Just like that we wrote off Bolivia. It was a tough decision but in all honesty came with a wave of welcome relief in the relentless sun of the Atacama desert.
We had been trying to find out as much information as possible on our hitch up, and each person, of course, said something different. The general picture we got was:
We will be kindnapped by drug smugglers on the border, who will take us to perhaps the friendliest country on earth. It will be raining the whole time, but only in the afternoon. It will be so easy to hitchhike- the easiest place in the world, no less!- but, it is the most difficult place on the whole continent to hitchhike. The people will hate you, but they are the friendliest people you will ever meet. Most of all though, you will die on the roads.