Today was Border crossing day, so we were all a little on edge, not knowing what time and effort it would take.
As it happened, it took more than six hours to cross from Argentina to Bolivia, as Jeff did not have a visa tied to his HK passport, having been told that he could get one at the border. In the end he went back to the local restaurant to get good WIFI and applied online, bought copies of his application, US$120, passport, vaccination certificates and a number of other things and we went through. It was painful. JC fell asleep in no-mans-land, as he can anywhere!
Before we reached the border, we rode some good roads with some very special folded and coloured hills and took photos of these with Llamas (yammas) in the foreground. The total riding distance was 389km of which about 90km was inside Bolivia. At the end of the road in Argentina, we came to the sign that said it was the end of Ruta40, 5,090 kilometres from the other end in Ushuaia which we had visited many weeks before! So we rode some of Ruta40 but not all of it by any means. We had lunch in a pub here at the border town which turned out to be a good thing, as we were not to see any other food and water for more than six hours.
The border was chaotic. New buildings had been half finished for many years, and the Bolivian enty booth was on the Argentinian side! We all were processed quickly except for Jeff who as a Hong Kong citizen needed a visa, so he went back to the restaurant with JC and spent an hour submitting an application online, and printing out 7 documents to get through. With a little financial help, he made it after six hours.
We rode on with joy, looking forward to our dinner out at the Alamo Restaurant in Turpiza but along the way, my topbox bounced open and I lost my favourite gloves (actually one only). Anyway, Sheryle and I went to dinner alone and very much enjoyed it. Three of the other riders have dengue fever and were not well with real headaches and other problems.
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