Today I continued to intrude the Bolivian frontier. At around 10 a.m. I arrived at the consulate, maybe I took a full night rest, my mood was obviously better than yesterday. The staff of the consulate led me to the consul's room, he looked a bit big, but his attitude was much nicer than those ______ (please feel free to fill in an appropriate word) in the frontier. I only told him the partial story of what happened, for sure he did not know I actually had two passports. I handed my BNO to him and kept on saying I was British (such a traitor), and acted I did not know why I was rejected to enter the border. He flip opened my passport meticulously, of course he did not understand the O of my BNO stood for Oversea when he did not speak English at all. From what I kept telling him, he believed I was really from England (so gullible). After he checked something like a pedigree or yellow page and made sure BN was visa-free, he said he would let me in. He then called to the border and allowed my entrance. In order to secure myself, I asked him to write it down together with his signature, so I could keep it as an evidence.
While waiting for the consul, I saw something blinking on his screen. He was actually playing MSN, what a nice job!
 |
| Many photocopy shops |
When I got to the border, that Annoying Police already recognized me. But I was not scared of him anymore, because I have the consul on my back! I gave the written paper to Sr. Angel Lopez, who asked me to hand in my passport again, while the Annoying Police was nonstop bugging me in Spanish by the side. At that time I indeed felt very troubled. If they rejected me again, I would miss the bus back to Salta, which means Plan A and Plan B would both fail. And I would only get Plan C: stuck for one more day or Plan D: walk to San Pedro on foot. In the midst of waiting, I could not stop myself but urging the Annoying Police like "How long is it going to take???". After 20 minutes, Sr. Lopez reappeared with an entry form! Yay!!!!!! Mission accomplished!!!!!!!
 |
| A door seen on the way to the post office |
The moment I stepped into Villazón was so precious and unforgettable. No one could ever understand how stressed out I was in these two days, it's just like the unbearable heaviness of being! The bustling vibe of Bolivia was so different from Argentina's. There were many stores for currency exchange, so I could immediately change my Argentinian peso to boliviano. And I was able to see the legendary coca leaves, too.
It was not a short way to go to the bus station from the border, it was hard to walk with the long slope and the high altitude. I took a deep breath and finally got to see the bus station, yet I was stopped by 3 guys, who were operating shared taxi to Tupiza (25 BOB). At first I was quite worried, as the taxi scam/express kidnap were a serious problem in South America. But then I knew the bus schedule was not flexible, therefore I kept asking questions. And later I was convinced to take the shared taxi, as they took my worries so seriously, they didn't seem to be any bad.
It took me some time to wait in the taxi, but I so wanted to go to the toilet (While waiting in the border, I felt a bit headache and took one diamox, a medicine to soothe altitude sickness but the side effect of this medicine is making you pee so frequently). One of the three guys took me to the baño in the opposite food court. After 5 minutes, the taxi started running. Again, I felt like I wanted to pee in any second. Luckily the driver needed to buy gas, and I sped to the toilet regardless. He must feel so unbelievable that I had such a small bladder!
 |
| Main street of this small town |
 |
| Bikes and snack shops could be seen anywhere |
The ride from Villazón to Tupiza was about 2 hours, but the road was super bumpy. I felt smart that I did not take the bus, otherwise I must throw up like crazy.
Tupiza is a small town and it is at 3100 meters high. I chose to stay in La Torre Hotel. Though the first two staff I met did not speak English at all, they still tried hard to explain to me that single room was full already, only double room was available (I think it is a trap that they only have 1 or 2 single rooms, so other solo travelers can be forced to stay in the double room and pay more). In fact, the owners of the hotel could speak very good English. They explained every details of the horse back riding tour and salt flats tour to me. I then decided to compare more agencies in the town before making any decision.
 |
| A Bolivian woman in traditional clothing |
I wandered around the town for the whole afternoon (which is very small). While I was shopping in the food market for tonight's dinner, I met Andrew the Irish once again. He felt happy for me that I could successfully make it to Tupiza, and he was starting his salt flats tour tomorrow. Also, he told me that he actually hated that weirdo so much that they even had had quarrels back in Salta. Actually, it wasn't only me who hated that weirdo!!! He even told me which place the weirdo was staying, so that I could stay away from him. I sincerely wished Andrew wouldn't choose the same tour with that weirdo, I couldn't imagine how traumatic the days would be like if I had to be stuck with that weirdo for 4 days!!!
Found an internet place near the hotel, then enjoyed my double room for the night and it's also the time to do my laundry!!!
 |
| The best view from my double room |
0 comments:
Post a Comment