Death Train Bolivia & Border Crossing – Puerto Quijarro (Bolivia) to Corumba (Brazil)

The Death-train in Bolivia is the train that goes from Santa Cruz to Puerto Quijarro a small town at the border of Brazil near the Pantanal region. 

Wondering how dangerous this would be I consulted Wikipedia and apparently it was called the Death-train due to its purpose of transporting yellow fever infected during the early years hence coined the Death-train where people on board were more or less on a journey to death door.

Death Train - Bolivia 

I got on the 2nd most expensive train the Oriental Express, more due to timing (Different Days different train service) rather than choice. 

It was 100 Bolivianos about 20 SGD for an 18 hours ride throughout the night which had air conditioning in the train and good reclining seats. 

Food however was a challenge for they would stop at one station near to dinner time and local kids would board the train selling all kinds of cooked food to the passengers before hopping off just before the train moved again. 

Some of those food look like it was hunted in the nearby forest and cooked to taste like chicken.

Border Crossing – Puerto Quijarro (Bolivia) to Corumba (Brazil)

Puerto Quijarro 

The train arrived in Puerto Quijarro in the morning on time at 6 am and there were taxi waiting to shuttle people where they wanted to go. 

I took a stroll along the dead town, maybe because it was too early in the morning but it was really small and uneventful. Eventually I hailed a cab and got to the border which is a short ride but not so short if you are walking. It cost me 5 Boliviano ….

Border Control at Puerto Quijarro - Bolivia 

Everyone was queuing up waiting for the Bolivia border control to open. You could walk into Brazil and no one would stop you. 

Some money exchange shops were nearby and I dumped all my Bolivianos for Brazilian Reals. Exchange rate was fair and good. (The immediate vicinity of the Brazilian border control has no shop whatsoever).

The border control finally opened at 730am and the slow processing of clearing one at the time dragged on for 2 hours before it was my turn at the counter. 

The officer did not ask me anything other than my passport. As far as I could tell he was viciously keying in every form of permutation he can think of my name, passport number, nationality, identity card number but the computer return nothing to his efforts. 

I understood that he was trying to find my entry on the registry and he was failing at it. I was a ghost in Bolivia apparently.
I had all the right stamps and all the Visa plus the paper slip so the officer and I knew I would leave eventually but he just needed to get that data entry done. 

Take a seat and wait was what I understood after 10 minutes of trying and my passport was passed on to the next office. Stuck for another hours waiting.

While I was waiting I saw a sign (written on paper) on the counter which I translate as : Exit Tax

Nationals of Bolivia - 15 Bol
Foreigners – 100 Bol 

Sitting down just waiting all things went through my mind for I had dumped most of my Bolivian money for Brazilian Real and had only 40 Bol left in my pocket …. …. 

Dammit I should have change after getting the exit stamp. I clearly remembered there was no such fees when I checked on the internet so what was this all about ?? 

Was it an open bribe ?? No way to know till I got my passport and imagination ran wild during the 1 hour of waiting

Finally a lady came back with my passport and passed it back to the same officer. I was called to the front and he processed the exit with a stamp and passed me back the passport and waved me away. 

I did not need to pay anything apparently (Thou everyone was paying for some reason) and quickly left before they change their mind.

Border Control Corumba - Brazil

4 Hours now approximately and moving on to the Brazilian side of border control. 5 minute walk and back in the queue line. 

Another hour of queue and during that hour I got to see the Brazilian police in action where during one of their random checks of cars passing through they found one with drugs in it. 

All guns was in the hands pointed at the one man and one woman while they were slowly being removed from the car and put in handcuffed.

My turn up the counter and the Officer looked at my passport and immediately turn around and started conversing with his other colleague. 

Why am I not surprise. A question came in Portuguese and I was lost. His English was also non-existence and I had to fumble my way through with Spanish instead. 

He asked me if I needed a Visa for Brazil and I said no while he double checked it with a file. The officer also asked how long I was traveling in Brazil and my standard one month answer came up and he nicely only gave me exactly 30 days. I need to start learning how to say 90 days ….

