Bolivia & Peru-Lost

March 11, 2006-?

We’re at a budget no-tell motel and we don’t know what town. David is looking for a phone book. We don’t even know what area code we’re in. We landed in Miami ahead of schedule so got pretty far down the road before we decided to stop for the night. What we didn’t realize was that it was spring break, there was a bike race on, the snowbirds were heading north, and spring training had begun. We pulled into several motels to find no rooms available. We even called the 800#s for chains and they couldn’t find us a room within an hour of where we were. We pulled off at a Holiday Express. They had no rooms but suggested the Check-In Motel next door. There they told David they only had a non-smoking room. They decided not to take any locals in tonight so it would be quiet. When we parked the car in our slot and opened the doors to get out we could smell the alcohol seeping through the cracks in the doors of the rooms. It could have been worse. In Perth, Australia we faced the same problem but the dark road we had to travel to the next town was full of kangaroos hopping into our path.

We had a few moments of panic when we went to use the sink in our room. It’s been three weeks since we’ve used anything but bottled water and it took a bit of courage to slosh our mouths after brushing and to take pills with water from the tap.

The trip in went smoothly except for the fact that Judi kept getting waylaid at security and customs. She set off the alarms even though she was careful to put her watch through the x-ray machine with her purse. It turned out to be her underwire bra that set off the bells. Then a customs agent asked her if she was traveling alone. She answered in the affirmative. He asked the purpose of her trip and she started to tell him the places she had been. At that point I said, “Tell him it was tourism.” For a moment I thought it might make matters worse since she said she was traveling alone. But he laughed and said he would like to hear about the details. Judi told him if he gave me his email address I’d send him my journal. He didn’t, and we scurried past him and on to get our luggage.

Aha! We are in the Melbourne area. How appropriate.

Toby