long journey to brazil

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delayed entry again so here goes.....

got the bus from copacabana to la paz to finally get my bank card from the embassay!!!we celebrated with a subway which tasted nearly as good as home!!!!

Then we got the most upgraded bus in boliva and paid 150 bolivanos about 15 pounds to go from la paz to santa cruz. Good bus, even although it was 3 hours late and obviously no reason just when we think yes we are nearly there we ask and the driver is like 3 more hours, aaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Then we get to Santa Cruz to get the death train (not scary just used to take ages and be dodgy) to the border into Brazil. This is the most chugguest train ever, never stops chugging and making loads noise and is really really shaky and u keep thinking it has got stuck and i think cause it moved around so much I slept really well being rocked to sleep!! Beautiful scenery threw swampy grounds and in the morning when the train would just stop in themiddle of no where lots of children would run on selling oranges or snacks and juice before the train would start the chugging along again. Of course the train was delayed by 5 hours and no explanation and no one seemed at all bothered and I guess we are now becoming bolivianised as we dont even bat an eyelid either!!!!!

When we get off the train we get the bus to the border corssing to find it is shut for lunch and we can not leave boliva without the exit stamp on our passports. So when it finally opens we join the queue and the bolivan officals completely skank us and say that we cant leave the country unless we pay an extra 15 bolivanos, now when we bought the ticket we checked that we would not have to pay this as it says in the guide book that they will try and rip u off and make u pay. Its a bribe, pay up or we wont let u leave the country. We argue and argue and argue and then we realise that they are skanking us, but 15 bolivanos is actually one pound and so it is worth arguing with the scary border crossing people for hours, no!!! our brazilian mate is like u should not have paid, they are taking u for a ride, but we demand a receipt for our payment which is in the form of a sticker in our passport and me and nikki, both decide that as far as we know it is the first time we have been bullied into paying something we dont have to by passport officials and for one pound its a cool wee story of being bribed in order to leave a country!!!

We rush off to the brazilian border crossing officals on the other side which is a 10 minute drive only to find out that they are not working as everyone in brazil is watching the game!!!!! So we are stuck in a town waiting for an entry stamp into brazil, crazy!!!! We rush to a hotel, dump or stuff ], grab a quick shower and head out to watch the game. everywhere is shut, every single person is watching this game (brazil via Japan) and they are in tents beside the sea and their is big screens, only skol lager to drink and loads of people all wearing brazil stuff. When brazil win the samba bands start up and everyone starts dancing partying, letting off fireworks and going absolutely mad!!!

The next day we get our passports stamped and we can continue on to our next stop which is Bonita. Feels like we are in Boliva again as the road here is bumpy for like two hours, two hours off being bumped up down and around is rubbish! In Bonita we do a tour where we do some great snorkelling, amazing visability and we float down the river for about an hour or so. Lots of fun.

Then from here we make the journey to campo grande where we stop overnight before catching the bus to Rio De geniaro to catch the game against ghana!!

Of course the bus is delayed by 3 hours ha ha ha ha!!! And me and nikki are the only gringos on the bus and no one on the bus can speak english and so as usual we have no idea what is happening, at one point the bus driver had to nearly drag me off the bus the passengers were trying to tell me to get off as the police wanted to see our passports!!! Which we thought was so funny as we were so sure that three of of the passengers were totally drug dealers and they all split up around the bus when the police stopped the bus!!! obviously our passports are in order and so off we went!!

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