Into Bolivia

So, as per my previous post we spent the night in Humahuaca, and the next day we hopped on to another bus, this time to head directly to the Bolivian border. Approx 3 hours to La Quiaca, the last Argentinian town before the border. We expected to spend about 10-15 minutes at the border to get our passports stamped but we were just a little too optimistic. Piece of advice if you want to cross the border at La Quiaca, be armed with patience, a sweater and a raincoat. We spent 2 hours in the queue to leave Argentina. Argentinians have to present so many papers to be allowed to leave the country and apparently there is no clear indication of what documents they need. We saw many couples with children having to turn back because they only had an extract of their child's birth certificate and not the whole original document! Anyway, after our 2 hours we got our exit stamp and crossed the border into Bolivia (Villazon), where we got our stamps in less than 10 minutes.
And once again, after changing our last Argentinian pesos into Boliches, we hopped on to another bus, not ready to spend the night in Villazon. And three more hours of bus to reach Tupiza. Not on a road, on a muddy, muddy track. More than once I thought we were going to get stuck in the mud and have to get out and push the bus. Luckily, that didn't happen.

So this is our first day in Bolivia, in Tupiza. And already we're surrounded by the typical women with their skirts, their two braids, and their bowl hats. This morning we went for a stroll in the market and decided to have breakfast there. We followed what everyone else was having, and got a plate full of potatoes, rice, chicken, and what seemed to be chestnuts. What a way to start the day!

Comments

[Ceci]

que lindo!!!..como me hace acordar a mi viaje!...vieron??!!toda una experiencia la frontera con Bolivia y el viaje en bus!. Sigan disfrutando y yo viajando con ustedes! besos