96. Vacation Frustrations

Wednesday, 1/23/13

       Ahhhh…time to rest after our long bus ride. We slumbered along the many blocks in town until we found a decent hotel with wi-fi. After 2 hours of snoozing, it was time to explore.

We checked in the hotel at 7 a.m. and took advantage of free breakfast

      

These are the taxis. A.k.a.-triple scoopers!

Ali and Chad finally let me ride in one!

       We hit up the shops. Strangely, the Bolivian city we are in, Guayaramerin, operates mainly on Reis (Brazilian currency) and not bolivianos (Bolivian currency). After pocketing some neat souvenirs, we thought it wise to make sure we could get across the river into Brazil without problems so that we could in the future. This is when the problems began.

       Chad and my visa are in Santa Cruz being processed. However, our photocopies of our passports work for everything…we thought. The soldiers told us we could cross the river without problems but could not return from Brazil. Major problem. Therefore, we went to the immigration office for a solution. However, the rude and super-mean officer told us that there was no hope. We could not cross into Brazil without our original passport. The sad thing is, we read everything about crossing the border available on the internet before coming here and it seemed quite simple.

The mean immigration officer

At least we could see Brazil across the river

Brazil in the background. So close yet so far.

       We were sharply disappointed and called Joy. Hopefully, she can contact our person in Santa Cruz and have them send us some magic paper work via e-mail that could get us across. Otherwise, only Ali will get to experience Brazil with her real passport.

Strolling around the edge of beautiful Bolivia

...and more walking

We were thinking about sneaking into Brazil on these things

       We spent the rest of time checking out restaurants and shops—while feeling quite bummed-out about not being able to cross. However, my time in town improved when I found an array of different types of guarana to try. Delicious!

   We returned home before dark, rested a bit, swam in the pool, then called it a night.

       Hopefully, we will wiggle our way into Brazil and accomplish our mission without more problems. Wish us luck!

       **Keep adventurizing!...I know I will!**