Important :

Lookout at the entry stamp and make sure the number on the right side is an Odd number which means entry into Brazil. If the Officer weather on purpose or accidentally give you an even number then you have just entered Brazil with an exit stamp which would make leaving the country very tricky. 

Into Brazil, No Visa for Malaysian passport holders, no bribes and no customs just immigration which if wanted one could skip all together and enter illegally since no one checks … but crossing a rural border with a Malaysian passport took me 6 hours in total.

At Brazilian side of border control there is no stalls or shops whatsoever, just a bus stand, a taxi stand and a motor taxi stand. I was so tired I jumped on the motor taxi …. 

An actual motorbike with my backpack behind me and he took me to the hostel for as little as 15 Reals …. I miss Bolivia already … and dreaded how expensive Brazil is going to be compared to Bolivia.

Welcome to Brazil …

 

Passing by, Potosi – Sucre – Santa Cruz

There will always be a place or places where you just skim by, there not by choice but merely a stop to break the journey along the way especially when one is rushing to get somewhere far away by a certain time. 

Thus that was Potosi – Sucre and Santa Cruz for me in Bolivia trying to skip hop as fast as possible to the border town of Puerto Quijarro - Corumba so I could try to get to Rio in time to keep my promise to meet a friend by a certain date.

Potosi

Potosi was a grueling-winding 4 hours bus ride away from Uyuni. I have done longer bus ride bus before but somehow this one was just edging on my nerved and I could not wait to get out of the bus when we reached Potosi. 

Arriving at night in Bolivia is not a good idea I realized as bus stops are usually out of the way a few miles outside the city and with most cities in Bolivia leaning on slopes getting lost and just wandering around is not very pleasant and can be quite exhausting.

Potosi

Taxi was hard to spot at night as well since only a small sign or sticker on the front window marks the cars as a taxi. I manage to get one after nearly half an hour blundering about and gestured him to the preselected hostel Koala Den.

Other than the silver mines there is nothing much to do in Potosi and I was not keen on entering the mines for one bit. There are tours where they first bring tourist to the miners market and nice tourist will be obliged to buy coca leaves, equipment’s or even dynamite to be given as gifts to the miners while visiting the mines to show sincerity. 

Working in underground construction sites before I wish some nice tourist would come visit my workplace and bring me goodies but hell I work down there for the money and was pretty sure mining silver was the same thing. 

Call me inconsiderate but everyone does things by free will … there is no such thing as no choice …

I did however tried to locate the miner’s market by foot which I did and the market which was not a market but really just shops along a street selling construction gear. I would say it was like a hardware shop along a street. 

Potosi did feel a little more dangerous for some reason. I walked everywhere to places I guess I should not have walked, got looks and stares and felt really unsafe outside the main square when I was wondering further and further away to unknown places and at many times I almost just turned back but somehow kept going. 

Nothing happened but I could not shake that feeling away. 
Without much to do I left after two nights of rest to Sucre ….

Sucre

The most interesting sign I have ever came across during the travels so far and also the most enlightening one was at the bus station in Sucre about the taxi’s in Bolivia

Signboard Warning in Sucre - Bolivia 

What great notice signpost. The first time that I have an inclination of how much a taxi should cost thou it made no difference as the Taxi drivers will never give a foreigner a local price tag so I settled for 5 Bolivianos instead which was still cheap.

Sucre

Sucre is known as the most beautiful city in South America. I can’t say much to that for it seems true with all the nice neo-classical building which seems to outshine any other city I have visited so far in South America. Still it was nowhere near the beauty of the cities in Europe.

The place is known for tours to see the dinosaur tracks imprinted on a Clift but that’s about it. I could not be bothered …. Passing by remember but good to know it’s there I guess.

The other mission I had was to find a memento for Bolivia. While researching about the border town of Pueto Quijarro they mention about a mine and about a stone called Bolivianita or the actual term Amtrine. 

Apparently the only mine that produce this kind of stone was in Bolivia where it is a mix of two type of crystals in colours of purple and yellow. No other mines in the world have its kind of property so I was set on a hunt to find it.

