At 12:30 local time today, 24th March 2013, we exchanged the trailer for the last time on blue and white soil and crossed the border out of Argentina (despite a last minute fumble where we couldn´t find the doorway for Bolivia in between the border towns!!)!! Although we couldnt find a checkbox on the Immigration form for “runing across border with trailer, no fixed abode”, we were accepted, we have completed paperwork and passed the line into a crazy and chaotic new world.
Passports have been stamped and we now have a 90 days on our visa to cross 1000’s miles of mysterious and enchanting Bolivia, South to North, in the rainy season, running with a trailer. From our previous recce on Bolivian soils we share a feeling that adventure and misadventure await for us here and are eager to get down to business!
A brief moment to reflect on our time in Argentina, an enormous country ten times the size of the UK, which has been our home for the last 4 months running. We’ve had a tough time here, experienced hard running conditions in daily highs of well into the forties degree centigrade, slept rough for countless nights through harsh electrical storms and nocturnal rumblings, and felt the pain of persistent running with heavy loads. But we have felt unique and incredibly warming Argentinian hospitality at times, most often from those with little resources to share. We come from a perspective often at odds with the rapid expansion of urban centres and lifestyles which threaten the wild places we seek to publicise but we have found friends and allies in unlikely places, and as our wise friend Rafa promised, “doors will be open, if you put yourself out there”. We did, and they were.
Thankyou for looking after us, and please look after the remaining wild places that exist on Argeninan soil, because they are worth protecting.
A few, selected photographs follow from our camera which is, quite frankly, on its last legs!
Currently on dodgy wifi connection and time is limited . .. . more to follow!
