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Published: February 8th 2006
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Bingo at the baggage carriage The journey from La Paz to Brazil was taken on the Death Train, named such because of the fate of anyone who tried to ride the journey on the roof for free. The journey was 15 hours long starting at Santa Cruz at 5pm and arriving at Quijarro at 10am the following morning. At 4.55 the train was still quite empty which puzzled us as we had not been able to get seats together. At 4.57 there was suddenly a mad panic as the rest of the passengers boarded the train - now it was full. We asked a man if we could change seats which started a swap-shop as many other people in our carriage were not seated next to their amigos. The train was quite luxurious with cama seats, air conditioning and plenty of room, we even got to watch Narnia (albeit in Spanish). The journey took us into the Pantanal which is believed to have been a sea-covered area before the Andes raised their head. The area is now lots of green forest and swampland. Some of the electrical storms I saw on the way were amazing, I was thinking of waking Tas so she could she them
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Bolivian protest at the border but remembering her fear of lightning thought better of it. We arrived at Quijarro on the Bolivian/Brazilian boarder and it was a sweltering 35 degrees c and extremely humid. I was sweating in seconds, Tas being a lady had a light glow. To collect our bags we had to go to the cargo carriage of the train where the guards shouted out numbers which corresponded to the numbers on the ticket we had been given when we loaded our luggage. Imagine 5 carriage loads of people all crowding round a cargo door to collect their bags in 35 degree heat after a night on a train, this would be totally unacceptable in the UK but as we were still in Bolivia it was OK. Some people even shouted bingo as their numbers were called to lighten the situation. We collected our bags and took the short taxi ride from the station to the Bolivian border post.
We had been warned that we may be requested to pay for our exit stamps but as this was illegal we were advised to refuse. Sure enough we were told we had to pay 10 Bs to leave. I objected in my best
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Smuggled into Brazil Spanish telling the official I was English while pointing to the ´her majesty the Queen requests unhindered passage´section of my passport. The official mumbled then suddenly remember the rules and we were allowed through gratis. It was not the cost that bothered me (just over $1) it was the fact that as long as officials are corrupt their countries will never have international respect. I was pleased to get away without paying and did not relish the thought of being locked up and beaten by the border guards so I kept this thought to myself.
We walked the bridge over the river Paraguay and headed for the Brazilian border post but we were stopped in our tracks by a protest. The Bolivians had put up a blockade and were not allowing people to pass either way. The protest was because the Brazilians frequently stop the Bolivians taking their cars across the border and rightly so. Only one of the many taxis we got into looked remotely safe. The rest are mostly built as right-hand drive then converted to left. When I say converted I mean only the steering column is moved to the left the dash board along with
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Finally entering Corumba (The Aussies: Adam and Eve and Marco the Columbian) all its dials is still on the right, not that they ever work! The cars never have handbreaks and because they are so badly welded together the doors/bonnets/boots never close properly. This is not a problem in Bolivia as they have bigger fish to fry but in Brazil they produce cars and have safety standards and regulations.
I talked to a couple of the protesters who assured me the protest would be over by three o´clock so only 4.5 hours to wait in the blazing heat. We found what little shade we could under a tree which by now had already attracted quite a few people. There we met an Australian couple called Adam and Eve (no really!) They had a travelling games compendium with them so we had a game of snakes and ladders. The tree was quite a meeting place. We met a Brazilian guy called Breno who was touting for a travel company in Corumba and a Columbian guy called Marco. We all got chatting about our various reasons for needing to cross the border.
Tas and Eve played the hunter gatherers and went on the search for food and drink. They came back with fantastic news, there was a pub 200m away. We all spent the rest of the afternoon in the pub swapping stories - it was great. I was quite pleased the protest had brought us together. At three 0´clock I walked down to see the protestors still there, I was now told they would be letting people through ´later´, I returned to the pub with the news and Breno informed us we could avoid the protest by passing further down river. He had not informed us of this earlier as he did not want to break official lines. ´Solidarity brother´. He was happy to cross the line now as the protesters had lied about the finishing time of the demonstration. We all (6 of us plus driver) crammed into a taxi for the 3 minute journey down the road where we walked behind someones house, through some bush, then stepped over the stream. We were now smuggled into Brazil. 2 minutes later we were on a road with the Brazilian border behind us. By now the border post was shut so Breno organised us some transport into Corumba town via the border control at the bus station where we got our passports stamped. Hooray for Breno! It was at this point we said goodbye to Marco, we had presumed he was staying in Corumba for a few days but this was not the case. Before we had the chance to swap email addresses he was gone. I warmed to Marco a great deal in the short time he was with us. He was very proud of his country and did he best to persuade us to go, he was very gentle which made me find it hard to believe there is as much violence in Columbia as is recorded.
We arrived at the hostel and found there was only one air conditioned room left, we tossed the Aussies for it and won - whoop whoop. We got a good nights sleep.
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