Megan Lyles :: La Paz, Bolivia - The Paraguayan Embassy

Friday, June 2, 2006

The perniciousness was back today, with all its familiar exhaustion and lethargy. I haven't had it since before Salkantay and I was hoping it was gone for good, but alas. Bad timing on the day we were finally going to drag ourselves over to the Paraguayan Embassy.

Citizens of the United States need a $45 visa to enter Paraguay, and we need to get it in advance. It's one of those reciprocal deals where they're doing it because that's what the US does to Paraguayan citizens. Brazil has a similar policy except their visa costs $100. We're skipping Brazil for now. One hundred dollars is too much to pay to not even scratch the surface of such a huge and diverse country. But we really want to go to Paraguay, which is nice and small and off the beaten path.

We shrugged off the money. The visa costs barely more than a ticket to Disneyland. Our only worry was their ongoing ticket requirement. Would they make us buy some bogus bus ticket à la Panama? Or would they try to refuse us entirely? And if so, then would they let us buy a bogus bus ticket?

We were dreading the embassy visit. We've been conditioned to dread government offices. The DMV, the IRS, heck, even the post office. And the lady at Mexican Immigration was not very nice. (Yes, we'd been sneaking around the country illegally but still, no one need to suck their teeth that much.) We did not expect much from the Paraguayan embassy.

But with no other choice, we girded up our loins and took a taxi out to Plaza Isabel la Católica. According to the LP map, the embassy is just around the corner from the park. I won't reveal what a ridiculous amount of time we spent walking around in circles and up and down the wrong streets feeling like idiots. I'll just say that after a nice walking tour of the swanky Sopocachi area, we needed a lunch break. We had a cheap almuerzo in a place where all the other patrons were businesspeople on their lunch breaks and not one of them took even half as long to eat as we did.

Fortified with food and newly taken passport photos (a whole other saga), we finally found the spot and after a chat with a security guard, the correct entrance. The embassy turned out to be a quiet little second-floor waiting room with another security guard, some couches and old magazines and one customer-service window.

Except for the Paraguayan handicrafts for sale, we could have been in a dentist's waiting room. Well, and also except for the armed security guard and the big metal gate across the doorway. The woman behind the window said we needed some photocopies. She could not make them, but there was a place right across the street.

It was 3:30. We found out the office was closing at 4:00. We didn't know how long the process would take, and we wondered if maybe we should just come back with our photocopies tomorrow. But a woman in the waiting area helpfully pointed out that the embassy would be closed tomorrow. Crap, today is Friday. We never know what day it is anymore, and sometimes that messes us up a little. But the woman said it wouldn't take long and if we hurried and got our photocopies, she'd do it today.

So we ran down the stairs and across the street to a papeleria, where we had copies made of our passport photo pages and our credit cards, and ran back upstairs. The embassy lady gave us some forms to fill out, which turned out to be the same form twice. We filled them out and turned them in and started thumbing through the reading material.

After a while the embassy lady came out from behind the window to tell me she'd have to cover up one of my passport stamps because she needed a full page to put the visa on. I tried to get her to put it on one of the blank "amendments and endorsements" page in the back. Other countries had stamped there, but she wouldn't do it. So she had to cover up my Estonia stamp, and now how am I supposed to prove I was in Tallinn way before it was the new Prague?

I wish border people would stamp with some kind of order and not all willy-nilly like they do. I mean, there are boxes for entries and exits marked in three languages, but does anyone pay attention to them? Of course not. They're like middle-school kids signing a yearbook. They stamp on this page, on that page, sideways so they can take up two boxes, crooked so they can take up two boxes, or they want to ignore the half-empty pages and start a whole new page for themselves way in the back of the book, so that one day in the future I'll have to choose which of them to cover up forever with my Paraguayan visa.

