Bolivian Misadventure

I could write about any number of things from time in Bolivia. I could write about biking down a mountain known as ¨The Death Road¨. The mountain has its name because of the number of people who fall off the side of the cliff each year. I could write about hooking up with South Americans or I could write about my experiences in a Bolivian coke den. However for now I feel like writing about an adventure with a duck.

I was walking back to my hostel in Copacabana, Bolivia. Dan, my travel mate had already gone to bed because he had gotten a little sick and wanted to rest up for New Years. I was also looking to make it an early night. On my way back I ran into a couple of Bolivian girls from La Paz that I had met earlier in the night. They said that they were just about to go to bed but asked if I wanted to go for a walk on the beach with them for 10 minutes. I was pretty tired but my hostel was on the beach so I thought it was perfect.

We walk down to the beach and there are a bunch of boats and kayaks. I said to the girls ¨como se dice `steal´ en Español?¨. Which means ¨how do you say ‘steal’?¨ We decided to take a giant duck, paddle boat for a joy ride on Lake Titicaca. These girls were awesome and needed little persuasion. It was a paddle boat with a duck head on the front and wings on the side. Just in case you don´t know, a paddle boat is a boat which is powered by you peddling with your feet. It has a steering wheel and moves very slowly. It looked like we were going to be foiled because all the boats were chained down. We found a free boat. It was a real production getting this thing in the water because we had to push other boats out of our way and the duck boat was really heavy but we persisted.

We start riding out into the middle of the lake. Each time we would come close to hitting an anchored boat or start drifting a bit the girls would go ¨Cap-i-tain!, Cap-i-tain!¨ We had a really good time looking at the stars and reveling in our little adventure.

As a small wave rocks the boat a little, one of the girls tells me that because of superstition if someone falls into Lake Titicaca the locals won´t help them because it is the will of the lake or the lake was calling for them. We see some lightning in the distance and decide we should head back in the next 5-10 minutes.

All of a sudden our peddles are a bit sluggish and it require a lot more effort to move the same distance. We peddle in reverse and try again and it helps temporarily. Then our peddles pretty much can´t move at all. I figured that seaweed had gotten tangled in the paddles. We try pumping the peddles as hard as we can, hoping the seaweed will rip. It´s not working. We were quite far from the shore but we try paddling with our hands. Our movement was negligible. The water is 8 degrees so the last thing I would want to do is try to get in to fix the problem or try to swim. It´s a difficult situation because we don´t want to be stuck in the middle of a lake, nor do we wish to deal with Bolivian authorities for stealing the boat.

I should add that the girls were real troopers. They saw this all as an adventure, they didn't panic and we all worked together. This was very fortunate because I question my ability to calm women down in Spanish while trying to get back to shore in a paddleless boat.

The lightning is starting to get closer. I try to reach under the boat to see if I can feel the obstruction. I am able to pull on it and see it. We are stuck in a 200 meter long fish net. This net extended on either side of our boat. Not only are our paddles useless. We are actually anchored in place by this fish net. That would explain why our efforts to paddle with our hands were so futile. I tried tugging on the net but there was no way it was ripping.

One of the girls had keys on her and I used them to start sawing at the net. It was a really slow, tedious process as I had to break individual threads one at a time. I would also periodically use my legs to rip the net a little bit. I finally cut through the net on the one side. I still had to cut through the net on the other side before we would be untethered but at least now we can move a little bit. As I go to work on the net on the other side the girls start paddling with their hands to get us closer to another anchored boat.

The girls were able to steal us an ore from another boat and I eventually cut through the net on the side of our boat. Our peddles were still useless but at least we weren't anchored. The ore was of limited use. It was very difficult to control because it is the type of paddle that should be mounted to a boat not held in your hand. Paddling with it generally caused you to go in circles. The J-stroke only works with a boat that moves efficiently in the water.

I was able to use the paddle to guide our drifting and the current eventually pushed us to a dock. We tied the boat to the dock and walked back along the shoreline.

It was a wonderful shared experience. I think we all felt a strong connection to each other following it. It was easily one of my favorite nights on the trip.