Bolivia Part 1

I had been warned that Bolivia can be a real challenge, which was true from the very beginning, as it took 22 hours to get across the border.

After a series of busses through Northern Argentina, I arrived at the border town with an Irish guy whom i’d met in Salta. At 1:30pm we set off down a desolate road in search of the border:

Along this road we encountered two fellow backpackers, James from France and Lury from Brazil, who delivered some bad news: the Bolivians were protesting, and the border was closed. It would allegedly reopen in the evening, so we found a nearby park, played some nice music on James’ speaker, drank beers, played chess, and waited:

It was nice at first, but then the sun went down, it got cold, and the border still hadn’t opened, so we found a very basic hotel in town, shared one large room, and set an alarm for early morning. By morning, the border was in a much better state, apart from a long line that would soon be the least of my problems:

We got through the line in a few hours, and my border crossing comrades were stamped into Bolivia with ease. I was not stamped into Bolivia with ease.

Americans are one of few nationalities that need visas to enter Bolivia. According to the embassy, visas can be purchased on arrival, which I interpreted to mean that I could show up without advance planning and buy the visa. Wrong.

I was in need of a visa-on-arrival packet, which included things like printed bank statements, printed headshots, scans of my passport, and many, many more items. The immigration office had no printer, scanner, internet, or English speakers. It was an utter disaster.

Then something really bizarre and wonderful happened. I was not sent away from Bolivia, but rather sent INTO Bolivia (illegally) to gather all of the above from a local woman who runs a side hustle off oblivious American backpackers. The operation occurred in her corner store, where she kept a scanner, printer, and internet. I sat on this stool for nearly two hours, and for $15, she gathered my visa-on-arrival packet:

I then brought my newly acquired packet back to immigration, got my passport stamped, and re-entered Bolivia (legally this time), concluding a 22 hour ordeal at the border. My border crossing crew was unfortunately long gone. We had agreed that they would continue North should I get held up, since they were on the verge of missing a four day tour that departed from our next destination, Tupiza. It worked out in my favor though, as they were able to share valuable intel on Tupiza transport:

The “shuttle” was a small van crammed full of 8 locals and myself. We set off for Tupiza, but would soon find that the road had closed for more protests. Lucky for us, the van was nimble, so we went off-roading for nearly an hour and circumnavigated the protests. It worked great:

I spent one night in Tupiza, which had a small bit of tourism from backpackers traveling overland from Argentina:

From Tupiza, I took another bus to Uyuni, the epicenter of Bolivian tourism given its proximity to the famous Salt Flats. Once again, my bus to Uyuni was… interesting. Bolivian busses are very old and often crash, so the country has a bus company exclusively for foreigners: “Titicaca Tourist Transport.” However, Titicaca Tourist Transport doesn’t run South of Uyuni, so the non-tourist bus was my sole option. There was a live infomercial on the bus:

This guy actually drove me totally nuts, and I have no idea what he was selling (perhaps a Spanish speaking blog reader will enlighten us). He eventually got off the bus, and we continued for 5 hours through remote villages:

From Uyuni, I took a 1-day tour of the Bolivian Salt Flats, and Bolivia redeemed itself momentarily:

After the Salt Flats tour, I got an overnight bus to La Paz (on Titicaca Tourist Transport, thank god), where I arrived early this morning. I went straight to a hostel across from the bus and fell back asleep, but shortly thereafter, was awake and vomiting. This was no surprise, as nearly everyone gets sick in Bolivia from the food. I had heard countless stories, including more than one instance of Salmonella. Luckily, my case seems more mild, since it’s now early afternoon and I’m awake and blogging, but we will see how the day unfolds. Thanks for following!