Almost could not find any bolivianita and I had to resort to scouring the internet for places to buy bolivianita in Sucre. It was still not easy even than for there was no central big souvenir market that sells it, so looking at the shop name and address I went on a hunt. 

Once I found the first shop that sells bolivianita, I then know what I was supposed to look for, jeweler shop the expensive kind but as small as 16 m2. So from show to shop I hunted the gemstone, and compared prices and look at the shapes and eventually bought more than I should. 

Santa Cruz

If I was passing by Potosi and Sucre I was more or less just stopping for a piss break in Santa Cruz. Got off the bus just to find the cheapest hostel there is before I headed back to the train station to get a ticket the next day on the famous Death Train to Puerto Quijarro.

Train Terminal at Santa Cruz 

I was in Santa Cruz on a Sunday …. Everything was close

I did had a quick glimpse of the city which was set in rings of circle. Circle upon circle and although flat it felt worse than La Paz. 

Santa Cruz was warm climate and after traveling through all the high altitude, cool climate of Bolivia, suddenly you get tired just from the heat and humidity.

Out the next morning on the 18 hours journey on the Death Train to border town Puerto Quijarro.

3 Days 2 Nights Tour of Salar De Uyuni

There is only one reason to be in the desolated town of Uyuni, to go on a tour to see the salt flats and National Parks. If there is one thing in South America I would tell people to never miss witnessing with one own eyes, it would be the salt flats of Uyuni, Salar de Uyuni. 

Still just because it’s unbelievable does not mean one should fork out whatever the local tour agency ask for. I arrive early in the morning at 7 am from an overnight bus from La Paz and technically I could have hopped on a tour that morning itself at 10 am if I manage to find a tour agency and slog out the bargaining and price cutting in a mere 3 hours. 

I decided to get a hostel and slowly scout the vultures. Tour operators after tour operators I went in and asked for the price of the 3 days tour, 1 day tour, 5 days tour and in my mind worked out that the three days tour was the most value for money.

Now I just need to squeeze the cheapest one out, so I continue walking always promising the hopeful salesman/woman that I would return after careful thinking. 

900 Boliviano, 800 Boliviano, and the price hover never lowering below 750 Boliviano but I had nothing but time and a full 24 hours to be actively seen lurking around. 

One shop after I walk out barely 2 feet away the lady came running out and pulled me aside carefully making sure the current customers inside was not aware she was going to offer a special price cut just for me. 700 Boliviano.

I wonder why I even bother to waste time for such small amount of money …. Technically 800 Boliviano was SGD 160 and that was for 3 days’ worth of transport, food and lodgings which means only SGD 53.33 a day plus a tour guide. At 700 it makes it SGD140 … 

So the next day I was on a tour for 3 days to be stuck with 6 random strangers on one hell of an amazing tour in Bolivia Uyuni.

3 Days 2 Night Uyuni Tour

I was on a Spanish speaking tour with Spanish speaking people with local South American tourist with the furthest tourist from Spain (apart from me of course) 

Ola amigos …. Do you speak English? 

Our group consisted of 4 from Chile, 1 from Peru, 1 from Spain and me from Malaysia. I almost decided to be a lonely soul but thankfully a few spoke English and after a few days into the tour I even surprise them by some in-depth Spanish vocabulary such as “Chika Rico” 

Uyuni is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in all my travels so far. The landscape is by far the harshest yet beauty as always thrived when no human is involved.

The Salt Flats In one word …. Unbelievable. I have seen pictures of these on facebook on one of those post where it says “top 10 something to visit before you die or something”. 

I thought it was pure nonsense for sometimes amazing photo shoots just wreck in actual sight but if the photos was unbelievable, being there itself was 10 times more unfuckingbelievable.

Salar de Uyuni 

Salar De Uyuni

What we saw of the sky meet the ground making it look like one is walking in the clouds was not just one direction but all 360 all around and even knowing it was a reflection you could not see the actual ground 3 feet from where you stand without concentrating hard. 

You have to be lucky thou for if there was no rain for a week there was no water and with no water means no unfuckingbelievable sights.

