From Paraguay to Bolivia



 The luxurious bus by Stel Turismo was brand new with free WiFi (starlink), personal movie player, unlimited cold water, light snacks, very comfortable and clean, and super-helpful staff. They not only filed for me my custom declaration form electronically, and pursued the Paraguay immigration officer to stamp on both of my USA and TAiwanese passports, so I can enter into Bolivia with the Bolivian visa on my TW passport while my Paraguay entry stamp on my USA passport. When just passing the border around 6 am, they wanted to send me back to Paraguay due to the discrepancy, and I was ready to execute the plan B by getting a visa on arrival on my USA passport for $160; fortunately, I asked our bus driver any  other way around for me to pay money to get it resolved, and they came out that 2-exit-stamp solution. The pre-applied visa on my Taiwanese passport costed me $50 and two trips into Washington DC, but provided me peace of mind and less hassle at border. 







We drove via the Chaco region of Paraguay last night in the dark. My online reading said it was a piece of dry and nothing land. This morning we are driving via Bolivia green roads with some mountains in the view. The lunch served on board was fried pork and rice. I am officially visiting my 100th country today!














Santa Cruz (or Santa Cruz de la Sierra) is the most populous city and heart of the second most populous metropolitan area in Bolivia. I walked around the bus terminal and finally found the black market exchange for 1:12.2 instead of the official rate 1:6.9 inside the terminal. I tried to get a 30-day SIM from an old man who unfortunately didn’t know how to activate my iPhone, so I settled with a 7-day unlimited SIM for 30b. I then overpaid for a taxi to the hostel only 2.5 km away, but I was simply too tired to haggle (as I was supposed to do in Bolivia). The hostel has ACed room, large public area, free breakfast, and deck with gym equipments.

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