Last week in Riberalta and South Bound

after realizing that the best way to travel this land is motorcycle
(I{m serious dad, we{ve got to do SA on bikes)
i postponed my lovely dusty 6 day sprint bus trip from northern
Bolivia to Mendoza, and bought an airline ticket from Santa Cruz,
Bolivia, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. this route still required two
overnight bus trips, but will give me an extra 2 days in Mendoza plus
2 days to explore Buenos Aires. All this justification because i feel
like a wimp for skipping out on the land journey.

Last week in Riberalta was a blur. Diarrhea cleared up with Cipro,
thanks everyone for the advice. A couple more trips out to my host
family{s ranches, including a day of vaccinating cattle. I will miss
the people, but the heat and dust and mosquitos can stay up there
while I head down to winter.

First leg to Trinidad was smooth, but then the buses were all leaving
early from there due to rumors of protest bloqueados along the road to
Santa Cruz. So I caught the latest bus I could, which was only at 5pm.
Of course there were no problems, so I arrive in the largest city in
Bolivia with nowhere to stay at 1am. With no other ideas, decide to
call my couchsurfing host for the following night and see if she was
still awake. Luckly, Brazilians dont seem to go to bed early, and upon
arriving at the compound of Brazilian students, it was apparent that
nobody was close to going to bed at 2am. They were all in Santa Cruz
because the tuition is much lower than in Brazil. Mostly medical
students, but also pilot students, graphic design and some others.

I was the first to bed at 3am, and the first up at 9. Then off to
explore Santa Cruz. Really charming center for such a large city. I{ll
try to post some pictures once I get to Mendoza.

The next day I left the Brazilians having made some new friends, and
headed out to the main road. Turns out none of the buses going to the
airport would make any stops. they were all express. So I got on a bus
headed the right direction, and got off as close as possible to the
airport. This left a two mile walk, and despite the many offers from
passing taxis, I had time, so I enjoyed a bit of exercise. Palm trees
and warm breezes reminded me of Hawaii.

Before I knew it, I was on a plane to Buenos Aires. Month in Bolivia
went really fast.
Not fully processed yet.