Back from Bolivia

We arrived back in Chicago from Bolivia yesterday. We had no problems leaving the country. Javi and I had overstayed our 30 day period by a few days, but we were not asked to pay a multa. We explained we were visiting family and the official nodded and stamped us out. [...]

Masks, Public Health Tents, and Sweeping Closures

That is what swine flu in Bolivia looks like (here called Influenza A). About 100 cases have been reported here, mainly in Santa Cruz. There is a full-blown panic here that to a certain extent overlaps what occurred in the U.S. yet with local particularities and concerns. Overall, it appears that the [...]

Bolivian officials = helpful, polite, efficient. AA reps = FAIL

That’s right. The title is not a typo. Getting through customs in Bolivia was (relatively speaking) a breeze. Dealing with American Airlines was awful.
Our itinerary had us flying out of Chicago at 7 PM, landing in Miami at 11, overnighting in Miami, and taking the afternoon direct flight to Santa [...]

Visa update (in progress)

Many visitors to this site wonder about the visa requirements for entering and exiting Bolivia these days. My brother-in-law recently visited Bolivia with a non-Bolivian friend. He told us that no one batted an eye at his American passport and he was not expected to pay the visa fee (though his passport clearly [...]

Dia de los inocentes gringos (Happy April Fools!)

Jim Shultz at the Democracy Center has treated us to another April Fool’s gag, claiming to have uncovered a U.S. government conspiracy to impose daylight savings time on Bolivia.  Among the invented protests against gringo temporal imperialism was this gem:
Labor leader Ronaldo Quispe declared that the move by the U.S. was an outrageous intrusion against [...]