Go crazy, take photos after photos but eventually you just stand there and look on forever … well till the pain in the bare feet kicks you back in reality for the salt lakes was actually just that … salt lakes. Walking barefoot on salt was painful after a while. 

Train Cemetery

It’s amusing how anything can be a tourist attraction given enough idea and concept. Just outside of Uyuni town is a place where trains go to die. 

Unwanted old junk from long time ago was left there to rust and fall apart with grace. Now it is a major stop for all those on the 3 days tour to have a look at this beautiful timepiece made accidentally and could never be removed for the more desolated and eerie it feels the better for tourist business.

Train Cemetery - Uyuni 

National Park of Uyuni 

 

Large parts of the 3 days tours is looking out the window. The driver packed three big containers of petrol on our rooftop and we were on a drive every day from sun up to sun down looking at scenery of the desolated desert. 

From time to time the driver would pull up at scenic spots for photos to be taken or just a minute to absorb the beautiful landscape.

National Park of Uyuni

No roads although the GPS on my phone said we were on a road, it was more of dirt road paved by many tourist 4WD frequent tyres. 

This was a desert landscape with the snow caped Andes Mountain on the backdrop and lakes that form up from places to places. 

Naturally with such desolated landscape most of the view point stops were near lakes which vary from clear blue colour to aquamarine and orange slush. 

The guide explained that the colour of the lakes were due to the microorganism living in it that cause a chemical reaction.

Orange Lake at National Park 

 

Eventually on the 2nd day we reached the Andean Wildlife Reserved Eduardo Avaroa. Here we saw thousands of cute pink flamingo. 

If you ever see a flamingo, you will need to see a pack of flamingo fly. It just brings out the kid in me for it look exactly like what Walt Disney portray in classic cartoons. Unfortunately these are one of those see with your own eyes and leave the camera in the pocket event.

Geysers & Hot Spring

Last day of the trip was Geyser visiting and Hot Spring dipping. 4 am early in the morning we were woken up in the cold and grit our teeth to visit the geyser. 

No spurting columns of water like Indiana Jones but more of spurting columns of gasses. The whole area was steaming off vapour mixed with sulphuric smell which was not that pleasant. I personally felt the cold morning was not worth this blasphemy smell but then there was the boiling molten mud on the ground.

Blub blub … that is one hot melted and cooked earth soup shit was what all I could think of. Then it was hot springs. It was so cold in the morning, so so cold. 

Fuck it …. and the guys proceeded to strip down as fast as possible and ease into the pool. The first burn balls in the freezing cold morning was way better than any breakfast I have ever had. 

Now if only someone could get me food and wine and let me stay here forever so I don’t have to get out into the cold.

Bubbling Earth Mud 

 

Death Road Biking & La Paz

La Paz, Bolivia. I wonder how many people loved the city for its amazing weirdness and just how much more left without even spending 24 hours there due to its dirtiness. 

My first feel of La Paz when the bus came round the corner at the very top edge of the city was that the city sat on a huge bowl and that Bolivia is crazy. Why would someone build a city in this manner with a steep 45 degrees uphill 360 all around from its centre?

The sight from above was magnificent I must say with all the tattered house build with good solid red bricks but no money to plaster it or put any kind of good finishing on the outer surface.

In the focal point of the bowl tall buildings could be seen jutting out to reach the skies yet nowhere close to the height the houses on the outer edge of the bowl.

La Paz - Bolivia 

Getting off the bus and the noise, dirt and grime came into presence. I love a good rustic city, horns a blazing, rumbles of cranky old cars and the smell of good hard 3rd world industrial pollution. The latter I could do without. 

I immediately realized at 4000m above sea level, fumes and dust flying around and a city that forces you to walk uphill eventually, La Paz was a challenging city to live in. 

I considered if one has a car he/she could live in this crazy city with the bloody steep terrain but looking at the horrendous traffic and the level of sanity one must abstain from having during driving it was actually faster and safer to walk.

La Paz thou beautiful from afar it is very ugly up close. I actually liked this city …. but will never live here for a smoker lifespan if already short would be shorter in La Paz. 

