Villazon to Tupiza, we are here now what!??

We got to Tupiza at night, it was a really small town out of what we could see around ourselves. It was a Sunday night, the weather was nice the ride was over and we were supoused to find a hostel where to sleep. So we started walking with our backpacks around the small town checking for a place where to pass the night.


Damian and I walked for around 30 minutes without finding a hostel so we decided to swallow our backpacker's pride and we asked to some girls that where walking around there. They told us they knew a place, so we just followed them without doubting because we were starving and we definitely needed a hostel where to sleep.

Finally walking through some of the narrow streets we got to the Hostel, we left our stuff in the room, the girls waited for us, and they took us to a place where we could eat something...

Two Backpackers in Bolivia passed out in a bus!!

As soon as we crossed the bridge carrying our heavy Backpacks in Bolivian territory, we met again with the little boys that offered to guide us to cross the border, asking for some money for their "service"... No way we are Backpackers we replied!!.

Then we asked where was the bus station to which we had like a 200 meters to walk till we got there. We arrived to the place and we asked to one bus driver at what time was the next bus going to Villazon (Our first city to visit in Bolivia), and he replied us right now!!!!,,,,, SO WHERE DO WE BUY THE TICKETS.... and he pointed us a small window at a 10 meter distance....

We started running, to get get our tickets (we paid with argentinian pesos), and returned running with our Backpacks... We made it!!, we got in the bus....and suddenly!!!! I start feeling really really sick, like fading away in slow motion.... I was about to pass out (we were running in a very very high altitude city with heavy backpacks as if we were in the flat Bs As almost at the see altitude), and started saying to myself in mi head Why here why like this.... and I passed out and Damian did as well, one next to the other....

Really bad experience, that's what I wrote in my Backpacker Diary afterwards....
Like 10 minutes later we woke up and decided that whatever havened Bolivia wasn't the right place to run with heavy Backpacks..... not even for backpackers like us!!

Let's pass from Argentinia to Bolivia, Customs??.. NO what for??

After a 24 hours exhausting trip, we got to the border between Argentina And Bolivia. We grabbed our Backpacks and we realize that we didn't have a clue where to go or how to do become backpackers in Bolivia.

So we were there waiting and asking around until 4 little kids, very little (not more than 7 years old), came to us asking for money or candy.

We asked them how to get to the other side and one of them pointed to us a cement bridge around two hundred meters from the place where we were. He offered to guide us for some money to which we replied NO!!, we are Backpackers we don't pay for directions.... and we started walking with our heavy Backpacks towards the border.

While we were walking one of them offered to us to pass whatever we might need from one side to the other... wich then made me realize how easy was to pass whatever you might want from one country to the other (by that I mean Whatever!!). We got to the bridge and we saw a small door at the right really crowded which we of course didn't want to check because we were with our big backpacks.... so we kept on walking and suddenly I looked behind the bridge our little guides crossing to the other side through their shortcut...

When we reached the end of the bridge we read a sign saying "WELCOME TO BOLIVIA", so I looked to Damian, a little bit confused because somehow we were on the other side, YES we passed from Argentina to Bolivia without going through any checkpoint customs or whatever...

So then this guys in a big hurry comes out from the little door yielding at us that we are supposed to make customs in that small crowded office!!.

We got there SORRY!! SORRY!! SORRY!!, yes Backpackers at the beginning hit people with their backpacks all the time.... it's was full of people and no place at all.

We wait there around an hour, then they call our names, we got our Tourist stamp on our Argentinian passports... and that was it.

We got back to our old road, and finish crossing the bridge. Walla Backpackers in Bolivia... this is true.

In the bus...Backpackers, tourists, residents on their way to Bolivia

Next stop in 12 hours, somewhere deep in the center of Argentina, by then I would be probable starving or sleeping so neither the two of them would make me have little or non interest in our stop.
We slept pretty much all the way there stoping only once to grab something to eat.

The good thing is that long distance buses in Argentina are very comfortable so you can almost sleep as if you were traveling in a rolling bed. But imagine that after 24 hours of ride even though you slept a lot you are exhausted.

Here is I think the firs picture we took during the bus ride where you can see clearly how wasted I look...even before starting to Backpack in BoliviaJAJAJA yes I look wasted on the right, and that was only the beginning, before the fat lip, and some other interesting things.

All set, Bolivian Backpackers going there..

The day was on, I woke up took a shower and put my last things in my Backpack. Damian's mother was picking me up at 11 in the morning because our bus was expected to leave at 1:00 in the afternoon...

Got it all done, grab my backpack said goodbye to my Cat, and went downstairs to wait for them.

We drove up to the bus station, got down... big backpacks in our backs and tickets to Bolivia in our pockets.

That was it, me and my friend Damian waiting for the bus that would drive us for 24 hours to Jujuy province and from there walking with our Backpacks through the border crossing to the other side of the bridge Bolivia was waiting for us.

5 Tips before Backpacking to Bolivia

Now thinking backwards I can easily make a TOP 5, on the must things you should do Before Backpacking to Bolivia.

1. Visit a Doctor and take all the precautions he tells you.
2. Buy alcohol in Gel, this little thing is useful to wash your hands, knives and even dishes if necessary.
3. Mosquito repellent, some areas specially in suburban areas mosquitoes can be really annoying and in some areas even dangerous.
4. A book to write some Backpacking memories, because the things that you will see in Bolivia are unique and incredible.
5. Lip Stick, the sun gets really strong specially during summer time. I got a burn lip and it was really bad...

