Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Tupiza a la fontera
We were only planning a short stop here and we stayed 4 days, I`m not sure why this town is sleepy. The plan was to leave for the border, where there is an imagration office. I did notice that our 30 day pass for Bolivia was almost out and they just love to extract more money out of you for extra days.
I`d been in contact with Gravity Bolivia regarding working with them as a Mountain Bike Guide, but thinks were still not clear. It may be that we need to go back to La Paz, but we still needed to get a new stamp.
One good thing about doing the trip to the border from here is that you can take the train. With so many bad bus journeys it`s nice to have a change, even if it is a bad train journey. As it turned out it was a good train journey, when we finally left. The time changed from 9 am to 1pm.
La fontera: El rio villazón
Villazón - Bolivia
La Quiaca - Argentina
The original plan was to get a stamp for 90 days and stay in Bolivia but this crossing is free and Lonely Planet says that there is more facilities on the Argentina side. Don`t believe it! Yes, we crossed over to La Quiaca and there`s no ATM nor a bank that will change traveler cheques. I can`t get in touch with Gravity so we`re leaving for Salta tomorrow. There`s no sense in staying in a dead end frontera town. No offence La Quiaca but you leave Villazón with it`s colours and shops to La Quiaca which looks like it was something a few years ago but now it`s dead.
I`d been in contact with Gravity Bolivia regarding working with them as a Mountain Bike Guide, but thinks were still not clear. It may be that we need to go back to La Paz, but we still needed to get a new stamp.
One good thing about doing the trip to the border from here is that you can take the train. With so many bad bus journeys it`s nice to have a change, even if it is a bad train journey. As it turned out it was a good train journey, when we finally left. The time changed from 9 am to 1pm.
La fontera: El rio villazón
Villazón - Bolivia
La Quiaca - Argentina
The original plan was to get a stamp for 90 days and stay in Bolivia but this crossing is free and Lonely Planet says that there is more facilities on the Argentina side. Don`t believe it! Yes, we crossed over to La Quiaca and there`s no ATM nor a bank that will change traveler cheques. I can`t get in touch with Gravity so we`re leaving for Salta tomorrow. There`s no sense in staying in a dead end frontera town. No offence La Quiaca but you leave Villazón with it`s colours and shops to La Quiaca which looks like it was something a few years ago but now it`s dead.
