An Emmerous Adventure

So I left you in the Pampas with some photos, it´s not 4 cities later and I have no photos for you, but suck it up eh?

I wouldn´t have returned to La Paz for more than a few hours if not for the necessity of a visa for Brazil. Unfortuanatly, I arrived back into La Paz off my exciting bus ride right into a public holiday and very little was open. Still, I decided to venture out to the Brazilian Embassy just in case and to find out where it is. I caught a micro (private mini vans that serve as buses ) down to the swanky end of town where lots of the apartment buildings and embassies are. Unfortuantly it was not open, but at least I had discovered where it was so I could venture out bright and early the next morning and stun the Brazilians into giving me an extra speedy Visa with my earliness.

It did take me ages to find the exact location of the embassy, in guidebooks the only information given is the street name of a long street called Av. Arce. I must have asked 10 Bolivians, and was given a huge range of generally incorrect information as they (i hope) attempted to help me. My experience so far is that even if South American people don´t know where to direct you, they will give you directions anyway just to be helpful, this leads to many a walk down incorrect streets, but is a good way to practice spanish.

Spoent the rest of that day sitting around the hostel, reuniting with folks I had met the precvious visit to La Paz, Saying goobye as people moved on (probably never to be seen again) and watching DVDs as very little was open. The night before had been a big night at the hostel as two guys I know (one was Jeramy from Machu Pïcchu) had started working at the hostel bar and worked together that night. So it was a very relaxed mood that night. I did watch some of Saw 3 with a British guy who had broken his collerbone on Death Road. That morning 3 other people and myself had peer pressued him into letting us watch Napoleon Dynamite when he was tyrying to watch Lord of the Rings, so he was suprisingly friendly.

For a while I thoght I lost my wallet, but it was found behind one of the couches in the bar, I also spoke to a guy who lost his passport behind the bar and only found it when Immigration came to hassle him. I have on the other hand lost my Footprint guidebook, probably to another traveler (who else would). I plan to go on without it (they are bricklike and expensive) and then get a lonely plant Brazil when I get there as I know I´ll need one then. It´s pretty easy just to go on reccomendations and checking out other people´s guide books if necessary.

So the next morning I was up at 8 to be at the Brazilian Embassy at 8:30 am when the Lonely Planet claims they open. Luckely I got distracted on the way by coloured pencils and didn´t get there til 9:15, as they actually open at 9am. I took along my passport, thinking this would be a relativly simple process, and was given a whole list of things I would need to return with, including my Yellow Fever vacination certificate and a photocopy, proof of funds (bank statements) , Gypsy Tears and a photo of David Hasslehoff (ok, the last two maybe not, but there were other things I had to get on this quest). The task at hand id not seem to bad at first, annoying, but not too bad. So I returned to the Hostel to fill out forms and lie to the Brazilian governemnt about my Australian work address. I spent a bit too much time in the bar chatting to folks, and as a result, by the time I got back to the embassy, it was closed. AT 12 MIDDAY. Yes, they´re only open for 3 hours a day. As a consolation I went to see the Harry Potter Movie. It was excellent, by far the best of the movies.
As a note: do not tell me anything about the next book, I have a sneaky plan to read it in English, soon hopefully. I´m hoping that heaps of people buy it for flights then leave it in book exchanges, so hopefully i can get a copy in the next few weeks. Hahaha, what a sneaky plan.

So the next morning, I was up bright and early again to be at the embassy . I go there, presented my completed forms, Gypsy tears and photocopies, only to be told that no, I had not provided sufficient evidence of funds and they would not be giving me a Visa. This is might frustrating. Just to let you know, the only countries that need a visa for Brazil are Australia, Canada, Nigeria, the UAE, the USA and a few other eclectic countries. At least Australalians only pay US$35. Americans pay US$100, not for the Visa, that´s free for them, but as a processing fee. There´s a funny note down the bottom of the form explaining that for Americans, it is a reciprocal ageement, a you charge us we´ll charge you sort of thing. Good for them.
Luckely, I did discover that there are other embassies in smaller cities, so I´m going to try my luck in another office. If need be, I´ll buy a ticket out of Brazil and then the funds issue will be non existant.

At least now I could leave La Paz, just in time too, the next day (friday last week I guess) was the biggest strike and protest in La Paz´s history. The hostel basically told people not to go outside, and of those that did venture out into the streets, half were mugged as all the police (usually a very noticable and machine gun carrying presence) weren´t working apparently.
Unfortunatly, because of crossed wires and limited means of communication, I didn´t get to meet up with Viv´s friend.

Left La Paz on the thursday for Cochabamba. The bus ride was ok, spoke to a Bolivian Woman about Cochabamba being dangerous and warm and how Chilean accents are loco (crazy). Also watched Van Damme´s INFERNO in spanish, but i don´t know if it made any less sense than normal (they seem to be fond of The Damme in Bolivia, 3 other people told me they saw a movie of his on the bus over the next few days) . I was very stupid arriving in Cochabamba, as I had not booked any accomodation and was arriving at 10:30 at night. Fortunatly, though it was a dodgy situation, I found a hostel accross the road from the bus station. But I have learnt my lesson about booking accomadation if arriving at night.

