Girls caught up in Bolivian upheaval (From Stroud News and Journal)

Girls caught up in Bolivian upheaval

TWO gap year students from Gloucestershire have spoken for the first time this week about their terror after being caught up in an aggressive political coup in South America.

Former pupils from Westonbirt School, near Tetbury, Roz Dawes, 19 and Saskya Vandoorne, 18 found themselves in the thick of gas attacks and street shootings when protests raged in and around Bolivia's capital city, La Paz, over a law imposing tax on foreign companies that have invested in Bolivia's gas reserves.

Roz from Painswick and Saskya from Cirencester have been travelling together since March.

Both girls emailed their families this weekend to assure them they were alright despite the increasing political unrest in that part of the world. Saskya told how someone was murdered outside the girls' hostel in the village of Rurrenabaque.

"Roz and I were for the third time tear gassed because of a murder that was committed ten metres from our hostel, which involved a Colombian shooting two Bolivians in the head."

"The police caught him and the whole village was in uproar and were trying to break down the police station doors as they wanted to lynch him.

"We decided it was time to leave Bolivia and head for Peru but what was supposed to be an eight hour jeep journey to La Paz ended up being a two day mission where we had to bribe every blockade we came to and sweet talk them into letting us pass."

"Finally we arrived in La Paz where marches were taking place all around the city, rocks were being thrown, people were getting whipped and the police couldn't do anything."

The girls decided that if they were going to make it to the airport they would have to walk because of a lack of available vehicle fuel and the roads to the airport were blocked.

The pair ended up trekking hours at high altitude with their heavy backpacks before finally getting a flight to Cusco in neighbouring country Peru.

Ros' mother Lavinia Verney said because she only found out about the situation afterwards, she was proud of the way that the girls had coped rather than concerned for their safety: "By the time we found out about it they were already out of Bolivia. They have really used their initiative, which is amazing but I think they were really lucky, they could have been really stuck."

Mrs Verney said that the girls were fortunate to get a flight when they did as after they left they heard reports of other tourists being seriously injured and protesters blocking the airport runways so that flights could not leave.

Mrs Verney added: "They are both quite gutsy girls and not scared of anything."

Bolivia's recent troubles stem from an increasing disillusionment felt by the indiginous people with the management of its natural rescources.

* As the SNJ went to press the girls' parents heard there had been a massive earthquake in northern Chilli yesterday morning and were awaiting further news from their daughters.