Transportation Misadventure (again!)

I´m currently paying just over one dollar an hour to use the world´s SLOWEST internet. It is almost causing me physical pain. Nate, it makes the internet at work look really fast, which is saying something...

Anyways, continuing our travels...
The next morning, we packed up and wandered down the island, looking for a restaurant with an acceptable view. We eventually found a very pleasant one with a patio, so we sat outside and enjoyed another fantastic view of the mountains. The “American Breakfast” they had was remarkably good, with tea, (fake) orange juice, lots of bread, jam, eggs, yogurt, and a banana. Then we continued on our way, and Matias, Nate and Lisa went to see more ruins while I had tea and read at another small restaurant with an even better view and Kasia, who didn't feel good, napped on the ground (which was grass-very rare!) next to our table. I was reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austin, which I think I like, but it's rather challenging because I have to think pretty hard to follow the old English. (Aside: I also read “The Help” on this trip, which I bought from a used books store here. It was fantastic! I highly recommend it. I was very disappointed to finish it because I really enjoyed reading it, but I bought another book, Seabiscuit, which is similarly engaging. I want to see both movies now!) After a while I got tired of reading and just relaxed and took pictures of the mountains.
When our other group members came back, we went down to the water to get tickets for a boat back to Copacabana, but apparently the people who sold us the original ticket incorrectly told us the departure times from the island, so there wasn't one until 4pm (this is at about 11am). We decided to take a boat to a different town and then catch a cab back to Copacabana. The boat ride (B$15) was short, which was probably a good thing since it was pretty windy and this was not a large boat by any means. As we approached the new town, we could hear lots of music, which sounded kind of like a middle school marching band practice. When we got there, we discovered that it was a giant festival and dance competition, so there were many groups of men or of women in matching costumes doing the same basic dance steps together, to live bands (yes, plural) at the same time. It was sort of chaoitic, but really neat. We were also the only white people there. We watched for a bit and then, with the help of a drunk Boliian guy who had been on our boat, started looking for a cab. We found a guy who said normally there were lots of buses/cabs but since today was a party, everyone was drinking (the boat guys had neglected to warn us of this). Luckily, this guy was sober (or at least appeared to be) and offerend to drive us himself in his minibus, so we got a ride for B$10 each. En route, we picked up a couple of people walking to Cochabamba, and dropped off a package to some people out in a field (our driver had his small son run the bag halfway out to the field, where a family had their small son run to pick it up. Yay children!) so it seemed as though getting a ride from this guy worked out for everyone. We had lunch at our favorite restaurant and then bought tickets (B$15) for the 4pm bus to La Paz. Nate was to take the bus all the way there, since he was leaving on Sunday, but the four of us were going to get off in Huarina to get a different bus to Sorata. I have never seen seats recline so far back on any public vehicle, and I wish those hadn't because the large lady (one of the few I've seen here) in front of me had her seat all the way back, meaning I had about 10 inches in between my face and her seat for my backpack and breathing. In Huarina, we asked a few people about buses, and they said a minibus should come by every half an hour to Sorata, but after waiting about that long and seeing two packed Sorata buses, as well as many other buses, also all packed, we decided it was probably a futile adventure, so we crossed the street to get a bus to La Paz. Most were pretty full, but we had seen a few emptier-looking ones, and pretty soon a minibus came that was almost empty, so we got a ride with him/his wife for B$10 each. We picked up 5 or 6 more people on the way, which just seems to be the thing to do here if you have room in your car. When we got most of the way through El Alto, which is the city bordering La Paz, our ride ended and the drivers recommended we walk to blocks and catch a different minibus. We found this one and after refusing to pay a ludicrous price, agreed on B$21 for the group (still ridiculously high, but welcome to the world of being a gringo). Another group of travelers, rather more inebriated than us, got on too, so they were entertaining. One guy was a computer programmer from England that just brought his work with him and had been traveling since January or February. Not a bad way to live. We made it to the street with our original hotel, Estrella Andina, where we stayed our first night in La Paz, and had dinner and planned our next move. We decided not to go to that hotel since it's pretty expensive and we wanted to be cheap, so we found several reccomendatiosn from the trusty Lonely Planet, and after a lenghtly cab ride (B$15) since our driver couldn't find the hostel we wanted, we made it to a reasonable place to stay for B$45, which is pretty reasonable for La Paz, where lodging is pricier than other places. We were all exhausted from a long day of travel, so it was good to get sleep.

The next morning we slept in some, since for once we didn't have a pressing morning schedule, and had another successful American breakfast from the hotel itself, including hot chocolate with milk (far better than water!) and then walked to the bus station, which was, as we had chosen, just across the street. Unfortunately, the bus to Sorata does not leave from the bus station, so we took a cab(B$10) up to a different neighborhood. The cabbie was very friendly and gave us his cell and home numbers so we could call him when we came back. He asked around to find the specific street where the Sorata minibuses leave from, so he was quite helpful. We bought our B$17 tickets and left about 20 mnutes later. We somehow played a nice long game of Scratch, even though we didn't have that much room, and then all read for a while. We went way high up in the mountains and drove through a cloud for a long time, which was slightly terrifying since our sight distance was rather limited but our speed didn't change much. At about this time, we unfortunately switched from paved to dirt road, and for the rest of the ride, I literally think I inhaled more dust than air. I have never fought my gag reflex for that much time and I seriously considered requesting to be let out and walking the rest of the way, because the dust wasn't coming from outside, it was definitely coming from the seats in the van. One of the more painful bus rides of my life. However, t my thouough happiness, we eventually made it to Sorata, where my primary goal was to breath clean air, and second goal (by just a hair) was to eat. The main town is pretty small and centers around a large plaza, so there are lots of restaurants to chose from. I had tea and delicious tacos with guacamole and felt much better after. We then checked out a few hotels and decided on the one that was actually adjoined to the restaurant where we ate. We don't have wall outlets or soap, but we do have towels, toilet paper and supposedly have hot water, and check out is at noon. Also the beds have an extra blanket and there is an internet place very close by. We've developed a list of things to look for when choosing a hotel, because so often you're at a place and you think: “Hmm. This looks pretty clean, and it's cheap. Sounds good” but then you realize you're missing all sorts of things you want.
Matias and I ventured out to the nearby internet place (incredibly slow, but just over $1 USD per hour, so I'm not complaining too much) and then we came back to the hotel (after buying the missing soap) to join Lisa and Kasia in reading for a while. Seabiscuit is getting good :) Since we'd had lunch so late, we read for a long time before dinner, but we eventually checkout out Lonely Planet's suggestion and ate at an extremely satisfying and reasonably-priced restaurant. We had Hawaiian pizza with strawberries on it (surprising but delicious), tea (always good), banana smoothie/milk drink which was incredible, so much so that we got a similar pineapple one (even better), and crepes with a bit of chocolate. We also played Euchre, which I loved, and watched The Mummy and then some other move which had lots of simultaneous natural disasters (giant sinkhole, breached dam, and possibly the aftermath of a hurricane, or something similar) and stressed out people trying to handle everything. We enjoyed discussing flow rates and soil liquefaction possibilities and I want to see this movie, but the guy who worked there didn't know what it was, so if you do, tell me!