Crossings

I will not wait to love as best as I can.  We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future.  This is a terrible way to think.  It is no way to live, to wait to love. 

~ Dave Eggers

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years, and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

This past week I said goodbye to Cochabamba and began the journey north to Lima.  After a pleasant yet mostly sleepless overnight bus to La Paz and several hours waiting in that freezing den of a place they call a bus station (oh no, I won't need my hoodie, the only place it'll be cold will be in the La Paz bus station and I'll only be there for a bit... gah... stupid logic) I was headed toward Lima with only one small obstacle left in my way; the border.

Let me explain one of the joys of international travel to those who have never been graced with this particular experience.  Many countries open their borders to international travelers for one reason and one reason only; money.  They want our dolla dolla bills yall!  These countries want us to pay the park entry fees, the overpriced taxi services, the overnight at the Sheraton, the tasty local dishes, and then, thank you very much for your time, they want us to leave.  This may sound harsh but really it's quite sound logic (unlike that bus station thing).  Many developing countries want foreigners money, but not their influence.  Money builds schools and provides salaries, influence brings McDonalds and celebrity TV shows.  To help maximize the dollars spent and minimize the corruptive cultural influence, many countries grant tourists 90 day entry visas.  If I was a country, and let's not disregard this as a serious career choice for my future, I'd probably do the exact same thing.

Anyway, getting back to the story.  I had entered Bolivia on this very same 90 day tourist visa, and then promptly decided to stay about 190 days.  No bueno.

In some countries, like our own, overstaying a visa entitles aforementioned country to send agents to kick down your door and force you (and your family) out.  In Bolivia, fortunately, this doesn't happen, one must simply pay a fine.  I was prepared for this, and knew that I could be made to pay a pretty hefty sum by the border guards if they deemed that appropriate.  I also had heard stories of others who simply waltzed through the office, got their stamp, and moved off without so much as a glance at their overstayed tourist visa.

Unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky, but a funny thing happened once the guards realized I would be their catch of the day.  There I was, unlucky gringo who had WAY overstayed his visa.  Let's fine the snot out of him!  They calculated and calculated again, counting each day I was over and adding up the fee to present me with a grand total.  Bam.  There it was.  Now pay!

But to everyone's surprise...  I couldn't.  I had very little cash on me, as I try to do whenever I travel... actually I guess I try to do that whenever I do anything.  Well, go get more out of an ATM.  Okay, where's an ATM?  Umm... where IS an ATM...  Bill do you know?  There's one in Puno.  That's 4 hours away.  Oh right.  There's one on the Peruvian side.  At the Banco Central?  Yes I think so.  No that one closed last year.  What about on Calle Anticucho?  Next to the jeweler?  The jeweler's on Calle Orgallo.  No the other jeweler.  On Calle Anticucho?  Yes that's what I said!  No that's not an ATM, that's an arcade game.  Cesar do you know where an ATM is?  What?  An ATM!  This gringo needs to pay us.  Oh, there's one in Puno...

... and on and on it went until, like a group of office workers who've overlaughed an already overtold joke, an uncomfortable silence descended on the small little room where we all stood.

How much money DO you have?  That's it?  Let me see your wallet...  Bill, he's not kidding... What should we do?  I suppose we have to let him through.

Passport.

Stamp.

VICTORY!

Two hours later, after my bus had already left me far behind, I was finally in Peru!  Sometimes the highly ineffective and inefficient system works your way...


I didn't know it at the time, but almost in the same hour while I was struggling to leave the country, my grandmother was passing away back home, in peace and surrounded by our other family members.  I had had the opportunity to briefly talk with her two days earlier, knowing full well it would probably be the last time we spoke.  She lived a long, hard, and rewarding life to a ripe old age, and it was her time to move on, just as it was mine.  So while I crossed a border from one South American country to another, she crossed her own border into eternity.

Grandma, I remember talking with you about the saying that goes, "When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced, now live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries and you rejoice," and you did just that.  There are many of us who will miss you for a long long time, but the memory of your smile will stay with me forever.  I will never ever be able to forget the way you shielded your face with your hands whenever I told a joke that made you laugh.  It made me never want to stop telling them.

U R Special
U R Blessed
U R Loved

I love you.  We'll dance again soon.