Bolivia & Paraguay - colors and contrasts

If we believed some weeks ago that Ecuador didn‘t make it easy for us to leave, crossing borders in Bolivia (in and out of the country!) was another level; at least for one of us and of course, this story is not about the almighty German passport..

Since Peru and Bolivia share access to Lago Titicaca, naturally we needed to cross the border at some point. The bus driver in Puno already questioned Diana about her visa, but we had read up on a visa for Bolivia could be retrieved on arrival for Romanian citizens.. and so is the case, unfortunately not without hiccups and hassle. The border control needed a full itinerary, confirmation of hotels, flights and an exit ticket, plus two passport photos - all in printed paper version. Luckily, there is a small shack at the border crossing that offers to take passport photos and printing services; so it could resp. should have been easy to arrange. The elderly guy working there preferred to exchange money with all other tourists first, only to then figure out that his camera wasn‘t working. While Diana fixed his malfunctioning printer and mailed all necessary documents to the machine, we got all sorts of suggestions how to solve the photo issue; by far the most ridiculous idea was that we cross into Bolivia, take photos there and come back to complement documents. By then, the entire bus had completed the checks and customs and everyone was only waiting for us. In a joint effort with a kind police officer that helped us out convincing the border control that the photos taken with our phone and printed (after editing in MS word for the „right“ format) sufficed. Internally boiling, I kept my calm until the end when I started shouting at the elderly guy who asked 15$ for the prints, all Eastern European Diana was trying to flatter people by compliments. One hour, quite some nerves and 120$ later, we were ready to enter Bolivia and reached Copacabana.

After all this, we deserved a stay in a comfortable place and treated ourselves to a suite (with jacuzzi and fireplace) overlooking the lake. On a day trip we visited the spiritual Isla de la luna and Isla del sol, before making our way into my beloved La Paz. It seemed to be a popular destination for many of the people we‘ve met along the entire trip (I was able to catch up with a British bloke I‘ve become friends with in early Feb in Chile), so among riding on the teleferico, tapping into the gourmet restaurants and so much more souvenir shopping, we enjoyed some drinks and dinners in company of friends.

Opting for a 1h flight, instead of 18h night bus, we eventually made it out of the altitude and cold of the Andes to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the countries economical center in the Eastern flatlands. What a different image of Bolivia this city offered with modern architecture, well maintained infrastructure, rich neighborhoods, and expensive shops & brands; this city could easily be located in Europe or the US. Funny side note: despite being on low altitude, Santa Cruzians seem to be addicted to chewing coca leaves regardless, we‘ve seen so many people chewing or having a the leaves inside their cheeks like a hamster 😉 A visit to Güembe bioparque and watching the CL semifinals in an Irish pub rounded off our time in Bolivia.

And then trying to exit Bolivia: apparently, late last year there was a change in rules to enter Paraguay - everyone needs to present proof of yellow fever vaccination before check in for a flight.. we both carry our vaccination booklets, but there was no kidding with the airline officer when Diana couldn‘t find the necessary stamp; at least they offered a creative solution right away: consult the airport doctor! That lovely lady must be used to such issues and routinely send us to a copy shop in order to copy paste my yellow fever stamp on a paper in union with Diana‘s passport copy; presenting this „document“ to the airport doc, we received an official confirmation that all is in order with the yellow fever proof - all done within 15mins and down 10 bucks only, all set for Paraguay.

One of the smaller South American countries, no access to the coast, good steak, Roque Santa Cruz (i.e. former Paraguayan football player), a flag not to be mistaken for Dutch - we knew very little about Paraguay and what to expect.. we did learn a bit more and got a glimpse of the country within the few days spend here, but we were not massively impressed. Paraguay has about 50 Guarani tribes, the language is a mix of Guarani and Castellano, and the national instrument is the harp - Paraguay holds the world record of most harps played together, the video of an orchestra of 420 harp players dressed according to the Paraguayan flag is quite astonishing. And private photoshoots seem to be a trend, maybe it was our (rundown) 5* hotel, but within just a few days we‘ve come across at least a handful of such photoshoots.

With no access to the sea, some areas hardly accessible (and hence little tourism), being crushed in a war with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and some dictators ruling over it, nowadays Paraguay is a mere shadow of it‘s more glorious days. Asuncion used to be more important than Buenos Aires, had a railway station earlier, some perspective, immigrants from all over the world across country. What we saw was empty streets, rundown buildings, and the massive Chacarita district offering a home to 80,000 people way below poverty line; the historic center appeared more as a ghost town to us, apparently the core of the city has moved a few kilometers and offers a very modern and clean new center and business district. Beautiful to see was the entire city being covered by flags (only flag in the world that has a two different sides to it, i.e. the emblem in the centre), to celebrate the 212th year of independence. 

We attended a football match of the 1st Paraguayan division on our first night, in a stadium build for 45,000 spectators we had a private experience with some 200 people watching. Our last day we went to visit the Lago Ypacarai and it‘s nearby artisanal villages, heavily influenced by immigrants from mainly Germany. Seeing a German bakery, Diana got excited about pretzels for a second only to then be disappointed as they only sold white bread and German donuts (aka Berliner or Krapfen).