Ishicilelwe: 19.03.2020
Monday 16.03.
We had an appointment at 10 o'clock with the chief of police of Bolivia. Here at the police headquarters, too, it was a matter of high importance due to the Corona virus. Here we learned that the border to Peru will be closed on Monday night at 12 o'clock due to the virus. As a result, we replanned and started towards the border at 3 o'clock. We experienced the first setback with the broken van. It no longer pulls properly when driving uphill. Since La Paz is built on hillsides, steep roads must be climbed to reach the main roads. There is a crazy traffic in La Paz. Many minibuses push themselves thoughtlessly into the traffic flow. No matter which route, the van was always slowed down. We had to go back to the accommodation first. During all this action, Norbert lost contact with us. Egidio also reported that his Transalp had a defect. However, it was able to be repaired. Now we just had to find Norbert. He then contacted us from the border with Peru. He found his way there because he hadn't found us here in La Paz, assuming that we had already gone there. So we started again now. This time we had a lead vehicle of an employee of the Catholic seminary where we had slept. He led us out of La Paz, on roads that did not have such a steep slope so that the van did not have any problems. At the junction towards the border with Peru, Egidio drove straight ahead, so we had to wait for him again for about 20 minutes. This then led to us arriving at the border 15 minutes before closing time. Ultimately, the Bolivian authorities were no longer willing to carry out the clearance. The Peruvian authorities would have extended it, but it didn't help us anymore. So we had to go back the 110 km to La Paz and at 2 o'clock at night we were back at the Catholic seminary. In the end, it was even good that we couldn't enter because we would have had to be quarantined in Peru for 15 days. This was communicated to us by the Peruvian border authorities. Regardless of how, everything was totally annoying.