Death Road Biking

I was shopping around a lot for a mountainbike tour down the infamous Death Road of Bolivia and ended up paying the standard 450 Bol for the tour. 

Good bikes with front and back suspension. I was a bit worried at first for the safety and if I would get through this unharmed since I had no insurance, but then again I was in Bolivia ….. 

These people look at danger and yawn at it. The morning pick up and round around the crazy city of La Paz picking up the rest of the bikers. We finally started getting out of the city and up into the mountains.

Starting Point - Warming up

Is that snow ??? Shit it was so high up for the first leg of the biking that the mountain was covered in snow. Stepping out of the van I started shivering immediately. 

The first part was on the tarmac road which was fine and easy going if you could ignore the cold.

Riding Down the Mountain in La Paz - Bolivia

 

Start riding and all safety mind-set went out the window. I was riding No Hands style most of the time and downhill all the way meaning I just had to relax and follow the winding road. Pretty nice actually thou bloody cold.

Finally starting point of the actual Death Road. Dirt road so narrow without any guardrail and a valley that falls perpetually 80 degrees all the way to the bottom and it was a long way down as well. 

Looking at the van that was going to follow us bikers behind I had no doubt the real death road rider was the driver of the van. Riding a bicycle is easy when you have road barely wide enough to fit a van.

Bicycle via the Death Road of La Paz 

 

Started slowly like everyone else and eventually most of us got crazy going as fast as we could. I even tried No Hands on dirt road and it worked. 

Always skidding in the corners it was exhilarating as hell and then there was the waterfalls that we had to ride through, 1 feet deep rivers to balance through, narrower roads that one could possibly imagine and more drops. 

All this while the van followed us behind us, tyres inches away from the edge of the cliff. If you fall and injure your ankle, wrist, knee or whatsoever during the ride, I would think it was safer to cycle downhill with the pain then to sit in that van.

End of the road and a few shacks & huts were there to greet us with cold beer. It was the best downhill bicycle I had ever done …. Was glad I spend the money …

Death Road - Bolivia 

Isla del Sur – Copacabana, Bolivia

Copacabana is a quiet town, the main street is lined up especially for tourist and they would love to sell you a tour and a ticket out of Copacabana. I join the line of suckers I guess and went for the day trip to Isla del sur before getting a ticket out to La Paz.

Main Tourist Street of Copacabana 

Although Copacabana is a very small town there were still a few things to see and I manage to burn a good 2 hours just walking around. 

First off, is the main street which is full of restaurant, souvenirs, tours agency, bus agency, a cathedral that looked like a mosque and one walking trail up a steep mountain for a viewpoint. 

There was also banks with atm or just atm and they work nicely with international cards so I was now relief of worry of being stranded in Bolivia with no access to money.

Cathedral at Copacabana - Bolivia 

At the main square at the first glimpse of the cathedral I thought I saw a mosque. Upon closer inspection it was indeed a cathedral. Upon closer inspection I saw the cross above the dome shaped building and wonder for a moment if it was a converted building. :)

The beach (if you could call it that since this was a lake ) was worth checking out with a large crowd of people during Sunday just out for a picnic or just plain lazing about taking a duck boat out to waters or a kayak. 

Highest Navigable lake in the world and for a moment you might just think you are down at the seaside at the beach. Waters were azure blue being so high up near the sky and the sun burn you quickly without you even realizing due to the chill wind of high altitude.

Lake Titicaca - Copacabana Bolivia 

Isla Del Sur -Island of the Sun - Inca

The thing is, Bolivia is so cheap that people (Tourist) dun care if you get ripped off. That’s what I felt but is still got annoyed because it’s about the principle not the money sometime. Don’t get me wrong thou for I liked Isla del Sur for its serenity and the people’s tranquil lifestyle, while I just hate being herded as a tourist.

I got sold a day tour to Isla del Sur for 30 Boliviano which was equivalent to a night stay in a hostel, where they lady said there will be a guide that speaks English and to my dismay the guide barely speak two words of English. 

All explanation was done in Spanish but to my surprise I think I could just barely make out the jest content of what the guide was explaining in Spanish. 

