We received 6:45 wake up calls. I took a shower and was at breakfast by 7:15 . Service was really slow; it was after 8:00 by the time I left. We brought our bags to the lobby. Our mechanic claimed to have fixed the overheating problem so we left around 8:45 . The air had cleared from the previous day so our views of the valley were much sharper. We all had bets at which elevation the bus would conk out again. Whoever guessed 11,300 feet won. We crawled up to a restaurant, in several steps, just below the crest of the Cordillera Oriental , Todd activated plan B and called for a commercial bus to come get us and take us the rest of the way to La Paz. Naturally, the students took advantage of the respite and partied. I taught Marydale the basic tango steps in the road behind the bus. The view was nice some I'm sure everyone has photos of the place.

Instead of sending a commercial bus, the company sent a smaller micro-bus to take us to La Paz. They were almost two hours late getting there. We had started down the mountain in the first bus when we saw the replacement bus and flagged him down. There was one seat fewer than we needed and the bus was so small that every bit of floor space was covered with our luggage. We rode with our legs on top of the bags. We climbed to about 12,700 feet when the engine started overheating. With that, we decided to return to Cochabamba and take an overnight luxury bus to La Paz.

Our return trip took about 2 hours. The students, Todd, and I were in a festive mood, although I thought my butt was going to fall off. We drove straight to the bus terminal and bought our tickets on Bolivar's 10:30 bus. We then went to La Estancia where we all had a great meal.

We returned to the bus terminal and checked our bags. The terminal was mobbed. After standing around for an hour we boarded the upper deck of a cama bus and sat in the spacious luxury that these buses offer. I sat with Marydale for the seven hour ride. We both slept a bit during the first three hours. After a rest stop at Carachollo we both slept very well. Neither of us bothered to watch the movie that was showing. All I remember is that it had lots of loud engine noises in it.