So,

...this trip almost wasn't a reality. Before my trip to Bolivia could be solidified, a lot of pieces had to fall into place. First, the most important of all of them, my grandfather Calvin had to have his visa approved by the Bolivian Officials. We found out he was approved just 2 weeks before our flight, however it is common for the visa to return much earlier or much later. Once we had this information in our pocket, we had to figure out how I, as a minor, was going to travel out of the country. We went to the necessary websites to find out what was needed from us. We thought the process would be nice and simple, we were in for quite the surprise. The information on the Bolivian Consulate's website conflicted with what was on the U.S. Embassy's. This resulted in us having to call both offices to figure out how to best handle the situation. Unfortunatly for us, the Bolivian Consulate has quite the reputation for not answering their phones. We tried and tried...and tried some more for good measure, and still no answer. We then reached out to a cousin of mine who was familiar with how to handle this situation. The information he provided, help us to lay the groundwork for what we thought would be a simple documentation creation{you like that;)}. On April 2nd, we called the U.S. Embassy once more. They did not answer. We accidentally dialed them again. This time...they answered! They informed us that leaving the U.S. will be no issue what so ever but-thats right, there's a but-in order to leave Bolivia I would need special paper work, translated into Spanish, that would give my grandfather the authority to allow me to travel back into the U.S. This led us to call the Bolivian Consulate once more, knowing they probably wouldn't answer. Then the unthinkable happens...they answered! They proceeded to tell us that they have all the proper paper work there, as well as a notary. Only one small issue, it was April 2nd and I leave on the 4th. We then explained to Vivian, the woman on the phone at the Bolivian Consulate, that we were in a huge rush. She tells us they have ONE appointment available @10am on April 3rd. We gladly accept the appointment and made travel plans immediately. We left At 5pm on April 2nd and Arrived in Los Angeles at 11:45pm. Needless to say, we all felt the consequences of such a quick turnaround the next day. However, we made the appointment and received the needed paperwork in a matter of 2 Hours. We survived the trip both ways and I'm now ready to travel to Bolivia. The greatest part of this eXperience was seeing, what I perceive to be, Jehovah's hand in making sure everything fell right into place. 




Regards, 


Nikos Garloff



P.S. Future posts will include digital photographs.