I guess my vocabulary is really expending after so many tours in Spanish or my illusion is entertaining myself. The lady also said there would be a stop at Yumani for some picture taking or sightseeing. 

The boat never stop …. Head back straight to Copacabana from mid island so all I saw was the north and the central of Isla del Sur and never the south. 

Got cheated for a tour but not a lousy tour really for it was a pretty interesting for even the north and central part but just the principle of anticipating the things that never happen makes a small part sour. 

For 30 Bol … about SGD 6 I guess I could live with it.

Isla del Sur is the largest Island on Lake Titicaca. The island is full of Inca ruins and the tour dropped us off at the furthest north section of the island where a local old ranger guide was waiting. 

He gave a great explanation of the history, culture, believes and how the people of Inca lived in the island and of the religious significant of Isla del Sur. For finer details thou I would have to google it since my Spanish was yet to be that great.

Medicine Well at Isla Del Sur 

One of the interesting part of the explanation was about the medicine hall where he showed us a well not less than half a meter deep from the ground which was on a hill. Scared water as a far as I understood and everyone got a taste and a blessing from it. 

The well was interesting to me for it was high up on a hill with no water source, or catchment in sight and of course surrounded by a lake. I had to wonder how the ground water reached that high. 

Once the first northern part explanation was done the guide bid us farewell after extracting tips from us and we set out on a hike along the old Inca trail to the central portion of the Island. 2 hours of slow hiking gradually uphill reveal a beautiful landscape with deep blue waters from Lake Titicaca as a backdrop.

I could see why people choose to live on the desolated island. It was serene.

Isla Del Sur - Lake Titicaca 

Border Crossing – Puno to Copacabana (Peru to Bolivia) with a Malaysian Passport

One of the most nerve wrecking time during travels is always crossing borders from one country to another especially when it’s through a tiny border town. 

Information is always scare for border crossing town somehow and even when there is, its bare minimum enough that you have to think twice if the information is reliable. Everyone crosses the border differently (due to different passport) and crossing like a local is always the aim.

Some errands needed to be run for entry to Bolivia as a Visa is required for a Malaysian visiting Bolivia even as a tourist. No Bolivia embassy in Malaysia so even if one wanted to he could not obtain a Bolivian Visa in Malaysia. 

Fortunately thou traveling around South America there are plenty of Bolivia Embassy in neighboring country. I got my visa in Cusco, Peru where the embassy was situated in town a short taxi ride away for 5 Sol. 

The very first thing I did when I was in Cusco in fact for I wanted to know if I could get in to Bolivia else the whole journey, route would need to be reconsidered. Arriving at the Embassy the following was pasted on the wall

Bolivia Visa Application Requirement in Cusco 

Minimum Requirement needed for a Bolivian Visa if your Country is listed under Category 2 (Malaysia Is Fortunately)

1. Passport Photocopy
2. Yellow Fewer Vaccination Photocopy
3. One Passport Photo
4. Itinerary Copy (Flight Ticket out of South America)
5. 1st Night Accommodation Booking in Bolivia

So back to the city to get the necessary stuff prepared. Plenty of shops in Cusco offer photocopying, Internet and Printing, Passport Photograph and I could understand now why for many tourist use Cusco as a gateway to Bolivia and all of them needed the same things. 

Itinerary copy was a tricky one for a hand drawn copy of where you are going was not going to work but if you don’t have a flight ticket it’s just ridicules to get one. 

However there are many ways to fake a flight ticket booking. I had my round the world ticket which was essentially just a plain printout of the flights and times with nothing that makes it look like an official ticket. It looked so much like I just typed it out of MS Word but I used it anyway.

1st night booking was about USD 1 on hostel world, a deposit I was prepared to burn and that’s was enough for the Visa application Heading back to the Embassy the following day with the five items above the officer did not even glance though the documents. 

He just counted them, one, two, three, four, five … ok. He passed me a form to filled up which we filled and for question such as route through Bolivia I just write a few city in it. Passport was handed to them and they took it upstairs for a while and returned later with a 30 days Visa stamped into the passport.

