Much later (out of Bolivia)

Bolivia

We finally got out of Bolivia and since then my experience has been surprisingly similar to when we first arrived in South America. Now on the road there seems to be saturation of experiences and amongst all that what is to say? Life is really fun but also becomes a big list; meeting those people, going there, drinking that and eating this, “notice that different use of Spanish?” and, “the ethnicities of the city?”

Blah blah.

When I started travelling I thought my response was due to a lack of experience but now I actually think it is just an intrinsic part of travelling. Perhaps the real reason you travel instead just reading travel books your whole life.

As it was we left Cochabamba with a swag of generous goodbyes and dinners and left for Santa Cruz. In some ways Santa Cruz was the perfect place to exit though we did not know it at the time. Santa Cruz is very mestizo in comparison to the rest of Bolivia and, generally, a lot more modern. This was a good ‘climate’ to transition into the southern countries of this continent.

In Santa Cruz we drank beer, swam in the pool, commented on the humidity, met some really cool backpackers, watched the sunset and went to the Mariposario (which was so bizarre in its size and Club Med type styling, was I really in Bolivia?) as well as seeing a very excellent art exhibition that was put on for the 200 anniversary of the city. The art exhibition was made of a lot artists working in a lot of different mediums and they were well executed.

The most interesting was an installation called Estacion de Lluvia by Ricardo Lanzarini. He had painted a high ceilinged roof white and then drawn tiny grotesqueries in lead pencil all around the room. To observe the pieces better the artist included two magnifying glasses.

After all this we said our final farewells and tried to leave Bolivia through Paraguay. This did not work out. This is a long story which I will not bore anyone with but involved getting ripped off and put on a very uncomfortable bus to Asuncion which we eventually exited before we got ourselves into an unwanted situation. Later we, somehow, got our money back from the bus company and decided to go to Buenos Aires instead of seeing a new country.

Argentina

Getting out of Argentina was a hassle at first but a total pleasure in the end. After the Bolivian border we were stopped three times within half an hour to have our bags and bus searched. I was getting pretty wound up by the third stop but after that it was clean sailing and we had a really relaxing 42 hour ride which I just loved; we had full-cama and I was reading The Ninja. I almost did not want to get off at the other end.

Overall BA was a total breeze and almost felt too easy. And massive. After being in Bolivia for ten months it was almost like being in the city for the first time again. Only better. I could not believe how big and modern it seemed and how Caucasian everything [sic] seemed. It was a big surprise to be seeing things this way to both Sarah and I.

We stayed here for a few days, checked Malba and drank in the afternoons in Plaza Dorrego. At this stage we had totally embraced the tourist lifestyle and after our “attempt to go to Paraguay” loved feeling at ease. In fact, we had a few laughs going through the city and seeing what parts of the city we had thought looked dangerous before Bolivia.

Uruguay

Getting to Uruguay was a lot of fun. It was a day that included a subway, a bus, a train, a taxi and a boat. The border crossing was almost perfunctory and everyone in Uruguay was polite. The first thing I saw when we landed in Carmelo was an alfajoreres advertisement with Diego Forlán. I am not sure what a better introduction to this country could be.

Since then we have been to Montevideo. I have listen to Up on the Catwalk by Simple Minds, walked around the city, watched working class football teams play on a field next to the sea, stayed at a nice hostel and been charmed by the locals (one of which stopped us in the supermarket, had a chat to us and then invited us to dinner!). I also have to say that though the accent here is the same as in Argentina - thankfully - the Uruguayan Spanish is much easier to understand, “¡¡¡SiiiiIIIIIIIIII!!!”

Now we are in Punta del Diablo staying in a beach side cottage which is ridiculously nice. We are having a great time taking on a ‘vacation’ type mentality and having the sound of the sea wakes us up in the mornings.