Photograph: Leonardo Costa Farias/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Leonardo Costa Farias/Getty Imagest was 2007 and I was weeks into a solo backpacking trip in South America. By the time I reached Bolivia, my Spanish had improved markedly and so had my resolve not to continue being swindled by local taxi drivers and their ilk who dared exploit my first-worldliness.
The coach was full so I stood up the front with the driver’s assistant, who assured me a seat would become available within half an hour. Sure enough, a passenger soon disembarked and as we took off again, hurtling up the precipitous mountain road, the driver’s assistant asked me for the fare: 100 bolivianos. But the normal price, I protested, was no more than 70 bolivianos. He avoided eye contact, saying if I didn’t want to pay 100, I could get off.
I walked on, with creeping dread, for what felt like 40 days and 40 nights until I saw lights in the distance – a roadside gas station with an adjacent diner. Parked out front were a fleet of overnight coaches, en route to Sucre. Passengers were returning from their dinner breaks and the buses were leaving. I leaped on to the last remaining bus and asked the driver for a seat. “It’s full,” he said. I craned my neck down the aisle and told him I could see two empty seats towards the back.
A couple of uncomfortable hours later, another seatless passenger boarded – a woman in a voluminous skirt who said she often travelled this route. She sat on the floor behind me and showed me how, if we leaned our backs and heads against each other like human chairs, we could get some sleep. Before long she was snoring powerfully in my ear. Every time I managed to drift off, my head would roll off hers, jerk back in a whiplash motion and then slam into an armrest.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
‘Significant time and cost risks’: New Spanish-built trains risk further delaysA confidential review of the project warns of the failure to properly plan for $300 million in upgrades necessary for the trains to run from Sydney to Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and across the state.
Source: smh - 🏆 6. / 80 Read more »
Covid was devastating – why are we pretending it didn’t happen? | Emma BeddingtonA recent book about the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic details a ‘collective forgetting’ of the period. Our lack of Covid reckoning suggests history is repeating itself, writes Emma Beddington Ahh no . The over the top RESPONSE by governments was devastating. What’s it up to now… 7% higher mortality rate per jab? So if you’ve had 5 …. No one's pretending it didn't happen! We ALL know it happened & the many effects it has caused! It's just more of a case that at some point the need to move on must happen whether ppl like it or not! Life goes on, like it did with pandemics past!
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »
Grim update for elderly Queensland man allegedly bashed by teen: ‘Not survivable’A 75-year-old Queensland man remains critical in hospital and is not expected to survive, following a daylight attack on a busy Toowoomba street. 7NEWS 💔 ms_dingo The poor man. The things that are happening at the moment are horrible If
Source: 7NewsAustralia - 🏆 11. / 71 Read more »
NT alcohol bans shouldn’t have been taken away ‘in the first place’: MundineIndigenous leader Warren Mundine says while it’s great the Northern Territory government is reinstating back alcohol bans, these should not have been “taken away in the first place”. “We should’ve been going onto other measures as well,” he told Commentator Steve Price. Mr Mundine said the government should be focusing on the social issues that are the “end result of the violence, the crime and the property damage that is happening in Alice Springs and across Australia”. “So we’ve got to take a grown up, mature approach to this and actually deal with the real issues.” How is he ‘indigenous leader’ ? No accountability though! And thats the issue with anybody that pushed the removal of the bans. People may well have been hurt because of it. Yet those who pushed it will still be enjoying funding or tax payers money in some way and probably quaffing socialist champagne. thats the guy that called someone a C*nt right?
Source: SkyNewsAust - 🏆 7. / 78 Read more »
Man selling phone allegedly stabbed by prospective buyerA 35-year-old Adelaide man has been taken to hospital after he was allegedly stabbed by a prospective buyer who came to his home to purchase a mobile phone. kindness and civility, putting others first, is out of fashion people are living in a 'world of ME', which is a chaotic fractitious energy we have already lost... The African-effect taking hold on Adelaide, too, I see. We reap what we sow. Scumtree.
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »
Sunak spends thousands on helicopter trips since becoming PMCommutes from London to Richmond constituency by private helicopter would have taken about 2hr 15 by train Understandable. When u are PM these things happen as you have so many places to be.
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »