Bolivia

Made it to Sucre, Bolivia after a 40 hour bus ride. Jesus. Here's the breakdown of the trip here:

Part 1: Bus from Asuncion, Paraguay to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I will definitely have to get better prepared for the buses and traveling overland from here on out, especially as I go more north on the continent. The buses ain't like Argentina, Chile or even Peru. No bathrooms, no TV screens, no air conditioning, tiny seats, overall shoddy bus condition (by Argentinian standards). What I really wasn't prepared for was getting to the border, the guy asking for my visa fee of $145, me saying "gee, well the consulate website and the lady at the consulate in Paraguay told me $135" The guy shook it off and said something about it being a different price on the border. I mean, the extra fee couldn't have been for building maintenance. The border control is literally a shack in the middle of the Bolivian chaco. Maybe they need extra money to replace the corrugated steel roof every ten years? Who knows? However, I gave him the new amount of $145, and then he grinned and said something about a "propina" (tip) and pocketed the money. Good thing I had a little extra Dollars with me.  Whatever. I"m sure he needs the money more than I do, $10 in Bolivia is like $70 in America.

Part 2: Another thing is once you get into Bolivia, unless you're near one of the 3-4 main cities, the roads are, well, dirt roads. I say this because after getting to Santa Cruz, Bolivia after the grueling 25 hour bus trip from Asuncion, I got directly (like minutes after I stepped foot off the bus into Santa Cruz, some random guy working for a bus company, grabbed me, could sense that I was going to Sucre and literally dragged me) onto a bus to Sucre. A distance of 160 miles anywhere else? Like 3 hours max, right? It's like 15 hours in Bolivia. Something I wasn't prepared for. Also, I found out that I left my sleeping pills in Asuncion by accident...oops. Atleast the ride was pretty when it was light out. When I got into Sucre, it was raining and I checked into my hostel so I don't really know what the city looks like. I probably didn't mention this, but I'm going to take some intensive language classes and stay with a family here in Bolivia.  I'm finding the school tomorrow to hopefully begin classes and explore more...and possibly finally get robbed in South America. If it's going to happen anywhere, it'll be Bolivia. Here's hoping....