In the end it took until 4:30 to finish our visas, but they got done. We were not asked for onward tickets. That sweet, helpful woman was so incredibly nice to stay an extra half-hour on a Friday afternoon. I felt guilty that we'd been dreading the visit so much and guilty that we hadn't just shown up earlier so the poor lady could leave on time. The terrible thing is that one of the reasons we were so late was because we were so sure they'd find some reason to make us come back another day anyway, and then of course it was the opposite.

We're also grateful to that woman because otherwise we would have had to stay in La Paz until Tuesday. Overall, I was extremely impressed with the treatment we got at the embassy and am looking forward even more to visiting Paraguay. Now that we have our visas taken care of, we'll probably leave town on Sunday, working our way to Salar de Uyuni.

What we needed for our Paraguayan visas:
- 2 color passport photos
- 2 photocopies of the picture page of our passport
- 2 photocopies of the passport page with the Bolivian entry stamp
- 1 photocopy of a credit card
- $45 USD

30 comments so far | Post a comment

Monday, July 31, 2006 | the dad said...
story line...when you are in Paraguay do it their way..trite I know but warming up for you in two weeks...by the way, the Charlotte immigration office is open 24 hours a day....but you must shower and burn your back packs before allowed entry..see you soon

Monday, July 31, 2006 | Michael Simon said...
dad, we are coming home well dipped in all sorts of jungle rot and worms. By the time we leave your place to go back to NYC everyone in Matthews is going to have TB and Chagis disease.

Monday, July 31, 2006 | Megan said...
Also I think Michael has some kind of fungus of the scalp happening. Does anyone know how to say "tea tree oil" in Spanish? Is it a literal translation, or is there a whole other term for it?

Monday, July 31, 2006 | the dad said...
ok, so its its fumigation and steel wool rub downs-Michael what makes you think Matthews doesn't already have that? Megan a fish starts to rot at the head....by the way Megan.we started saving take out in those special containers you like....don't worry we dated each container so you would enjoy the more tenderized ones...

Monday, July 31, 2006 | MOM said...
You're all gross! I'm moving with no forwarding address.

Monday, July 31, 2006 | Todd said...
I've found Tea Tree Oil referred to as "árbol del té," "aceite del árbol del té," "aceite del esencia del árbol del té" and, most specifically, "aceite del esencia del árbol del té australiano." They sometimes refer to the plant as "té australiano" because it isn't really tea, but an Australian paper plant, melaleuca alternifolia, which in Spanish might also be called "Cayeput," "Cajeput," "Cayeputí," or "Cajepute." Good luck! And I don't know what I'm talking about, really, so you'll want to smell the oil to make sure.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 | Todd said...
Oh god. Last night I guess I was Googling While Jetlagged. This morning I have no idea where any of that information comes from. Please don't put anything on anybody's fungussy scalp based what I told you unless somebody who knows either herbs or Spanish can corroborate it.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 | Jeff said...
Thanks Megan and Michael for the wonderful read! I have been catching up from the begining over the last 3 weeks. Can't wait for the updates! I have been to some of the places, and your descriptons are very accurate and take me there. THANKS!

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 | Dave C. said...
This Wikipedia page in Spanish mentions cayeputí and Melaleuca:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 | Terence said...
I just like that you used the phrase "girded our loins"

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 | Mary Simon said...
Michael needs to start fresh and shave his head while taking a clorox bath.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 | the dad said...
my daughter...........yes

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 | Tommo said...
Hey guys Salutations from down under (you know who it is!). Love your work Megan. Such a good mix of info and cool stories. Nice. Can't wait for Uyuni stories! Keep well and see you in Oz sometime!

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 | Tommo said...
Big hi to Mike too! Tom

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 | Megan said...
Well it seems that most of you are crazy... except possibly Jeff. Welcome, Jeff. Hi, Tom!!

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 | Michael Simon said...
Tom!

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 | Mary Simon said...
OMG! TOM

Thursday, August 3, 2006 | Tommo said...
Is that a sarcastic OMG Mary? Do I know you?....

Thursday, August 3, 2006 | Megan said...
LOL... Mary is Michael´s sister.

