Friday March 14th 2025 Embarcación to Bermejo, Bolivia
Lovely meal last night in the place next to the hotel, I checked it out earlier to get some more refreshments, the girls behind the bar, said they loved English men, we will soon see about that, but I did promise them a tango later. Sorry to say that did not materialise, nothing to do with too much Imperial beer, more like my puppies just could not handle it.

Breakfast at the hotel in the morning, giving Bingo a day off serving me, more accurately it was larruping it down, so decided to enjoy the comforts of a Hotel breakfast, not much to right home about but nice coffee and orange juice.

Hit the road just after 07:15, still a bit dark and raining but off we go, heading to Boliva, sixth country, not hitting the border till about 50 miles in, not sure how the crossing will go, so the plan is get to the border, then see what happens.

Not many animals about, with the rain battering us, basically holding on for dear life some times, with the traffic getting too close for comfort some times. Luckily we turned off heading due North on route 50 all the way to the border, first 30 mile were great dual carriageway lots of room, so all good, stopped at a so called petrol station, yes they sold petrol, but nothing else, so went over the road, to a little kiosk, got a couple of soft drinks and kept out of the rain.

Got back onto the route 50, single carriageway so not so good, but rideable just keep going, rains not easing up but once you get going, its fine, just edging our way to the border, through some weird and wonderful places, possibly over egging the wonderful sometimes but hey ho. Did cross some nice bridges over the rivers Rio Blancho and Rio Bermejo at least twice, maybe three times.

Just get to the little village before the border crossing, stop have a little drink and a packet of biscuits, building up the Dutch courage to cross the border, you never know what’s in store. We had nothing to worry about, not that we worry, just difficult to judge how long it will take, this one Argentina to Bolivia all of ten minutes and most of that was explaining what we are up, all good stuff, we had both the Argentinian and Bolivian officals in stitches, think they may have been taking the mickey out of my “cockney Spanish” but who cares we are into the sixth country.

Had a chat on the junction, decided to call it a day and head for the Town Bermejo and find some digs, well that was exciting, first skipped passed a mile long queue for a petrol station, don’t think they was getting ice creams, then straight through the market, it was chaos, people and stalls all over the place, but very lively. With Bingo’s guidance we managed to get through to the posh part of town, found a hotel, that probably looked great in 1930’s, it’s got character, all booked in for the night less than £15, did look like an old prison somewhat, but good enough for us and it certainty will not stop us moving on tomorrow.

All booked, went to get some Bolivian boliviano currency, had a bite to eat ,then relaxed in cell block H for the afternoon, sorting out the next few days climbing and riding.