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→To/From Argentina: adding my crossing experience.
WARNING: avoid Copacabana at all costs during any public holiday, especially if you're dependent on hostels and can't go camping. All of La Paz flocks to the lake on (long) weekends especially around Christmas and NYE. There's about 50 "hostales" and they manage to get all of them full. Even fast food takes an hour during holidays.
From the occasionally extortionately priced town of Copacabana (which is actually the "original" Copacabana if you have a Trivia night) you have to get to the border town of Kasani 12 km south, which passes the Copacabana airport. You can hitch there or say fuck it and take the 3 Boliviano micro (which is 2 for locals/non gringos). The Migración office is on your right hand now and you have to have your passport and green paper (sucks if you lost it, I don't know the consequences of this but it probably involves a bribe) ready for the angry men. Should take one minute to check out of Bolivia if you manage to answer questions correctly and not piss off anyone in the process. Hurrah! Now you have to walk 300 meters past the church the Perú statue and you'll find the Peruvian office on your right hand too. Again, you'll have to fill in a form that you have to carry with you during your entire stay like upon entering Bolivia. These guys were friendly, which probably has something to do with the fact that they have a nicer building to perform their job in. The first town on the Peruvian side is named Yunguyo and you're about 2 km away from it. You can get a 2 Soles micro there or walk to the end of it to get to hitch to Puno, which is really easy though it's still 120 km away! As experienced by [[User:MOAH|MOAH]], hitchhiking in Perú is a fucking breeze compared to Bolivia.
* Puno – Desaguadero – La Paz
The region in this area both in Peru and Bolivia is called the Alto Plano,
It basically means that it is very high and more or less flat.
We are talking about more than 4000 meters high, so basically there isn’t so much oxygen
Which can lead to a constant headache, and doing simple tasks can feel tiring.
After awhile you get use to it but it’s important to mention.
It is also relatively very cold all year long, and in the rainy season you can find your tent sitting all of a sudden in a paddle. So be careful not to camp in flat areas that rain drains to.
Hitchhiking by it self is not so hard, but it’s also not super good.
You’ll need to cross two big cities, Puno and La Paz, which is always not so easy for hitchhikers.
Some parts of the road don’t have much movement especially on Sunday’s and especially close to the border. In overall it is not super easy but certainly doable.
The crossing in Desaguadero is not too difficult.
There are few bridges that cross the river, some of them are closed for civilians.
The most northern one is the normal crossing.
If you go by the river people with small boats will offer you to take you the other side for a small payment. Don’t do it if you wish to stay legal.
The immigration office is close to the crossing of the bridge in both sides.
You’ll have to enter the buildings and wait in a line sometimes.
For SonOfaHitch it went really smooth. Few questions like how long you are going to stay,
Do you have Covid Vaccination which they barely checked. And that’s it
No luggage check or anything in both sides.
=== To/From [[Chile]] ===
*Villazon - La Quiaca
You can reach Villazon from Uyuni or Potosí by the road. The border crossing is right between the two cities, near the bridge that crosses the river. While leaving Bolivia you will be asked the paper they gave you entering the country. Entering Argentina a police officer may open your backpack and ask a few questions. You are allowed to enter Jujuy the northerner state of Argentina with 500g of coca leaves. They are legal in the two states of Jujuy and Salta in Argentina. Villazon is quite a big city you'll find anything in the market there. The city of La Quiaca is much smaller and you can cross it walking, leaving towards the south with the road nine that crosses the country till [[Buenos Aires]].
*Yacuiba - Salvador Mazza
Hitchhiking from Bolivia to Yacuiba to the border is kind of easy. On the Argentinian side it is a little bit emptier and harder.
Yacuiba is quite large, So if you don't wish to walk a lot you can take a bus that gets close to the border.
The Bolivian Side might ask for Covid papers and so on. They might make some problems. Keep calm, know your rights and you’ll probably cross very fast to the other side.
On the Argentinian side they scan your bag, and you don't get a stamp because it is online this days.
They might ask you if you have hotel reservations. after few Kilometers into Argentina there is a Police roadblock.
===To/From [[Brazil]]===
* Cobija – Brasileia
Hitchhiking in Bolivia to the border is quite easy. Just be careful from muddy roads.
If it gets rainy many vehicles will struggle to cross the way.
Hitchhiking in Brazil to the border is a bit more difficult but possible.
If you came from Peru hitchhiking usually takes a very short time.
But if you coming from other places it can be a bit more challenging,
but certainly possible.
The crossing between this two cities is very easy.
They are separated by a river that have many bridge crossings.
You will almost never be asked anything when you cross.
You can go from Brazil to Bolivia with barely anybody talking to you.
As the rumors say, You can spend the day in the other side for the day,
But at the evening legally you should go back to the side where you are stamped.
Usually nobody will check either way.
If you wish to cross the border and get stamped you should search for the Immigration on both side.
