We took an overnight train from Uyuni in Bolivia to the small border town with Argentina called Villazon. We assumed it would be another straight forward* border crossing before quickly moving on to Salta, our intended destination in Argentina. It wasn't.

*Border crossings are never "straight forward", they are always disorganised, time consuming and often involve a lot of searching and walking around for the correct offices to make sure we don't just stroll into or out of countries illegally.

Complacency had set in and we failed to thoroughly look into the entry requirements for Argentina. We were a little bit stunned when we were turned back at the immigration office. Australian, Canadian and USA citizens have to pay a "reciprocity fee" to enter Argentina, which is just a political game of "we make you pay because you make us pay". So no big deal, right? You decide you'll cough up the extra $100USD to enter the country and pay at the border. Except in their infinite wisdom they have made it an electronic pre-payment system, so paying at the border is impossible. We ran into a Canadian guy, who encountered the same problem three hours earlier and was still trying to cross over, and helped us out with a bit of info, as the language barrier between us and the Argentinian border officials was too much for this issue. In fact it was too much for any issue and all they could do was shake their heads and shrug.

It meant Jansen had to back track into the Bolivian side of the border in search of an internet café in order to make payment via credit card and print out the receipt to bring back to the border as proof of payment. After wandering back for 15 minutes asking locals where to find one, it appeared. Luckily the manager of the only internet café in town knew exactly what Jansen needed as he no doubt had seen this occur multiple times before, so he was able to help. Internet in Bolivia was slow at the best of times, which made the process incredibly drawn out…and then none of his cards were accepted. An hour later he ran back to collect Sonja and start the whole process again. After finally getting the system to work and print, we triumphantly returned to the border with our receipts. Getting the entry stamp, we didn't wait a second longer to head onwards to the bus station to get a bus to some random town and then another bus to Salta. This was another casual 7 hours of transport to bring out the rest of the day.

Once finally at our intended destination it was a welcome relief. Argentina is a great place to relax a bit and enjoy some good food at very cheap prices. It's much more developed than Peru and Bolivia but not really any more expensive once you're there due to some strange exchange rate loophole*. Salta is a charming town, pleasant to walk around and finally relax a little. We also found a nice area nearby which was perfect for day hikes.

*Argentina has some economic problems and their currency isn't doing too well. We had heard that US dollars are like gold, and you can get excellent exchange rates at local money exchangers that are nearly double the official rate you'll get at a bank or ATM. This all proved to be true, so the dollars we brought in were put to very good use.