by padlock and security guards with guns. They had no light or toilet.) and getting bitten alive. Death presumably comes in the form of malaria or asphyxia. Bless.