There are set in Brazil at -11.029337,-68.740088 (Google Maps) and in Bolivia at -11.026769,-68.752186 (Google Maps).
It’s important to get stamped also in the country that you are leaving in order to avoid fines in case you ever come back. Theoretically if you leave a country without getting stamped they consider it like you never left. And when you wish to enter again the country in the future they will charge you for any other day pass your visa time until the date you re-entered.
The fine in Bolivia for example is 28 Bolivianos (about 4 US Dollars 2022) a day of over staying.
If you came back to the country before your visa expired you shouldn’t have any problem.
* Guaraja-mirim – Guayaramerin
Hitchhiking in Bolivia to the border is quite easy. Just be careful from muddy roads.
If it gets rainy many vehicles will struggle to cross the way.
Hitchhiking in Brazil to the border is a bit more difficult but possible.
You can freely cross between the two cities, Guaraja mirim and Guayaramerin.
The crossing costs 13 Brazilian reals or 20 Bolivian Bolivianos (true for July 2022).
It takes only few short minutes to cross when the boat leaves.
People say that there is some boats on the river that will charge even less.
If you wish to continue your travels legally beyond the city in the other country you crossed to you should get your passport stamped.
For exiting Brazil you should go to the immigration office which is located not so close to the port, In "Justiça Federal Subsecção De Guajará Mirim" (-10.783061,-65.317563 Google maps).
They are open from 8:00 -18:00 but not every day.
I came on a sunday and had to wait for another day. I'm not sure if it's every sunday or that I just had bad luck.
The proccess over there was quite easy.
No papers or documents were asked beside my passport.
In about 15 minutes got my exit stamp and continued.
For entering Brazil I'm assuming you'll have to go the same place, but maybe good you ask the people in the Brazilian port. The taxi drivers usually know.
In Bolivia the immigration office is just where the boat drops you.
They ask for photo copies of your passport and the stamp of leaving Brazil.
They also want your covid vaccination passport two dosages or a negative Covid test from the last days in paper (on your phone does not count).
You need just one of the two. (Again true for July 2022)
There is a photo copy in the coffee place next by. It costs 1 Boliviano per page. But they don't have a printer, in case you want to print some documents from your phone.
I paid a motor taxi to take me to a place with a printer.
Passed them the Covid passport with Bluetooth and came back.
Cost me 11 Bolivianos in total, 10 for the taxi 1 for the paper.
Later they asked me for my phone and where do i go.
Told "La Paz" and my number and got 30 days visa which i can extend in other migration offices when time comes.
== Cities ==
''After a tough few days hitchhiking around Cusco and Puno I got robbed by the border police on the Bolivian side of the border. They took my bag for a quick search found 20 dollars among the dirty clothes and tarp (pretty much all I had valuable was the 20 dollars) and pocketed it. Unimpressed I walked on along the dirt road and caught a lift soon enough with a local guy to La Paz. Be careful with the food and water in Bolivia, I spent a day or two sick on the toilet after taking some tap water (unintentionally, I think it was the lemonade at a restaurant), I opted to get a bus for very cheap to Tarija then since I was a bit weak for hitchhiking. After the day on the bus though I felt better and hit the road for a bit around Tarija and found it doable to get lifts, truck drivers being the best as there is little traffic and many unmarked taxi cars, and then hitchhiked on to Argentina. I would consider my attempt to hitchhike across Bolivia failed if I'm honest mainly because I wasn't careful enough with the police and the food, people are nice there though.'' -
[[User:HoboSpirit|HoboSpirit]]
“I traveled Bolivia from July to August 2022.
In general it was a good experience but also kind of weird.
I actually didn’t officially hitchhike for the whole route I’ve done from Guayamerin to Desaguadero Peru. But I also didn’t pay anything.
While I was in the north of the country I started walking towards my destination.
And a police stopped me and said “hey, don’t walk! Where are you going? I’ll get you a ride”
like that I just continued my travel. And almost always somebody shortly stopped me and offered me a ride or at least offered me to find me one. I went with truck drivers, motorcycles, a traveling circus, a free ride on the bus, and on the back of tiny 3 wheeled kind of bike.
Many locals were really kind to me, but on the same time there was also a bit of a weird energy.
For example I got many requests to stay and spend more time with people I met.
But quite often they will offer me to put my tent in sketchy places and didn’t offer me to put it in their place or invite me in.
In the whole time I stayed I got invited to one house which is relatively a little for me.
I also got a lot of guys asking me for sex. (I’m a guy).
People shouting at me hippie and asking if I’m selling bracelets.
Set one night at jail because the policeman thought I was a rapist because I have beard and a pony tail.
Many people random people on the street asking me to play music.
And bunch of bunch and kids that wanted to know whats my story when I spending time at the different main squares.
And many many many amazing wild animals crossing my path.
I don’t know if it was just my luck, or was it Bolivia.
Anyway I recommend you to try for yourself”
-[[User:SonOfaHitch|SonOfaHitch]]
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