Out of Bolivia and Into Uncertainty

It´s a little after three in the afternoon of Friday, 31 August in Sucre, Bolivia. In less than two hours I am scheduled to be on my way to Santa Cruz en route to Paraguay.

Santa Cruz is an overnight journey. I had a choice between a bus with a toilet and lots of semi-cama seats, which means crushed legs, and a bus with no toilet but fewer fully-reclinable seats, which means a crushed bladder. I´ve opted for the extra leg room. Wish me luck. Why a 14-hour route doesn´t warrant full cama buses with a toilet beats me. There are three stops along the way.

If that bus is on time (ha ha) I should have 23 hours to select a bus into Paraguay, find somewhere to get some decent rest, get a Bolivian exit stamp, sell my excess Bolivian currency and purchase some Paraguayan guarani. Then the fun starts.

UK citizens do not need a visa for Paraguay, just a valid passport. I have this. However, I am in Bolivia on my NZ passport and cross-border formalities include demonstrating that you left the last country properly. Switching passports, which I have often done travelling in developed countries, may put the official mind into an infinite loop. However, I have been promised that Paraguayans are very nice people and I have been coached in a few guarani phrases, which goes down very well, I am told.

Assuming I am duly admitted into Paraguay, my destination is Filadelfia. Pronounce this in the same way as the US city spelled with PHs. Filadelfia is the centre of a Mennonite community and, despite its size, warrants only two paragraphs in my guide book. There is no mention of Internet access or even a bank. Mennonites prefer to barter. A lot of these Mennonites prefer to speak German! At least there is a hotel.

What I want to do is do some birding in the Chaco. What I will do depends on what I find in Filadelfia and nearby Loma Plata. If I do manage to get to the national park I´m aiming at there will definitely be no Internet and probably no permanent buildings.

So there may be no posts and no emails for a while. If you don´t hear from me for two weeks, sniff under the door ;-)