Backpacker needs to find his Backpack and stuff

So there I was waiting just for the nights to pass, getting ready for my Backpacking trip to Bolivia but for that I needed to find My Backpack, wash it up, and check if it was ready to roll on a new Backpacking adventure.

Last time I got to use it, was on my Backpacking around Europe with my best 3 friends. So I looked for it, and I got it all set right there next to my bed, just a couple of nights before starting packing for my Backpacking experience to Bolivia.

I also went to the Doctor to get some of the vaccines I was told to take, plus some interesting things that I needed to gather to be properly equipped for the days to come.

So time was running fast, and I needed to be ready I even bought a Diary with the goal to make a Backpacker Diary during my trip.

Visit a Doctor to Backpack to Bolivia???

When you decide to go Backpacking to Bolivia or to any other under developed country, or better said to third word countries there are some recommendations and advices to take into a count for a safe trip.

In the case of Bolivia I personally visited a Doctor in a travel health clinic so as to see which were the things that I needed to do to have a Safe Backpacking experience.

This is a small Summary (Please if you are planning your own Backpacking trip- YOU MUST see a doctor by your own this list is not enough)

1. Hepatitis A Vaccine - It always recommendable to have this Vaccine Applied, even more if you are Backpacking.
2. Typhoid Vaccine - You must take this dose as well if you are willing to have a REAL backpacking experience. If you plan to eat and sleep outside 4 or 5 stars hotels it's a must.
3. Yellow Fever, it's recommendable to all travelers older than 1 year of age.
4. Rabies, It's always good to have this one, just in case any lost animal bites you in the middle of nowhere. I didn't have this one, because you need some time to get the whole protection working, and I remembered to late.
5. Tetanus, This one lasts for ten years, after this time you should re vaccinate.
6. Malaria, depending on the doctor and country you might be advised to take this one as well, and it comes as pills, that you have to take one week before you reach the area of danger, then once a week and on more one week after you left the danger zone. We decided we wanted to visit Coroico, 70 Km of La Paz (Bolivia), and we were advised to take this on.
   

All this tips are Important but more important is that you visit a doctor as I said before If you are planning to go Backpacking to Bolivia or a similar place.

I have friend that already Backpacked in Bolivia

Ok let's call her, we arranged everything and one week later we were having dinner with Damian's friend Sabrina. We were all talking about the excitement of going Backpacker, in my case after 4 years of my last Backpacking experience.... and she started to enumerate all the things she did on her trip while backpacking around Bolivia.

Then she told us about the need to visit a doctor to get some advices, medicines and Vaccines applied because of the dangers for travelers, specially to backpackers for the type of hostels and transportations that they use.

We finished dinner I went back home, only thinking about this new backpacking trip that seemed to be so different to my backpacking trip around Europe, where everything was clean and tidy... and now I had to visit a doctor and get prepared to face this new place right there, in the north of the country where I lived almost all my life.

Let's get the bus ticket to Bolivia

Two day later Damian calls me, and asks me when can we go to buy the tickets, to my answer "this afternoon is good for me", so he picked me up from my job and we went straight to "Retiro Bus Station". That is the main bus and Train Station in Argentina, from there buses going all over the country leaving every minute....
So we go to Retiro park the car and get in, looking for our bus tickets, without really knowing even to where should we travel to cross the border (walking with our backpPublish Postacks) to Bolivia.
We asked in some of the companies until one girl from the other side of the window explained to us that we had to buy a ticket to La Quiaca in the Jujuy Province(see map) and from there take our backpacks and cross the border to the first city in Bolivia called Villazón through a concrete bridge where you can make customs and migrations.
So let's do it, we bought our tickets (one way, because backpackers never schedule!!), we paid around $125(around 40 US dollars) and that was it!!.
Then I looked to Damian and he looked at me right in the moment when internally I was asking to myself if this was a good idea, and I knew he was asking himself the same question.. two backpackers that barely know each other going on a two months trip...
Anyway we had our tickets, so there was nothing else to be done.... or maybe lot's of things...

Phone Call, Where do you Say??... aaa yes Bolivia

Two weeks or so I was working when I received a Phone Call from my friend: "Let's do it" he says!!, Do what?, I asked.. "The Bolivia trip, can you meet me today in the afternoon at the bus station to buy the tickets??",,, ee Of course, let's do it!!

When we hang up the phone I kept on working like nothing happened but in a corner of my head the word Bolivia was bouncing, and I started to remember 3 before when for the first time I went Backpacking to Europe with my 3 best friends at the age of 19, and now I was about to start a new Journey with this guy now... right next to the country where I lived. No long flights or expensive rates... just backpacks, some money, buses... and this guy..

Is this a Good Idea??

Bolivia here I go, even though I haven't planed it!

Backpacker looking for a travel mate

Everything started at my friend's car on our way to school we were listening to some music, talking about some random things, when I told to my good friend Damian that I wanted to go backpacking to Bolivia.
Then he looked at me, and said. "Bolivia...", "maybe I can join you!!" and that was it, I knew he wasn't serious about it. First cuse he already had planned his holidays, and we were reaching the end of November and our summer was about to start....and second because we were good friends back then, but honestly we did not know one to the other enough as to decide to travel together as backpackers.

Anyway, I kept thinking about Bolivia, all the places I heard about it as the Salar the Uyuni (the biggest salt flat IN THE WORLD), Coroico at 70 Km from La Paz thorough the Death Path!!, the Titi Kaka, etc.

Maybe I ll do it alone... OR NOT??