Hotel Viru Viru Santa Cruz

... entry in last year journey), some olives, sausages, local cheese and a buffet of local dishes based on rice - it was nice but too much, ate nearly 3/4 and gave up. The waiter late rsaid that the table could ahve fed 5. Back to the hostle we met some irish and went out for a couple of drinks and nplayes pool.

10/10/09 Walking around and preparing to leave

Organsied the next few day, bought a bus ticket to La Paz for ...

... girls starring at me, and all the people running towards the windows trying to get a peak at a gringo, I head back to my hostel. And now i am here in Santa Cruz finishing this blog, hopefully heading out tomorrow to....i have yet to decide.

I wish i could go into more detail or even write 1/4 of my life down here but i have no time or patience. I have plenty of extra stories to tell when i arrive back in Alaska... don't worry

-dave

... us together, or rather I should say who brought us together. Over 800 young people gathered in Asunción to worship the LORD, to learn from each other and of how God is working in all of our lives. It was amazing for me to meet and build relationships with brothers and sisters from all over the globe, and to discuss with other delegates the different challenges and opportunities we face.

In our first session as delegates we ...

... vendors selling street food. The weather was lovely when we visited. This was the only time I didn't eat packaged food after being food poisoned in Uyuni, because for the first time soap and a sink with running water was available in the bathrooms. In the few hours here, we ate sandwiches, icecream, burritos, and donuts. There's nothing like a full belly. And I didn't get sick!
Since all the trains ...

... backpacker found it somewhat humurous the third time. Two times would have just been annoying.
- being assured by agencies trying to sell us bus tickets that we could ignore the laws of a nation state and take a shortcut through Paraguay ..... apparently their ´friends´would just stamp our passports on the way through (NZ´ders need a Visa for paraguay, impossible to get in the ...

... sort of butterfly exhibit!!!!!! How desparate do you need to be for something to do?). Went to the train station to book my train ticket for tomorrow evening. Didn´t seem to have much luck so asked the information people who only spoke spanish. Some guy approached me saying he could sort me out a ticket. Lead me to some back office where he said he could only sell me a bus ticket. Told him no ...

... find him and give him his money though! Another note about Bolivia, you have to pay the departure tax separate from your airline ticket. And this has to be paid in USD (for everyone I think). It's $19USD to leave Bolivia and Santa Cruz has their own departure tax of $5USD. So it's $24USD per person to leave... It was funny going back to Brasil though. At the immigration control for exiting Bolivia, the official there was the ...

... hear the crunch of it landing again on the tracks. I had to stop looking between the vestibules of the two carriages because it started to make me feel dizzy, one carriage seemed to go one way and the one we were on the opposite. We survived and actually managed a few hours sleep too, we were just so exhausted. The people of Bolivia are far darker and more indigenous and ethnic than their Brazilian neighbours and this is immediately obvious. Bolivia is the ...

... to tell my guide asap that I wanted to climb it as only so many are allowed up each day. Anyway, I kept being reassured that even after the tour I would still have time and their would be tickets. Unfortunately, I suffered the same fate as the kiwis and by the time the tour was over all tickets had been handed out and i missed my chance. A word of warning to anyone reading this that wants to do the climb, IGNORE YOUR GUIDE, FORFEIT THE TOUR (do ...

... go back and have their passport processed - I had been hoping for some sort of drugs bust. At this point, the road disappeared and was replaced by a bumpy sand road, which ran throughout what I can only guess is some sort of no man´s land between Paraguay and Bolivia as it was not until nearly 6.30 - nearly five hours more of continuous driving - that we reached the Bolivian immigration control. This was even more primitive than the Paraguayan exit office and again featured a small ...