Dulcie to the rescue
There are certain essentials that you would bring on a trip like ours (such as passport, immodium etc.) but you wouldn´t necessarily think of cough sweets! Whilst travelling in Southern Peru towards lake Titicaca we ran in to some civil unrest. The inhabitants of a local town had decided to strike and riot in protest at the local governor (not sure why!) and had blocked the road with rocks, broken glass and huge mounds of earth. On arrival at this blockade the truck drivers stuck in front of us informed us to expect a big delay which gave me a great opportunity to whip out my guitar and organise an impromptu sing song.
Three hours (and a full length version of “American Pie”) later and things started to move – the trucks in front of us were being allowed through, so we jumped back in our vehicle and started forward. Unfortunately the angry mob (complete with sticks and rocks) that greeted us weren´t happy about letting a bunch of gringos through and blocked our passage. Our guides (more about them in a future blog) jumped out and began careful negotiations. Eventually a bribe was agreed. Was it money (as worked on the police in Lima)? Was it jewellry? Was it the women folk? No, they wanted a packet of cough sweets! Cue Dulcie who had in her pocket a packet of extra strength Strepsils for a niggling sore throat. This was handed over and the mob parted like the Red Sea and waved us on our way. (This is all completely true!!)
We are now in La Paz the capital of Bolivia and will be doing “gravity assisted mountain biking” down the unfortunately titled “Death Road” tomorrow so if this is the last blog entry ever, you know why.
Tags: Travel
rob.dulcie
Thank God for Strepsils!! Who knows what might have happened!! Now whenever I go abroad I shall have to take a pkt with me!! Seriously, though, it could have turned into a nasty situation and I’m glad everything turned out O.K. Let’s hope there are no more events like this, although it did give you plenty of practice on your guitar!
Don’t forget we are on holiday 16th to 23rd July.
So sorry we were out when you phoned – the only night we were out for a fortnight!
We are highly entertained by your blogs. Rob should write a book when you get to Canada – they say we all have at least one in us! We are glad that Dulcie came to the rescue for once as it is usually Rob saving Dulcie! We are glad you are enjoying your adventure and hope that the rest of your trip is as good, if less exciting that your UN negotiations to get past the road block. Love Simon & Jo xx
Dulcie, I had to share your cough sweets story with the rest of the girls on HO6 – they were in fits of laughter knowing that you so organised and saved the day! If ever I have other friends visiting isolated villages in Southern Peru I will suggest that they take a supply to cough sweets to use when bargaining for safe passage !
I’m looking forward to headlines in a few years:
“Dulcie Deployed To Middle East Armed With Stern Expression And Packet Of Smarties – World Peace Achieved In Fifteen Minutes”
🙂
(sorry)
Trust Rob to turn a diplomatic incident into a gig! I think the old ‘cough sweet’ ruse is a good tactic but does no-one think that a mad english man in a strange hat wielding an under-sized guitar would scare anyone off. Big Love Dave and Helen