Nuggets from the Southern Hemisphere: Yay, another stupidly long bus journey

The novelty of trans South American bus journeys has well and truly worn off... When we bought our tickets we were under the impression we`d be cruising through Paraguay in comfort, 30 quid for a luxury bus with 3 meals, TVs, fully reclining seats, we`d never been given meals before, it must be an amazing bus... WRONG.

We were stuck at the bus station for what seemed like forever wondering whether we`d missed it. The biggest, most pimped out coach turned up with our bus company name written all over it. This is it we thought. Nope. We waited and waited, then the skankiest looking town bus turned up and we were told to get on. WTF?!

After showing the bus driver the ticket three times and arguing there`s been a mistake they told us not to worry, get on and they´ll drive us to our coach. We drove round the corner for about 2 minutes, why the coach couldn`t get to the bus station we`ll never know, and then we had to get on the (not adequate for a 24 hour journey with little or no stops) other bus. We were not happy. There was nowhere to put your feet up, the TVs didn´t switch on, and the one toilet was like something taken from the last day of Glastonbury festival! It was bloody freezing, the windows had draughts, and worst of all Fia was NOT HAPPY AT ALL!!!!!!! Oh the horror, we were stuck in this vessel of doom for 24 hours, maybe more if it got stuck in the mud.

Luckily it didn`t get stuck in the mud, we passed two buses that did (and kindly stopped off next to them so people could stare and take photos). Just over half the road was Asphalt, but when we crossed over the border it was muddy and bumpy so sleeping was near impossible.

The Bolivian Migration office was little more than a few chairs and a shack at the side of the "road". Still, we got here in one piece, Santa Cruz is sunny and relatively warm, everything is super cheap and it sounds like there are hundreds of amazing sights and things to do.