So Long Bolivia



Well I am finally out of Bolivia and in a real country again (Argentina), although it was touch and go.  Randy wanted to accompany me to the border to help me out with the no transit papers for el moto.  We left on Sunday and got as far as Villa Montes (160 km) when we came to a long line of trucks stopped beside the road. 

Investigating, we found that Villa Montes was having an election so naturally all passage through town was blocked.  Of course! What were we thinking! An election!  Nothing moves until 6 PM and I won't ride after dark, so it was find a hotel for me and Randy headed home to nurse an uncoming fever. 

Villa Montes was actually a pretty town, they had this really great church building or maybe a monastery that looks kinda art nouveau-ish to me.

When I got back to mi hotel I found that I had a toilet frog.  It looks like a tree frog but lives in the toilet.  You should see it shoot around when you flush.  Fortunately el frog is a strong swimmer, last time I saw him he was under the sink.

The border was fun, first they sent me from piller to post, back to piller, and finally to post.  This border has Bolivia and Argentina in the same building so they can tag team.  When they found out I had no papella for the moto they wanted to send me back to La Paz where I could straighten everything out and come back, (La Paz is only a few miles from the Peru border where I entered nearly a month ago), but with the help of a kind lady translator I managed to persuade Bolivia to issue me the transit document 23 days late, without which Argentina was not going to let me in.

I went to Argentina instead of Paraguay because it is time to visit a KTM dealer, and there are none in Paraguay. 

I saw these all over the fields.  Wikipedia tells me they are Rheas.  From a distance they look as big as an ostrich but behave like an Alberta mule deer, foraging in fields, travelling in groups, in sight of the highway, but not very close and very alert.  So far I have seen very little wildlife other than birds, and I suppose these are birds too, but they can't fly.

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