Bolivia Doesn't Like Americans

After an amazing night on Uros, Andreas and I get up to have breakfast around 5:30am with Ed and Asia - nothing fancy but a good start to the day. We all jump in the skiff and head into Puno, where we're picked up by a cab waiting at the same spot we were dropped off the night before. Abraham tells us he is going to come with us, so I assumed he had some things to do in Puno. In actuality, he was just coming with us to the bus station to make sure that we all got off well and safely. Seriously - such great service from Abraham and his family. I'll never forget their kindness. Ed and Asia figure out a last minute bus to their next destination and we wait for a few minutes before boarding our bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. Our plan is to get to Copacabana, which is about five hours away, and if we like the town we'll stay the night and then head to La Paz, Bolivia, where we will figure out our plans for doing a jeep tour of the Salt Flats. I hadn't originally planned to go to Bolivia, but a lot of close friends and random travelers have said that I MUST see the salt flats, so this was all kinda last minute. We're driving in the bus for about an hour and a half when an announcer gets on and says we are about to cross the border into Bolivia, and so we need to fill out immigration forms. He also informs us that the only people who have to pay entry fees into Bolivia are US citizens who have't previously gotten a visa. Shit. Really? I think I heard someone mention something about this, but I obviously forgot about it and am somewhat annoyed now. Annoyed that I didn't get out the necessary $130 (US) needed to get into Bolivia. Annoyed that I didn't use my Polish passport, which I had just gotten last year. Annoyed that I had to ask Andreas to help me by loaning me money because apparently they don't have ATM machines at the border crossing. We get to the border and on the Peruvian side we have to first go to the police station, where a cop stamps our immigration form which we filled out when we came into the country, then we move next to the police station to the immigration station where we get our passport stamped and the immigration form taken away. OK - cool. Easy enough. Then we go to the money exchange, where I use Andreas' Euro's and exchange them to dollars. He gives me about 110 in Euro which should be well over $130 US, but no, it only comes up as $128. Wow. Exchange rate screws us at the border - shocker. So then I have to ask him for more money, which I already feel horrible about, so now I get another 20 Euro which brings me up to $135 (again - horrible exchange rate). So then we walk about a quarter mile from the Peruvian side of the border into the Bolivian side, and we head into the immigration station. I walk up to the first cop and he asks if I have a visa. No, señor. OK, so do you have money? Yes, señor. OK, do you have a photocopy of your passport? Um - no. OK, go get one at the copy station just behind you. Ugh. So I walk over to the photocopy machine and the kid there tells me the photocopy is gonna be 2 Bolivianos, which is less than $0.50 US. I also ask him how much exactly the visa is gonna cost, and he tells me it's $135. What? I thought it was $130, which the guy on the bus told me. Ouch. Back to Andreas and ask him for 2 Bolivianos. Damn I feel like an idiot for not having cash on me to get through this. Again, Andreas saves my ass and hands me 2 Bolivianos. Cool. I get the photocopy and head into the immigration station again. The cop says ok and I walk into the counter all the way to the left, where I see two other American's in front of me. Apparently there is an American-line. First dude is a totally hippie and he pays and gets his stamp and moves on. Next guy is a black guy from North Carolina - super nice - and he hands over his docs and money. As the immigration cop counts the money, he starts handing $20's back to the black guy. Huh? Yes, if you have any writing or even the smallest rip in your $20, Bolivia won't accept your money. Wow. So the black dude walks away and sees if he can find an ATM. I'm getting nervous. I step up and hand over my docs and my money, and the cop gets all the way through all my $20's until he stops on the last one. Really? Shit. Shit. Shit. He hands me back the $20 and says there is a tiny rip in the top. TINY. Ouch. So I walk outside and there is Andreas, the black dude, and the guy from the bus. We tell the guy from the bus our story and he takes our "bad" $20's and runs back to the Peruvian side to get better ones. We wait for about 10 minutes and then he comes running back. We walk back into immigration and finally the cop accepts us, so we get our stamps and finally get back to the bus, which we've been holding up now for about a half hour. This was my first hardcore lesson in border crossings. I need to know EVERYTHING about what I need before getting into a country. Also, I really really really wish I had brought my Polish passport for this trip. I would have ZERO problem with that. Oh well - live and learn. Again, I have to thank Andreas for bailing me out of this situation. He's not only been a fun person to travel with, but a kind and generous man. 

So…we get back on the bus and about an hour later we FINALLY get to Copacabana. It's a cute town, but as we're pulling in we can already tell it's VERY small and there isn't enough to keep us entertained for an entire day. We quickly schedule a bus (with the same bus company) to take us to La Paz, and that bus leaves about an hour and a half from when we arrived. It's about lunchtime now so we walk down the main strip in Copacabana and then grab lunch at a restaurant overlooking Lake Titicaca. Nothing fancy but some amazing views - pics below. So then we get on the next bus to La Paz, and we quickly learn that although we booked it with the same bus company, the bus we take is much more of a local type bus. It's still not horrible, but it's getting tighter and now there's no bathroom on the bus. So we walk on the bus and we're quickly confronted by the fact that people are saving seats, and so we get towards the back of the bus and at this point I'm annoyed at the seat-saving situation, so I take a shirt off of two seats next to one another and throw it up in the storage area and we take those seats. No one came and said anything to us, so I assume people must have not cared that we took the seats (or they didn't want to deal with us - either way, cool by me). So we drive for about two hours and the scenery is beautiful! Vista views of the lake and hillside, and then we pull into a little port town and everyone gets out. Huh? Picture time? I'm kinda confused but apparently we need to cross the lake so we all get off and the bus is loaded onto this VERY sketchy barge, and the rest of us need to pay 1 Boliviano to take a separate, and equally sketchy, boat across the lake. Oh man - need to ask Andreas for help again cause there still isn't any ATM's. He helps out and is laughing at this time. I'm running up a good tab. We cross over and as we're join across I see a boat that says "Roy Jordan 23" - hilarious (pic below). As we're waiting for the bus barge to come across I hit the public bathroom - again need to borrow 1 Boliviano from Andreas…comedy at this point. We get back on the bus and ride for about another 3 hours until we hit La Paz, which is the third largest city in Bolivia and the highest capital city of any nation in the world (12K feet above sea level). Insane. This place just keeps going, and the traffic is nuts. This is exactly what I imagined when I pictured South American and third world cities (pics below). I've been to India and Mexico, but this rivals both of them big time. We finally get off the bus in the tourist section of the city and check a few hostels before I do a quick search on hostelworld.com and find us a sick bed and breakfast for $13 a night. Starting to like Bolivia! Anyway, we hit up a quick pizza spot which was recommended by a few websites (and the front desk lady) and then we played pool before calling it a night (Andreas won - two game to one). We are gonna figure out our Salt Flat tour tomorrow so that should be interesting. It's real late now and I'm glad I got this all out, but wow what a whirlwind last few days it's been! Tiring as it is, I feel more alive than ever before. Hitting the hay now, but more to come soon…