Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Another day, another country. I´m in Bolivia now, having left Brazil yesterday. I met billy yesterday, no problem and we got the "Death Train" from a little town of shacks on the Bolivian side of Corumba (I´ve forgotten the name of the town) which took 16 hours. Lonely Planet say call it the death train and that it takes at least 21 hours, but I thought it was fine and it only took the relatively short time of 16 hours!

Billy left Cork 11am Wednesday Irish time, and only got here today at 9am Bolivian time (1pm Irish time) making it a grand total of about 48 hours travelling. In Corumba, we had to get a Brazilian exit stamp, which I got no problem, but when Billy showed him only having arrived about 4 hours before, they looked a little funny at him, asked another guy, came back, stamped his passport and laughed again!

We arrived safely in Santa Cruz and just went to the hostel Res Boliviar, which costs 50Bolivianos or 5 Euros. Cheap you might think, but actually expensive in Bolivian terms. Don't think we'll be here for long anyway.

Billy & I travelled with Oren, and guy I met in the Pantanal. Very nice guy from Israel, but he's been here for 8 months so his Spanish is excellent, so we've just stayed close to him and we're flying. But I still want to learn Spanish. WHEN I come back to South America, my Spanish will be much better. I've already decided to come again.

I reckon we'll stay here until Sunday, and get a bus to Sucre Sunday evening. The rough itinerary after that is Potosi & Uyuni in Bolivia, Salta, Cordoba & Mendoza in Argentina and Santiago and Valpareso in Chile. There'll be a good few overnight buses and a train or two, but we should make it. It's a lot of travelling, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Well, I'm going to update my accomodation list and my where what and when list too.

Adios (as the locals say) See, my Spanish is getting better