Thursday 8 November 2012

Fred's world tour week 5 - Paraguay to Bolivia


Fred's world tour
Week 5– Paraguay to Bolivia
27thof October until the 2nd of November 2012

Inbrief:
  1. Roast like a Christmas turkey in the heat of Asuncion, Paraguay
  2. Shave my head for charity.
  3. Melt on the worst 22hour bus ride I've ever had!
  4. Visit Santa Cruz and get detained by three Interpol police officers for 2hours.
  5. Go to the wildlife reserve of quimbe in Santa Cruz,
  6. Visit the ancient Inca ruins of Tiwanaku near La paz

This weekbegan by waking up to temperatures reaching 36 degrees in the morningrising to highs of forty something in the shade during the day! Whatwas worse is that the sun was so strong you felt like your skin wasbeing scorched and the effect was multiplied by the fact that thereis no breeze. This was spring time and apparently similar temps occurin the winter time which means this land locked country must not be avery desirable place to live. Luckily for me I booked myself into ElViajero the only hostels here with a pool. With little options but tostay indoors or in the pool I spent the morning sorting throughpractical things like laundry, booking bus tickets to bolivia,booking flights to borneo and shaving my head for charity! At thispoint I'm only £150 away from reaching my fund raising total for theRaleigh international charity at www.justgiving.com/fredcjI thought I would need to take drastic measures so I asked people tosponsor me to shave my head. I went to a local barbers whointerestingly enough cut the hair of US army personnel and has aframed picture to prove on the wall. I videoed the whole thing, putpictures up online and e-mailed people to sponsor me. Fingerscrossed.

Thatevening I felt like an animal that had been imprisoned all day so Iwent for wonder around during the 'cooler' time of day and wore myrunning kit in case I managed to make it to the river font. Ithappens that the entire river front is all under construction buttaking shape nicely. I wouldn't mind betting I'm the first gringo torun along these unfinished promenades. With the intense heat, even atnight, and the building site as its not hard to see why​? Aftergetting to know lots of the other hostel residents during the day thehostel organised a 'parrillada', a grilled meat dinner. This was asocial occasion to chat to other travellers and another reason whyhostels are great. You wouldn't have to stay in a dorm room like meand risk a sleepless night but hostels also have private rooms withen-suites or shared bathrooms. This way one can benefit from all thegreat things about hostels without the discomfort. I know what Iwould do when I get a bit older :-).

TheSunday was like being in a completely different country, it wascloudy and lots of wind. In other circumstances I would be a bitmiffed (annoyed) after the luck I've had with the weather whiletravelling but actually this was a welcomed relief from the heat. Itmeant I could go do some sightseeing and sampling the local foodbefore embarking on my 22 hour bus journey to Bolivia that evening
 
The railway museum - full of British made objects relating to the railway.
When the bus pulled up with windows open, air conditioning notworking, and an engine noise that didn't sound healthy I knew I wasin for a rough ride. Boy was I right! Within the first 30minutes allthe seats were reclined, felt like there was no space even for asmall(ish) guy like me, I was sweating like a piglet already and itwas 9pm!. To top it all off one of the window's got hit by a stoneand glass went flying around the cabin. Luckily for me I had my eyesclosed when the glass rained down on my face! The good thing aboutthe journey is that they had a guy who gave us simple three meals,drinks along the way and was our co-ordinator. He was telling us whento get off, where to go for the immigration checks and army checkpoints.... There were lots of army checks! Not entirely sure whatthey achieve except adding hours to our already long journey time. Below is Bolivian immigration!

I wasglad to see the terminal in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in south eastBolivia, tired, smelly, covered in my own sweat, hot and in desperateneed of a number two because you would not want to go in the bustoilet or any public toilets en route! I'm sure you wanted to knowthat :-)
The lightat the end of the tunnel for was the pool at the hostal Jodanga. Itdidn't take me long to get swimming and chilling pool-side getting toknow the other hostel guests. Over the next three days I explored thecity of Santa Cruz, saw blond haired Menonites in the town centre,went to a local wildlife reserve, spent time in the pool and gotdetained by Interpol (International Police)! Oh yeah! for 2 hours,three officers detained me in their bus terminal office claiming thatI should be carrying my immigration paper as well as identification.I only came out of my hostel to the terminal to buy my bus ticket forlater that day and only had my ID. Anyway its my understanding thatthe immigration paper is only needed on entry/exit of the country andupon request but not to be carried at all times. I said I wouldhappily retrieve it from the hostel. Unfortunately they said it wastoo late for that and that I should pay them 500 Bolivianos as afine. To do this they would have to take me to the city'sheadquarters and this would take 3-4hours and I could get a receiptfor the fine! I naturally wasn't best pleased as I don't believe Idid anything wrong. After a bit more arguing the officer suggested Icould alternatively pay them 250 Bolivianos and be released right nowbut 'of course I wouldn't get a receipt'! I smelt a fish! With someresistance/persuasion I convince them that we should go to my hostelpick up my passport, immigration document and money and then pay thefine. Their eyes lit up and agreed. They didn't even drive me therein an official police car. I felt very threatened as all three ofthem kept holding their gun holsters and handcuffs at any sign of megetting angry or raising my voice. Pretty scary to be in thisposition in a foreign country such as Bolivia. As soon as the hostelbuzzed us in at the front door I ran to my locker to get my guidebookand phoned the UK embassy from a hidden corner of the hostel. Theysaid Interpol were completely wrong, I should stay where I was andthey would call the front desk of the hostel and they would speak tothe officers directly. The officers were very surprised when thereceptionist handed them the phone and said it was for them. Theysoon changed their attitude and claimed they weren't going to fine meand that they only wanted to see I had the documents as a matter ofroutine. They did some serious back-pedalling! That right there, is aspanking by the British embassy over the phone! I've never been sorelieved in my life. The next thing I did is pack and then get thebus ticket I was going to get that morning (with the immigrationpaper just in case). I could then relax the rest of the day at thewildlife reserve with two Brits who were also going. At the end ofthe tour the park had a pool to cool down in.

After myincident with the police, it was nice to be on an overnight bus awayfrom there to La Paz. Unfortunately for me I discovered that aBolivian's thermostat is thoroughly skewed. The first part of thetrip I was boiling in the bus with the window open and the rest ofthem covering themselves with thick blankets on their already heavilylayered attire! The second part of the journey the heating wascranked up to the max as we reached the altiplano at nearly 4,000m,again roasting. Arriving in la paz was nice. Cool air temperaturewith bright sun. I checked in to the Bacoo hostel and then went for awonder round town. It was similar to Cusco in many ways, the localindigenous ladies selling things on the road side, the handicraftsand the toxic fumes of the unregulated motor vehicles. Excited to behere and chatting to other travellers I spent some time with theon-site travel agent and found out about good things to do in La Paz.My first stop was Tiwanaku an ancient Inca ruin 72km west of town.Said to be one of the oldest settlements before even Machu Picchu itmade for a great full day tour. During the day I got to know someother travellers Becky and Hallana. We had a traditional alpaca steaklunch and then visited a museum which concluded the visit to the ruins.


That night we came back to the hostel for the Halloween party at thehostel which was a great way to end my 5th week oftravelling.

Nextweek's plan is to see La Paz, Cycle down the world's most dangerousroad 'La carretera de la muerte' (Death Road) and got to lakeTiticaca the highest navigable lake in the world.

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