Starvation and the Overlook Hotel in Bolivia
Friday, July 7th, 2006Exiting La Paz was as difficult as we had feared. The city’s streets were narrow and unpredictable, often ending in a pile of rubble or a series of potholes. Navigating through them with the dolphin was a sweating, white knuckled affair that ended in the dolphin getting stuck on an extremely steep street. We heard the familiar chugging sound and I pushed the truck as hard as I could, both of us leaning forward in a sympathy plea to make it over the hill. Right at the top, the dolphin’s engine died with a final cough and we began sliding backward, once again. The street was busy and narrow and the risk of a car crash was high. Jonas jumped out to place our stoppers behind the wheels and a woman began screaming at him from across the street. “Who told you you could come up this hill?? Trucks always get stuck here! You can’t come up here!” Cars began honking and drivers yelling, the woman finally shut up when she learned Jonas was Brazilian and we were still stuck on the hill. A fellow driver jumped out; he and I got behind the dolphin and pushed with all our might, the engine screamed and it crested the hill.