mission completed

i got the freaking bolivian visa! (!!!)

thursday morning i set out to get one hundred US dollars and a couple of little visa-sized photos of myself. shouldn't be hard, right?

wrong. i went to seven ATMs, three banks, and two casas de cambios. i am not even joking. all the ATMs were either a) out of cash for the day; b) didnt accept credit cards or c) just didnt work. the three banks managers i talked to said, "come back tomorrow, maybe we will have US dollars then!" what is this, a second-world country?!?! oh wait, yeah, it is. ha.

on my third casa de cambio, i walked in and immediately saw a sign that said "no hay US dolares." my eyes practically filled up. i had twenty minutes to get to the stupid bolivian consulate with the money and there was no US cash, apparently, in the entire country of argentina.

and then the cambio manager walked up to me. he smiled and asked me what was wrong. i thought for a minute about how much i wanted to go to bolivia. ...and then, i turned to him, flipped my hair, and pouted. i sniffled out some bad spanish, explaining that i needed US money, the bolivian consulate was holding my passport as ransom, and i had no friends here. he tipped his head sympathetically and mumbled something about "maybe we have a little bit of US money somewhere..." next thing i know, i am skipping all the lines and at a cambio counter. a severe looking woman asks to see my passport. i look back to the cambio manager and shrug. "oh its alright, this is mi amiga," he smiles and waves aside the identification concern. i hand over a few hundred pesos. ten minutes later, i am tucking one hundred US dollars into my bag while the cambio manager is attempting to ask me on a date. i smile and say, "no entiendo! no hablo castellano!" and leave. shameless. haha.

i quickly find a photo place and grab a cuatro por cuatro foto set. then i jump on the subway and march over to the bolivian consulate. oh, earlier that morning i had put on my tall lady heels, just to make sure i looked like i meant business. inside the consulate, i now feel powerful. i tower over the bolivianos. i march into miss-wont-give-me-a-visa's office and practically throw my one hundred US dollars and the photos down on her desk. she gestures for me to sit. my heart is beating, i want this visa so bad!

suddenly she smiles and hands me my packet of stuff. my paperwork, my certificate of vaccination and my passport. my passport with a brand new BOLIVIAN VISA in it! "have fun in bolivia," she waves goodbye. suddenly, as i exit the office, all of the bolivianos are smiling at me. i freaking love these people. i love bolivia. ahh.

SO. sunday i am going to salta. my flight is booked for 12:15pm. i arrive around 5:00pm, and will head over to correcaminos hostel. as soon as possible, i will take a bus to la quiaca, and then over the border to bolivia. can't wait!

words /concepts of the day:

second-world country: there is some debate as to what classification argentina really is. buenos aires looks, in some areas, like a first-world european nation. but then there are thousands of cartoneros wandering the streets. and el campo is definitely not first-world. the whole nation doesnt seem third-world either, but financially its almost as unstable. during the cold war, argentina was deemed third world; but by today's human development index it is considered medium to highly developed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World)
casa de cambio: an currency exchange business.
salta: in northwestern argentina, a town of 500,000. it is said to be a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains and salt flats. i really want to go on el tren a las nubes!