Taxing Bolivia

Yes, I am in Bolivia now. And to cross the border Americans have to pay $135 dollars. now that may not seem like a lot, but it is. and i never carry that much money around, thus i had issues getting into the country.

No ATM, no bank, no sympathy from the customs guard. Either go back to peru, or he would hold my passport while i go into Bolivia, hunt down an ATM, and then come back to the border and pay the ransom. Oh, and the nearest town has no ATM either.

Luckily i charmed $135 out of some English girl who was on the bus with me.

Don't worry, i paid her back eventually.

So as soon as i crossed into Bolivia you really feel the difference in culture. people are POOR and tend to stick to indigenous outerwear, which i like. They have preserved their culture but at the cost of western advancement and infrastructure.

It is weird too. There are a ton of Indios (indigenous people)who beg on the street and i am so numb to panhandlers that i usually just walk past. But the Bolivians who can give, do give. And quite often. I am not sure about the welfare system here, but it seems as if people have more of a tendency to take care of each other. It is a nice feeling.

For the last week i traveled with a Brazilian guy who was heading the same direction i was. We got to La Paz at 10 pm and ended up meeting a bunch of other travelers who we knew on the road and partied till 6:30 the first night. this same night i saw the english girl at the after hours club we were at and she had no money to get home. Thus it was blind fate that she lent me the border money so that i could pay her back when she was down, out and stranded.

From La Paz we took a tour/safari of the Bolivian salt flats. Largest salt flats in the world actually. we heard it is cool to take figurines with you on this trip because you can take cool interesting perspective photos on the flats. so we did. you will see.

This place was windier and colder than shit. I kid you not. Coldest i have been all trip. The wind was blowing dust non stop the entire time and you had to make sure you kept your mouth closed whenever outside. That being said, it was really cool to cruize around the landscape in a covered jeep. Crazy terrain that looked like a star wars scene.

we started in an old train cemetery that was interesting to check out and they let you scramble all over these old trains and take pictures, getting tetanus at your own risk. I wore gloves.

then went to the salt flats which were crazy. it looked like snow. but was delicious salt. we even slept at a salt hotel, completely made of salt bricks. we scrapped the ground for salt when we wanted to season our food. very unique experience.

then we just cruised around the high plains for the rest of the trip. seeing frozen lakes where flamingos apparently thrive, crazy rock formations, thermal geysers and volcanic craters.

After taking a 12 hr overnight bus to get back to La Paz we barely just made it in time to catch another bus for our death ride. We took mountain bikes down the most dangerous road in the world. 6 people died on their mountain bikes this year by falling off the cliff.

This was fucking cold too. we started above the clouds in the snow. through the clouds in the rain and mud, then below were it finally warmed up just enough for the bugs to attack our ankles. This was really fun. Biking in foreign countries is the shit.

Now i am just chillin in the hostel getting ready for the next couple of weeks where i will be in an animal rehab center in the jungle in Bolivia. I think i will mostly get to play with monkeys which is good because i need to overcome my fear of them. Let me explain.

when i was 10 yrs old i went to the shittiest petting zoo ever near acapulco. literally a donkey, a parrot and a monkey tied to a stump. you walk down the line and pet each one. well, the fucking monkey bit me and then we had to go to some shady mexican doctor who gave me a shot in the ass. first and only monkey bite and first and only shot in the ass all within 3 hrs.

so hopefully i can heal these old wounds with the little fuckers here. although i did hear that one of the retarded monkeys at this place bites someones pinky off every year. it should be interesting.