Just to let you know, I have developed the great and impressive super power of being able to sleep on busses no matter the time of day, how much sleep I´ve had the night before or movie playing. You may scoff at the usefulness of this particular super power, but trust me, it serves me well.

Cochabamba was nice, I saw some art sort of accidently, and the new Harry Pottr film again sort of deliberatly when some Germans I met were going to see it. The plaza is Cochabamba is really nice wih lots of trees.
I kept on being told that Sucre was the place to be, so that´s where I wanted to bus it to next. Assuming that there would be busses at all times of day, I tured up at 8:30 am only to be told the next bus was at 8:30 pm. Because I didn´t have a book, I spent much of the day in a quest to find somethng on the internet to print out and read. I ended up with some of one of the sequels to Hitchhickers guide to the galaxy, a bit of Catcher in the Rye and (because I am uncool and feeling a little intellectually stunted because of too many crime novels) some Noem Chomsky. It was mostly the quest to find them that proved time consuming, but it was also good to have.

Caught an overnight Cama (sleeper) bus to Sucre. In the seat beside me was a woman and her two boys; they only had one seat for all 3. Luckely the boys (1 and 3) were lovely and very freindly. I think I slept almost the whole 10 hours (though it´s never that good sleep).

In Sucre I ran into Henry who I had met in the Hostel in La Paz, he was wih a bunch of other people who he had just met and we all went on a tour to the indigenous markets in the next town (they weren´t very good, though apparently they are reccomended by Footprint as a highlight of Bolivia) and all stayed in the same dorm at the hostel, went to a gringo bar called Joyride and generally had a good friendly day. It was Henry (NZ) and I and 4 brits.

The next day was really nice, just chilling around Sucre. In the morning I bought some Snow-Pea-like green beans and some water and took them to the plaza to eat while I read (now reading Inca Cola, a travellers tale of Peru, which is very funny). After a while I was approached by 3 shoeshine boys who wanted to polish my thongs/flip flops. I said no, but gave them some beans. They hung around for a while, asked me what country I was from etc… (though Austalia is in Europe, Austria maybe…) . Then I gave one of them a little chocolate bar I had on me, as an appology for not requiring shoe polishing, and the others wanted some too, so I went to a stall and got some for them, then they asked for some of my water (and how can you say no to anybody asking for water), so I gave them the bottle. After a bit more chat where they instructed me on the best place to get vegies in Sucre, they left. Not too long after I was approached by a woman selling woven bracelets, as I have enough bracelets as it is, I declined, but she was stubborn so I gave her some beans. Then a little boy came over and wante some beans too. They both got so into the beans that I ended up giving them half of my remaining beans each, and had no more. So I ventured off to the food market the boys had tol me about, where I got a massive Avocado, two custard apples that vthe woman convinced me to buy saying they were ´bolivian fruit´, some tomatos and bread, all for the equivilent of aound $2.50 australian dollers. Sat in the hostel courtyard an had amazing sandwiches, met a guy from Sydney who said he could pick that I come from Newtown (which is a great improvement over South Africa) and discovered that we have common friends. More Gringo Bars that evening.
It was a lovely day with much amusement.

The next day I left Sucre for Potosi with Henry. Luckely we were able to get there, there have been a lot of miners strikes around Potosi recently and people have been stuck. Interestingly and annoyingly, It is very difficult to get information on the strikes in the International Media, the BBC for example has so little on Bolivia it´s embarassing.

So now I´m in Potosi, but leaving tomorrow for Uyuni.Yesterday, Henry, Ingrid (NZ) and Erma (Estonia) ventured to some hot springs. Rather than go on a tour, we caught a Micro there, it dopped us off seemingly near no hot springs but the driver directed us up the hill. So we walked up a rocky hill with barey a path , found some small pools, walked up another hill and found the real hot sping. It was pretty nice, but like many things in South America that they just let gringos do, dangerous. Apparently, if you swim into the middle of the pool then you get sucked under, 6 people died not too long ago. So we stuck to the edges. For some reason, there is no signpost stating this and you basically have to rely to somebody telling you or the old man who collects your 5 Bs. being there.

Today I did some shopping for Bolvian things as I am leaving soon. Got some presents for people etc…
I´ve found my love of Enrique Iglesias again and if anything my love for that particular Latin Love god has grown. This is beause I keep on seeing and hearing him on the Latin American equivilent of MTV EVERYWHERE. Ádvesrtising works, I´m totoally going to buy a blackmarket (the only available) copy of his new album.

I´ve changed my plan by the way. I´m now going south into Argentina, then accross to Brazil Via the Iguazu falls. I was thinking of going to Chile to San Pedro de Atacama but I don´t think I will. I can hopefully get a visa for Brazil at the embassy in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side. Then accross to Sao Paulo and Santos where marianna is, then to Isla Grande which is apparently paradise, Rio for a little while and either fly out of there or Brasilia to Venezuela, from there to Cuba, and if possible, after cuba to Nicaragua where I can then make my way up to Oaxaca in mexico for the day of the dead through Guatamala and Honduras. Or just Cuba to Mexico.
It will be interesting to see how much of that I stick to.

That brings you up to dte without missing too much. I´ve met some really cool people in the last week, but explaining how cool they actually are can´t be explained.
Next update might be in Argentina, as after Uyuni I´m going to the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) for a few days, so the next internet might be in another country.
Hope all are well, especially Tash.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.