Bolivian protesters I shall not miss thee...

Yesterday Colin and I bid farewell to Tupiza, Bolivia excited to start our adventures in Argentina.  We piled into a collective (communal taxi that leaves when full) bond for the border.  Not long into the trip it was fairly evident that we had a new driver behind the wheel; in fact we would put money on it that it was his first highway trip ever! White knuckled, nervously looking back and forth from speedometer to road he slammed on the brakes in every bend.  It took all we had not to burst out laughing as we thought that would just make the poor boy feel even more nervous.  He got us to our destination and as we left I said to Colin that I was sad to say good bye to Bolivia and wish we had more time.

Well, the universe must have been listening because greeting us at the border was a roadblock caused by angry bus drivers and a line up of people waiting to be let across.  Besides being completely flabbergasted that such a strike was legal we were a little annoyed to have our plans foiled.  So there was sat with the rest of the 400 individuals on a dusty side walk with stray dogs milling between us and car exhaust in our face.  Rumor was that the block would be lifted at noon, this was at 9 am.  Noon came and went with no movement and not knowing how much longer it would take we decide to take a long lunch break to change our scenery. It worked, when we got back the bus that had been in the way had moved and the line of sitting people were up and moving. 

Filled with new energy we joined the line but our hope slowly withered away as we waited endlessly to receive our exit stamp.  We contemplated pulling a slick one and crossing without but reconsidered figuring the local sanitation system was bad enough we did not want to see what a Bolivian prison had in store.  After receiving our exit stamp an equally long line waited for us to receive our Argentinean entry stamp.  8 ½ hours after arriving at the border we dragged out feet the 50 meters to Argentina, hungry, grimy and deflated. 

We decided to skip the bus to Salta, Argentina (7 hrs) and spent the night at the border town.  We found an old café for dinner and despite seeing our food come out of the microwave it was delicious or maybe we were so tired it just seemed delicious. I will miss many parts of Bolivia, the protests and road blocks are not one of them.