Man vs. Food

Chile delivers again on world-class junk food.

Adam Richman, where are you?

I was intrigued.

Yup, this is the sign.
Yup, it´s weirdly suggestive.

It´s the Starbucks of hot dogs.
Give me a grande double mayo with light guac and extra cheese sauce.

I accidentally ordered foot long hot dogs.  Oops.  But they were delicious.

I´ll take being lost in the desert over that third footlong.

March 24/25 - 900km through Northwest Argentina

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The highlands are a big, empty and beautiful place.

Long gone is Chile with its cows, orchards and towns.  Even Mendoza feels like a different world.

This is big sky country.  You can see for nearly a hundred miles.  There´s no sign of human life all the way to the horizon.  It´s liberating and terrifying at the same time.

After the close call outside of Mendoza, thankfully this stretch went by smoothly.  900km of road road road.

Maybe being alone in the open ocean feels similar.

Glamour shot courtesy of a family headed the opposite way.

Make sure you disengage the parking brake before driving!

There used to be people here... but no more.

Sorry, we don´t have any visa stickers

Americans not welcome.

A Bolivian that wants to visit the United States has to submit a lot of paperwork to get a visa.



There are two reasons for this.  

The first is to discourage illegal immigration.  Because lots of people applying for tourist visas actually intend to stay in the US, the US asks for evidence that people will return. This means a return ticket, a hotel reservation, and bank accounts or a house in Bolivia.


The second is to discourage drug trafficking.  As the coca capital of South America, this can be a problem.  Applicants are interviewed and fingerprinted.


Bolivia´s government is offended by this.  So they require all the same paperwork for Americans, putting them in the same bucket as folks from Angola, Sudan or the Congo.  The same policy doesn´t apply to European or Australians, who are presumably less problematic visitors.


The bureaucracy is bad enough.  But to add insult to injury, their consulate in Northern Argentina doesn´t have any visa stickers.    They can´t issue any visas.  But the staffers also don´t know that they don´t have stickers.  And they can´t ask their boss, because she rarely shows up at the office.  

So they say ¨come back in 3 hours¨, hoping their boss will be in the office so they can ask.  Two wasted days later they finally get an answer.

It is an incredible example of pointless policy that benefits no one.  It wastes tourists´ time and taxpayers money.  And with per capita income hovering around $1,500 a year, you don´t need many tourists to create jobs. 


While the Mongolian government just waved visa requirements for most of the world, and 2011 is ¨Visit Nepal Year¨, Bolivia´s government is insisting on getting revenge on America through their visa process.  Americans can easily change their vacation plans.  Sadly, most Bolivians don´t have the same option when it comes to earning a living.

Argentinian Roads

Generally quite good, although they can surprise you.

Luckily for the country´s public works department, most of the country is dry and flat.  The north-south roads that follow the valleys between mountain ranges are usually quite good.

It´s when you add water and mountains ranges that it gets interesting.  And if you combine the two because of rain or rivers... beware!  Odds are you will see the effects of landslides and massive erosion (e.g., entire sections of roadway disappeared into the river.  

Unfortunately, road maps only show paved, unpaved improved, and unpaved unimproved.  In reality there are dozens of roads (paved but with surprises, paved with rock slides, dirt first gear, dirt third gear, etc.)  Drive slowly to ensure long term survival.  These pictures are all of Ruta Cuarenta (Rt. 40) - marked as a primary road on the maps.

Now this is a road.

But beware - abrupt agua permanente (literally - permanent water) - can you slow you down.  Normally we would consider putting a bridge here (how about some storm drainage, eh?).  

Sometimes there is good dirt...

...and sometimes there is scary dirt.  Unfortunately, road maps do not distinguish between the various shades of gray.

Extroverted cultures

Everyone wanted a picture with the Americano.  Then the dad asked me  if I would take his 20 year old daughter back to the States with me.  I said no gracias.  She was clearly embarrassed.