Road of Death, Road of really significantly annoying circumstances...

So the road of death isn't happening until friday when I get back to La Paz (God willing). But I did get to go on the road of really significantly annoying circumstances. I left Cochabamba at 2200 on Sunday night. I just got to Cuzco. Granted I was planning on having a long layover in La Paz to bike the road of death, which didn't work out. So I left La Paz on the 1400 bus... so 1430 or so. I just got to Cuzco about an hour ago. its supposed to take about 12 hrs. First I paid 100 B's, or about $14 for a semi-cama bus, which is super duper comfortable. So the first bus wasn't semi-cama, but it was only going to Copacabana, about 3 hrs away. then, supposedly, we'd change over to a semi-cama (that means half-bed, btw). So the first bus broke down about 20 minutes into the trip. We were still in El Alto... which is basically the sketchy outskits of La Paz. So we waited about a half hour for another non-semi-cama bus. Went to Copa with little problems. Then had to wait an hour because the "bus" driver was screwing around with his thumb up his ass. or something like that. turns out it was a micro. which is a small van-like vehicle that has about 75% more seats than it should. but that was just going to be until the border about and hour away. then we decided to pick up lots more people, so I was sitting on a nice comfy set of bolts holding a seat to the floor. ow. so then we did the border crossing thing, which wasnt terribly bad. I had to fill out some extra forms because I now have bolivian residency... sort of. I have the official mark in my passport, but I don't actually have a residency card... so that was weird to explain. but I didn't have to pay anything, which is absolutely surprising and fantastic. Then we were supposed to get on the semi-cama bus. nope. another shitty ass little micro. that really pissed me off. but not as much as the 4 hour ride to Puno on the most poorly paved roads that could actually still be considered paved... it would've been much better if the roads weren't paved at all. but as it was, I was squashed in the back with some funny brazilians (fabian and david) getting my head smashed repeatedly against the walls as our nutso driver swerved around to "avoid" potholes. and I had to piss so bad. for about 3 of the 4 hours. and I saw a really cruel sign that said "Puno 57 km"... and about 200 km later we arrived. )(/"·$·$)/&$%$&·€. so then i waited an hour or so in the bus terminal for the "semi-cama" which I didn't really believe existed after 5 hours in micros. I was about ready to kill a llamita at this point, so it was pretty lucky that Ryan Sherman sent me the rap song he and Zach Ogden recorded... helpèd me chill out quite a bit. so I didn't kill any llamas. I did stomp on some flowers though. So then we get on the Semi-cama bus!! it existed after all! I got the front seat next to an old brazilian adventist pastor i had met on the bus from la paz. it was great. for about two hours. then we broke down. and sat there for about 6 hours cause we were in the middle of abso-freakin-lutely nowhere. I've got some pictures. It looks like the lord of the rings or something. so that was really awful because it was about 10·F. and I had given my CG-issued fleece to the old brazilian dude cause he was dumb and only brought a thin sweater. anyways, finally another bus came and it was a regular sort of bus and had too many people on it. so we rode that for about 4 hours until we got to Cuzco. thank God. about 22 hours after I had left La Paz. damn! that was an unpleasant experience. I hear SJ Otey is in Peru... maybe close by? who knows. Anyways, that's my venting about getting to Cuzco. yes, it's a lot of complaining, but its better than me losing it, I guess. So I found out I have to leave thursday AM so that I can make it across the border by 1800 to make it back to la Paz by at least 7am so I can go on the Camino de Muerte bike ride... I wanted to leave thursday evening at least. Fortunately, my buddy Jay might be able to skip work on Friday and come with... that would be sweet. If now, I'll have to play nice with all the european super-tourists. They really are super... they travel for months at a time and go all over. Pretty jealous actually. Not as jealous as I am of the assistant ornithologists I met in a cafe this morning... 3 american college-ish age kids spening 3 months in the amazon basin searching for and marking birds' nests. they each have a 1 sq km area of responsibility... so they basically just go traipsing about all day playing around in the jungle and lookin at animals. dang. maybe I can do that next summer. lol. peace, love, and all that groovy stuff folks. I'm off to meet my family. and find a functional baño. nos vemos.