Credence would be proud. After a month of relatively lucky travel (one missed bus excepted), I´ve finally been halted by the paralyzing reach of the protests which have essentially shut down Bolivia over the past month. I´ve been trying to get out of the country via boat for five days. Every day I load up my pack, check out of my hotel, take a taxi to the port, and visit the boats which are supposed to be leaving. Every day the capitan tells me, "We don´t have enough cargo. We´ll probably leave tomorrow evening." Fool me once, shame on you, fool me four times, I´m taking a bus. After a full week stuck in the stinky, hot, nowhere town of Trinidad, I´ve had to give up on the dream of 8 days swinging on a hammock, travelling down an Amazonian tributary. My guidebook really made it sound fantastic: "Take plenty of bug spray and earplugs as hammocks are frequently strung over the engines. Also be sure to bring along canned foods, spreads, jams and plenty of water as food is plentiful but redundant, and everything is cooked in river water. Most people end up with dysentery." I´m pretty bummed.

On the plus side, my repeated failed attempts to get on a cargo boat have given me plenty of time to get to know the forgettable hamlet of Trinidad. This port town which is actually eight miles from the water is like most eastern Bolivian towns, hot and humid. Everyday here is spent swinging in a hammock being sucked dry by the volumes of mosquitoes and praying for some rain or just a little breeze. Why volumes of mosquitoes in a town so far from a navigable waterway, you might wonder. Well, Trinidad, a town of 80,000, has an open sewer system which flows through large gutters located directly beside the sidewalk. Caution is advised to the late night drinkers. This is one gutter you neither wish to sleep nor slip in. It´s a great place to spend a week, let me tell you.

I finally gave in today, though, and have purchased a ticket on the bus. Thirty hours of horrendous dirt roads to the border of Brazil. Apparently, the blockades which have been put in place around all the major cities of Bolivia and blocked 60% of the highways have not reached the relatively unpopulated north. I´m unhappy with the bus trip not only because it keeps me off the river, but also because it costs almost the same amount as the boat trip but is six days shorter and sans meals. What a ripoff. Hopefully, I can still get dysentery.