Way of the bumble bee

I´m afraid I´ll be complaining in this entry. Getting out of Bolivia for a few meetings in Chile is turning into a comedy of mega-proportions. I´ve never seen anything like it. I think the thing is NOT to go through a travel agency. It´s not as the crow flies, but rather as if I´ve fallen in with a bunch of bumble bees and am supposed to follow suit. If I get to Chile, great -- if I don´t, relax B, stop and suck some pollen. I´m speechless. Here´s the way they wanted me to go and what I´ve had to do to get tickets I don´t yet have.

First, there are no flights that do NOT require that I spend the night in Santa Cruz, coming and going. Originally, I was going to have to fly Sucre, santa cruz, cbba, pass the night, then cbba-santa-cruz then finally to Santiago (TWO days to make one flight). Same on way back. What madness, makes no sense whatsoever. I raised a fuss and got it to Sucre-santa cruz-night in santa cruz-chile, same on the return. Flights to Peru and Argentina are the same way. What a racket, this means approx. $200 extra dollars for unnecessary hotel stays in Santa Cruz. With all of the tourists in and out and about, they should just nationalize the airlines and hotels and this would be a wealthy country (the locals travel by bus).

THEN, there are some vouchers of some sort I have to sign. Which have to come by mail, from cbba to sucre, to a sister travel agency. AND, I have to meet with the agency here to sign for my tickets and then find some guy at some office on the Calle España to sign a SEPARATE voucher for the hotel in CHILE. What?

I went to said office to find said man. Let me tell you it´s a hole in the wall (I´m supposed to give my credit card to this guy?) and he wasn´t there, door locked, closed, chiuso-ed, no sign of life in, what I might add is a thoroughly uninviting place at the end of a long passage way, dark and with practically no one around expect one poor woman who had been waiting on Mr. X for an hour. Finally some ancient creature came out of another door looked at us and said, "es un gordo con bigote". Well thanks. I´m looking for a fat man with a moustache, tell me something new -- a dime a dozen in Sucre. When am I not looking for a fat man with a moustache? I ask you, is this the way to do business? No. I think it all has to do with commissions for this agency and have half a mind to call the hotel in Chile (a good one) and arrange my own reservation. I was told it was best to do it ¨their way¨ so that I´d have recourse if something went wrong! I´m also not supposed to "antagonize" the agency because they could be useful in the future. Useful? If it gets worse than this, I may just stay in Chile. Ah, fieldwork. All part of the learning experience. THIS is the dispatch I should have sent to the fellowship people.

I also have a cold.

Buzz, buzz,

B.