Trust, you can.

by Gisela Alejandra Perez Fernandez (Mexico)

I didn't expect to find Bolivia

I crossed the northern border of Argentina until I found myself in the town of Tarija, which is located in southern Bolivia. I had no idea what to do or visit in Tarija, however I came across a rich variety of wines that I didn't expect to taste, but who am I to say no to taste a good wine? I arrived in this town while traveling through South America with my cousin, we were two adventurous women with the calm to enjoy many sunsets. What we did not imagine when we sat on a bridge that day in Tarija, was that two Interpol men would approach us to request our papers to be "reviewed" in the system. When you are a traveler there are many things that you do not know can appear on your way, without a doubt, that situation was one of them. They took our passports and made a couple of calls to request a vehicle to come looking for us, we between fear and nervous laughter think of any possible crime that we may have committed in our lives, because in those circumstances they make you doubt even if you have crossed the footbridge with the wrong light in some dream. A few minutes passed while we were recording the entire experience with a small camera that we carried to record our trip and adventures, who would imagine that an unforgettable adventure was coming that afternoon. A van arrived and we were asked to get on to take us to their offices, and to be honest, being a female traveler from Mexico, a country where femicides abound and people even mistrusts the identity of any uniformed, we were very hesitant to get into the rear of that van. So after we suggest that they could follow us while we were going on our own to the interpol offices, the memory of an Argentine traveler I met in the Colombian Caribbean several years ago was revealed to me, saying: - "Trust, you can. " I got into the truck with my cousin, when they closed the door from the outside, the uniformed men began to laugh, they took us to their offices to wait that supposedly from La Paz someone would send them the resolution of our files. Hours passed, they offered us coffee and cookies while we watched them with uncertainty, we asked many times if we could already withdraw or how much longer the procedure would take because we had things to do. It was then, after a long afternoon at Interpol, that it was time for the uniforms men to change their shift. At that time, without showing us any documents, they told us that everything was fine because we had no records in the system and because of the hour, they were already off work and wanted to invite us some beers. Tremendous scoundrels! Fortunately, nothing happened to us and the adventure turned out to be the use of power by a couple of Bolivian Interpol workers who wanted to invite us some beers at the end of their work shift. You may wonder if we went for those beers at the end, and the answer is yes!, but we went alone after having a hard time and to celebrate that we were safe... and of course, now with the beautiful certainty that we haven't committed any crime that is registered in the international system.