For several weeks now my traveling has been very enjoyable, I’ve been able to hang with friends from home in foreign places, meet up again with backpacking friends I’ve met earlier this trip, and make some new friends. It’s been fun, easy, and very comfortable.
With this trip’s end date approaching I had to choose between another Argentenian adventure with friends or head north to Bolivia, solo. I’ve mentioned in the past, part of what I love about traveling and especially solo is the challenge and excitement of the unknown, with no one to lean on. Due to time, these opportunities were becoming less possible. So, with some sadness saying goodbye, and excitement for what was next, I answered the phone, Bolivia was calling.
Bolivia is not a straightforward country for US citizens to enter. It’s not the usual give passport, get stamp, say adios. US citizens entering Bolivia must provide two passport photos, paper copies of their passport, a bank statement, verification of onward travel, verification of lodging, and a detailed itinerary of their whole time in Bolivia, and four chocolate eggs (ok made the last one up). And must pay an entry fee in mint condition US dollars. In addition I heard many stories where even if everything was in order, immigration officers still made it difficult and some travelers have even been denied entry. But, since I happened to have the dollar bills and spent a day gathering everything needed, I was going for it.
My bus got to the border at 5am so me and the Europeans I had been talking with from the bus were in the front of the line. They all cruised through, giving their passport, getting the stamp, and saying adios. I was fifth in line and upon taking my passport he asked if I had all my papers. After taking those he asked me to stand aside for a moment and started processing the people behind. As just so happens, the Boca Jrs soccer team had a game in Bolivia that day so behind me were hundreds of Boca fans.
A couple days before, Anneka gave me good advice suggesting no matter what happens, just smile and act relaxed. Which is what I did as Boca after Boca passed through. I was fully expecting to wait a couple hours as more and more fans showed up and was pleasantly surprised when after only 25 minutes, the officer said let’s go. I should note he evidently was the only officer and he closed the window when he left with me. My waiting was understandable and probably not as long as it should have been given the onslaught of fans.
We went into another office building (actually just a shack), I filled out a form, he entered information into a computer, I gave him money and he said welcome to Bolivia. We walked back to his station, and because his window was closed, an even larger queue of now angry Boca fans were waiting. But after just 45 minutes, I got my stamp. Also to be clear, all of this was done in Spanish (which I understood maybe 10%) and hand signals.
From the border I made my way to the bus station and with my blabbing words, grammar be damned version of Spanish, bought a bus ticket and headed to the town of Uyuni. And this is when I could tell I was in a completely different country, back in the 2nd world, the unknown. Roads were mostly uneven dirt, houses were all the same red brick common in non-wealthier places in South America. On the bus (no chickens it was a nice bus), while eventually we got to a paved road, the first part of the trip was spent on dirt roads and at times the driver of our 50 person bus had to complete four-wheeling maneuvers. That was the good part because now we are on a pavement flying down a mountain road and the driver, well, he isn’t using the brakes much, he’s using the whole road, and the bus is certainly leaning with each turn. But good news, if you are reading this, I survived.
Fins Up!!
I had a similar Laos to Vietnam crossing with difficult border control agents in a shack building on a dirt road, so I can envision your crossing.