The longest border crossing

This border crossing took much longer than any other. Eleven days after my first attempt to cross into Bolivia, after three border posts, visits to two Bolivian consulates in Brazil, waiting six hours at the embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay, and driving 5,400 km (2,800 mi) out of my way, I finally got my visa and was able to enter Bolivia from Argentina north of Salta.

The first attempt was at San Matias, west of Caceres after visiting the north Pantanal (August 12). I drove across the border to the police station at the border town, where I waited until noon for the computer system to work. At that point, they told me "Oh, you're an American. You have to go to the consulate back in Caceres to get a visa." Drove an hour back to Caceres, where they told me that they did not have the stamps for the passport, and I would need to drive to the consulate in Corumba to get a visa. So, two day drive to Corumba.

The second attempt to get a visa was at the consulate in Corumba in the south Pantanal. It was no more successful than the first attempt. They also did not have the passport stamps. They said I had to go to the embassy in Sao Paulo. That meant a flight, long bus rides, or four days driving. I wasn't going to do that. Instead, I decided to head to the Bolivian embassy in Ascuncion, Paraguay.

The upside was that Corumba was a nice town. It is a port city on the Paraguay river, and is known as the Capital of the Pantanal since it was approximately in the middle. It was part of Bolivia at one time. There are many colonial buildings along the waterfront. I found a nice place to park for the night next to the river.

The other upside of my quest to get a visa for Bolivia was that I got to visit two special places in Brazil, the ecotourist town of Bonita and the spectacular Iguazu Falls. Bonito is known for beautiful crystal-clear rivers in the area and caves with clear lakes at the bottom. I decided to do a tour of one of the rivers where you float down the river with snorkeling gear checking out the large fish along the way. Then I started the drive towards Iguazu Falls. The landscape reminded me of the American Midwest. Flat with large farms. I told Sheri I got lost and thought I was in North Dakota. But I made it to Iguazu Falls and had a wonderful visit there. (The topic of the previous blog post.)

After Iguazu Falls, I headed across Paraguay. On the way to Asuncion, I stopped to visit a friend, Randel, the person with whom we shared a container when shipping Hank from Colon, Panama, to Cartagena, Columbia. Randel used to live very close to Philomath, but decided to move to Panama. After getting tired of the bureacracy involved in moving to Panama, he opted instead for Paraguay. He bought a very nice plot of land in the country for a small price, and was in the process of fixing up the house and planting a lot of different fruit trees. He's quite proud of his little corner of the world. He's a genuinely nice person and cares about the people living around him, who really don't have a lot of money so he has hired them to help.

I was anxious about getting the visa for Bolivia, so I headed to Asuncion early the next day. Got to the embassy around noon and filled out the forms for the visa. But there were lots of hoops to jump through. And waiting. I was getting frustrated so decided that I wasn't going to Bolivia, but they kept saying "Just a little bit." Meanwhile I got a clamp put on my tire because I parked a foot into the red zone. So with the help of the people at the embassy, they called the police and I paid a fine (bribe?) and they took the clamp off. Finally, about 7 pm, I got my visa. Exhausted, I got a hotel for the night, looking forward to getting out of town.

With visa in hand, I headed to the border crossing into Argentina. Wait a minute. Not so fast. I had to have liability insurance for Hank before I could enter Argentina. Fortunately, there is a very nice guy, Mario, in the border town that could get me insurance. It took a while, but I finally got my TIP and headed to the border town to pay Mario for the insurance. But that was also not so easy. Getting money in Argentina is difficult. I exchanged some at the border, but needed more. I was told that I could get a much better exchange rate by sending myself money via Western Union. I could not figure out how to do it. I called Western Union and the person said it was not possible. But it's done all the time. WTF! I called Sheri and asked her to get an account and send me some money, which she did. But turns out the money would not be available for five days. Fortunately I could pay the insurance with dollars at the Western Union shop, and he gave me a great exchange rate! Although it cost me another day, I was able to start heading west across Argentina. (I later picked up the money at a Western Union in Salta.)

Much of northern Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia are part of what is known as the Gran Chaco. It is a large, mostly flat, sparsely populated, semihumid to arid region. The roads are long and straight. Not very interesting unless you were to look more closely. It has a high biodiversity. But my goal was Bolivia.

Another night at a truck stop, then the drive up a beautiful canyon to the border towns of La Quiaca - Villazon. Spent the night next to a park in La Quiaca, then got up early to cross the border to Boliva. I was nervous that something else would come up, but finally I crossed into Bolivia! (August 23rd) Driving towards Uyuni, it looked just like Utah and Arizona. A long ways to go for a landscape like that at home in the western United States. But beautiful. And definitely a different culture. At one point I was stopped in a small village while some kids, aged about 9 to 12, finished a running race. I was quite impressed at how hard they were running. And at 12,000 ft!

Made it to the town of Uyuni and got some dinner and groceries. There was some sort of festivities going on, so I watched a bit of the parade, but decided I wanted to head to the salt flat. So I waited in line for about an hour to get gas and got Hank treated for protection from the salt, and headed out that evening excited to finally be in Bolivia.