La Paz Day 1

Today is our bus to La Paz Bolivia. We were able to ride a bus to the boarder. Then we had to get off, walk accross the boarder, go through customs and migration, fill out all of this annoying paperwork for a visa, go back to the bus to get our luggage and then change buses on the Bolivia side. It was quite an ordeal.

Once we reached customs we were a little nervous. We had heard and read that we needed so much paperwork to get a Bolivian Visa such as a 4x4photo with no glasses on, a return ticket, a hotel reservation, proof of money and a letter from the U.S. embassy. All we had to do was have a photocopy of our passport and immunixzations, which they had a photo copier, and then pay them 100 U.S. dollars. So it went rather smooth until dad tried to pay. Apparently the B-2 $100 bills are not accepted in Bolivia. Lucky for him he had extras.

Once we had our bags, the buses were full, so we were put in a taxi to go to Copacabana where we waited for our next bus to La Paz. Well our taxi was almost in town, when we were side swiped by a van. Sarah and I were pretty impressed that this was our first accident, especiallyconsidering how these people drive. No body was majorly hurt. I had slept on my neck wrog and was already in a little pain, the accident made it just a tad worse. But the twodrivers were friends so they looked at each other and then just shrugged it off.

Once we were in Copacabana we caught our next bus to La Paz. Once in La Paz, we found a place to stay. We took a taxi to the hotel, only a few blocks away, but it took 20 minutes to get there because there is so much traffic and people in the streets. Sarah has video of our cab almost hitting a tuba player. Once we finally reached the hotel we made arrangements for tomorrow. Sarah is going on a tour and dad and I are playing golf. I hope my neck feels a little better tomorrow. We watched a movie in spanish and called it a night.

03/18/2008