Tag Archives: Montevideo

Bolivian Passport

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History especially…. That’s the topic I most like to read before departing to a new trip. This time I’m going back to South America; and why history? I like to go back in space and revive the birth of nations that allows to a better understanding of the current society. However, I also like to get some knowledge about the current trends and what some interesting places to visit.
This time I’ll be landing Buenos Aires on the 15th of June and head towards Montevideo (Uruguay) straight away, and have a week of vacations there. Then on the 21st I’ll be flying to Santiago (Chile) for the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as a representative of the International Fund for animal Welfare (IFAW), and will be returning to Buenos Aires for some time in Argentina, returning home on the 6th of July.

But reading here and there and looking out for visa specifications I stumble on an article from the New Internationalist website about Bolivia, quite astonishing!

And did you know that …
Bolivians seeking tourist entry to the US have the pleasure of completing the following steps:
1 Pay $110 (twice the monthly minimum wage) for the honour of submitting a visa application and seeking an interview at the US Embassy in La Paz.
2 Wait (usually months) for your interview to be scheduled.
3 Travel to La Paz and wait in a long line in Arctic-like morning weather outside the fortress-like, white US Embassy.
4 Approach the first window and have your paperwork reviewed (including all kinds of personal economic information, such as bank statements and employment letters). Have a good chance of being turned away right then for completing incorrectly the confusing, English-only forms.
5 Advance to a second window for questioning about your intentions. You might chat through the thick glass window with someone who is friendly, or with an official who seems interested in turning surliness into a fine art.
6 Stand a 90-per-cent chance of being denied (no refund of the $110 you paid the US Government for the experience).

Read more here

Convenio @ La Paloma

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Today is the 12th of December and I’m sitting in a bungalow in La Paloma (Uruguay, South America). Life has taken another strange turn, and now instead of working from Montevideo as I was planning; I will be coordinating a project on the behaviour, ecology and habitat characterization focosed of franciscana and bottlenose dolphins with the aim of elaborating strategies for their conservation (off Rocha), Uruguay. It is not that bad, I’m staying at “Bungalows de Piemonte” provided by Rodrigo Garcia the coordinator/director of OCC (Organización para la Conservasión de Cetáceos – Uruguay) next to the beach with surf(able) waves. There is quite a population boom here in the summer months. I’ll also be presenting weekly talks for the public at the administration house of “Bungalows de Piemonte” about general cetacean biology with an insight on the work carried out by the members of OCC and myself.
While I remain here at the bungalows I’ll have a permanent ADSL connection!

During this period some stuff was happening out there… the earthquake in Pakistan and India affected hundreds of people, the Atlantic Storm season broke all records. My external hard drive broke down and I lost everything I had in it, thankfully I manage to recover a few bits. USA asked for humanitarian help (???) due to the damages provoked by the hurricanes (if these folks need humanitarian and $ help what to say about the rest of the world then?)
Hopefully during my stay in South America I’ll be able to finish off all my pending affairs and engage into some others.