Easy peasy, no payment required, no bribe required. It looked more like a documentation process than a visa application process. 

The officer was pretty strict to have that 5 items which I notice some people trying to negotiate a leeway but he held firm. Once you have that 5 items thou regardless if it’s real or not you get the visa no questions asked.

Bolivia Entry Form 

Crossing from Puno to Copacabana 

The trip from Puno to Copacabana was easier than I thought. Bought a bus ticket for 25 Sols which takes you across the border pretty slowly since it’s a whole bus load of people and they have to wait to clear immigration. 

The bus company was Huayrar Tours which has a nice person on board to help you with the immigration crossing and she spoke English as well as Spanish.

After dumping all the bags into cargo, with no tickets issued whatsoever we boarded the bus and it was a 2 hours bus ride to the border. 

Along the way the bus attendant gave us the forms to be filled up and help us along when in doubt such as the front page of the form had English translation but the back side had only Spanish. 

Weird but she said just leave it blank since it was not important. I gave my best shot at reading it and understood it was questions with a yes or no answer like, “ are you a terrorist” , “have you ever been rejected from a country” etc. 

Money Changer at Peru Border 

After most of the passengers had settled down filling their form and falling asleep she came to me and said for Asian people there will be an additional form to fill up for Bolivia crossing and it will cost 2 Sols. 

If it was a scam to get more money out of me I was not bothered since it was only 2 sols. I paid her and fall asleep only to wake up at the border. 

Peru side of the border and there are many money changers around to get rid of unwanted Peruvian Dollars. Exchange rate was fair (2.1) close enough to the internet rate that I checked the day before but nowhere as good at the rate I got in Puno (2.5). 

I got rid of the last few notes 14.10 Sols in total and got into the line for the immigration building. There is no real checkpoint that you must clear before going into Bolivia. If you wanted you could just stroll along the road all the way into Bolivia and no one will stop you. 

Immigration was more of a self-obligation thing if you don’t want to get into trouble in future. Queueing up for the exit stamp of Peru the bus attendant came to me and pass me two more forms to be filled up for Bolivia. 

Seems like she was honest about the additional forms for I saw her only dishing it out to Asian people. 2 Sols was more of the photocopy cost of the form.

Peru side of Immigration 

Ola … bye bye Peru …. And he stamp out my passport after a long wait verifying through online that I was legal tourist in Peru and had not overstayed. Walk across the border all this time with only my day pack bag with me. 

The bus had already gone over to the Bolivia side with all the cargo inside the checked compartment. As far as I know there is no screening at all done. 

No customs … just immigration so you can take whatever you wanted from Peru to Bolivia and vice versa. I also took a mental note that if you left something in cargo and got stuck in immigration there is no way to get your bag out at all so luckily anything important was packed on hand carry. 

Some people I notice even left the day packs in the bus ….. but like I thought if you needed it … its probably gone or stolen while you are queuing in immigration

Walking over to Bolivia 

Hello Bolivia ….. Where is the immigration office …. Look closely at all the signs and one gave an arrow to a small building on the left hand side. 

Now if you wanted just board back the bus or walk on ahead into Bolivia. No one is going to stop you really. Like I said immigration is a self-obligation thing. 

Going into the small building the officers looked at my passport with a frown. He asked the person in the next counter ….

Malaysia ??? 

This is going like the border crossing in Peru I thought.
After many chit chatting in Spanish they establish that Malaysia is under the second category of visa requirement.

Bolivia Immigration Building at Copacabana 

Officer :     You Need Visa

Me :     I have Visa. That’s the page you are looking at, the Bolivia visa I got in Cusco in your consulate

He look at it dumbfounded ….. I figured he either don’t recognized his own country visa stamp or he was just trying to be funny and charge me money for not having visa at the border. 

After much scrutinizing gaze at my Bolivian visa he finally started processing it, scanning the passport, keying in some data into computer and STAMP ….. 

Passed back my passport without a glance or a word of welcome ….

Hello Bolivia …. no payments needed and no bribes thankfully Back onto the bus and towards Copacabana