The worst ruins in Boliviar and the first and worst attempt at bribery.

Frank from Donny Darko?

Maybe it was worth the money just to see this at Tiawanaku

After an excellent ride back to La Paz on the replacement 'Most Dangerous Road', Mike and his GPS navigate us quickly around the outskirts of La Paz and we head for one of the 'Not to be missed' sights of South America. Tiawanaku is the site of what used to be a rather large civilisation. Pre-Inca. Unfortunately the Bolivians don't really know how to curate a site like this and you really have to use your imagination to even begin to see something left in the ruins. What gets us is the cost. It all but wipes out our Bolivino kitty and Mike's wallet, we're not impressed - at all! Just as well today we hit Peru. And no, the guide book got it wrong, it is not a site, not to be missed. Our suggestion is to go through Cocacabana, much pretier by all accounts.

We're a bit nervous leaving Bolivia. When we entered through the National Park 10 days ago, there was one dirt road we should have taken. The one that took us to the Aduana (Customs) Office, conveniently located about 5km down a road I thought the Park Ranger told us not to go down. So the bikes have never been imported into Bolivia officially. Today we'll see just how inept the Bolivians really are.
So we come to a road block just before the Peru/Bolivain border. We're motioned to pull over and show bike documents and passport. Other traffic is being stopped and appear to be paying about one or two Bolivianos to pass. Mike is first to get his papers looked at and handed back but as I'm trying to hand mine over for inspection, we get 'There is a US$10 fee'. 'What's that for' we ask, 'we don't have US$10'. 'Ok, $10 (Bolivianos)' We get the idea pretty quickly and Mike, on the ball, pulls out our empty kitty, cleaned out from the visit to Tiawanku. He also pulls out his own, empty wallet and we explain, in English of course, that the expense of the ruins has left us with no Bolivianos. And that as we are going to Peru we haven't got anymore. They get they're words mixed up and suggest that the fee is voluntary rather than obligatory, we opt for the voluntary approach and say that we volunteer not to pay it. They try a spin around and of course we 'No entiendo'. I still have my documents in my hand, Mike's are right in front of him on the table, so we guess it's pretty safe to leave. They're laughing at our 'No entiendo' but let us get on. If they'd been on the ball doing they're job properly instead of trying to get a bribe, they could have held us with every right for not having the correct aduana documents. Bless them, no wonder they're a land locked country with a poor economy. Even when they have the opportunity to make some money somewhat legitamately, they balls it up.