Bolivia: Santa Cruz

Not the small town feels seeing that Santa Cruz is the capital of its department and hits close to the million mark population wise. But it was only a stopover to get our plane ticket to Puerto Suarez and cross into Brazil to do the Pantanal.

We decided to head to the zoo and see some of the local birds and animals of the region. A simple journey at first that upon return turned into a 2 hour missed-stop bus journey deep into the local neighborhoods, maybe 15km south of the city.

Leaving first thing in the morning and arriving in the same morning was a novel concept. What a weird feeling to actually be on a plane. Modern, swift travel after many bumpy, uncomfortable miles under our bums!!! A short hour later and we bounced twice on the tarmac before quickly disembarking in Pto. Suarez.

A bit of panic set in.....Rachel could not find her passport. We tore apart our money belts and inside our day packs...nothing. Another search and she found it. She had missed her zipper and it luckily had gotten stuck against the front of her jeans. Thankfully not falling out on either tarmac or inside the plane that was slowly on taxi to Sao Paolo.

Next problem....the lady at immigration in Santa Cruz had taken our entry papers to Bolivia that you need to surrender upon leaving. The two immigration guys did not buy our story (even though it was the truth. but then again they probably get it all the time from idiot travelers who lose their papers en route). That plane was continuing on to Sao Paolo, Brazil, hence the reason she must have forgotten to give us our papers back. A bit panicked and trying to tell them our story, we ended up paying a few Bolivians more for an exit stamp and we were on our way. Thankfully.

A guy from the Pantanal agency (Green Track) we ended up going with spoke English and helped us catch a taxi to the Brazilian/Bolivian border and gave us a lift to their pousada. We got to steamy Corumba on the Brazilian side to find that once again we were in a town having a founding celebration, hence everything was closed up. So we grabbed a few beers, caught a nap, grabbed the best pizza in town with the locals, walked around the street party and crashed. Our Pantanal tour was leaving first thing in the morning.