Goin Postal II

Another adventure with the Bolivian postal system. We thought we had it down having sent several packages from Cochabamba. So we thought what the hey, these wool blankets are so awesome and sooo cheap its worth the 400 bolivian pesos to ship them home. Once again, the Bolivian postal system got the better of us. This time though it was more hilarious than frustrating.

We showed up at the post office around 3:30 pm about an hour after they got back from lunch break. They immediately informed us that the customs office was not - as it had been in Cochabamba - located in the same place, but in fact 15 minutes away by taxi. So we headed off to customs, managing to pick up the tape and brown paper required to wrap the package on the way. We got our customs stamps and headed back to the post office only to be greeted by a number of post office employees running around like they had no heads and all giving very confusing and contradictory information.

Eventually one kindhearted lady took charge and led us out of the building to a nearby street corner where she informed us we were waiting for transportation to the headquarters of the Special Task Force Against Narco Trafficking. Normally there is an officer from this organization present at the post office to do inspections but today being our lucky day he or she wasn't around and so, while Sepi rode up front with not one but two Bolivian postal workers I hopped in the cargo space of the Bolivian mail van and rode over to the headquarters.

Being escorted by the kind postal worker made all the difference as we were reluctantly admitted to an upstairs office and our wool blankets were given a perfunctory search for cocaine. With yet more of the necessary stamps we headed back to the post office where after another 45 min of paperwork and amazing background music like "if you want my booody and you think I'm sexy ..." we kissed our package goodbye, thanked the postal lady profusely and walked out of the office a mere two and half hours after we first entered.

Not bad really considering the free ride in the back of the van and complimentary tour of the Special Task Force Against Narco Trafficking.