Thursday, August 3, 2006 | funchilde said...
Tom! (no i don't know you either, but i hate to be left out). And yeah, "girded our loins"? please explain, I may need to know that for the GRE. I'll be in the NY Aug 31-Sept 6 so e-mail me if you'll be around then and if I can treat you to desayuna, almuerzo or la cena. yay! TOM!

Thursday, August 3, 2006 | Mary Simon said...
The GRE's are the devil

Sunday, August 6, 2006 | joy said...
Hi, Megan and Michael - I've found your blogs (from LP's TT) and have been catching up the past couple weeks. Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us, strangers included! Michael - Megan mentioned in one of the entries that you're from Richmond, and above you write about Mathews; you don't mean Mathews, VA by chance, do you (that's where my boyfriend is from)? Anyway, hope you both are safe and doing well. Looking forward to hearing about what's to come!

Sunday, August 6, 2006 | Tom said...
Ahhhh. I get it. Hello Mary, Michael's sister!

Monday, August 7, 2006 | Megan said...
Dia,we will be around and would love to hang out!!!

Having said that... it´s clear that I am no Eric Trinidad. I am very far behind and will be home before the blog is finished. We are currently in Buenos Aires and have decided to treat this last week and a half like a vacation - i.e. fancy hotels, shopping, lazing about, red wine, and not worrying too much about the blog. BUT - it will get done! I have drafts galore about Salar de Uyuni, the Trans-Chaco highway (22 hrs on a dirt road, yay), monkeys in my hair, sneaking into Brazil twice, etc. So please stick around.

Hi Joy!

Monday, August 7, 2006 | funchilde said...
"monkeys in my hair" oh.my.god. you need to go ahead and tell that story NOW. As for being "no Eric Trinidad" as a HUGE fan of his, I'm so glad you are not. Part of what has made this so much fun for me is seeing/sharing the experience of someone who looks like me (girl and brown) doing THAT THANG! I will always follow ET and the Global Trip as a fanatic of his style and unique perspective, but your journey has touched me in a most inspiring "GO.BE.DO" kind of way. I'm also heartened that one day I'll find someone like Michael (i mean more in the philosophical sense of a partnership than a "big, bearded, white dude with a camera" kind of way, who will share my passion for travel off the beaten path. cheers to you. and HOLLA! Drinks on me at you name the spot.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 | Daphne said...
Hi Megan, Thanks for the heads up that there are more reports to come - like many, I have been travelling vicariously thru your blog, and do an almost daily check to see if there is something new. While I am not a writer, I do send back newsletters to our friends while we travel in Jan/Feb/Mar, and know the work that goes into these weekly updates (and the fights with my photographer husband over which pictures to include). So, keep up the updates, there are lots of us out here who are waiting for the next installment of the Megan/Michael adventures. Enjoy the good hotels - after travelling for 2 months in Mexico our last 2 nights were in 2 different hotels that cost about twice what we had paid as our average hotel cost, but worth the luxury. I think you leave a country better memories when you have a little luxury for your last few nights - very relaxing.

Thursday, August 17, 2006 | bequibar said...
Megan, I dreamt I watched you on Larry King talking about your trip! Your hair was a bit longer than it looks on your photo, but you were still wearing dredlocks and a long scarf tied as a headband and you looked great.

Sunday, August 20, 2006 | Cath said...
Hi guys, Michael your pictures are beautiful. Megan what I have read of the blog so far has inspired me, I'm playing catch-up and I'm still back in Colombia but enjoying every second of it. This is a trip I intend to do, though still a few years off. Your photos and blog are reminding me why I am saving. Have fun guys, by the way we have traded messages before.... a miscommunication regarding hand sanitizer.... (I'm going to the chemist tomorrow, I swear, just to find out! Cath

Monday, August 21, 2006 | Megan said...
Hey all, thanks for the patience and kind words!!! New entries coming!

Monday, March 12, 2012 | edwf said...
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