My Santa Cruz De La Sierra Layover: A Little Complicated

@Ben why didn't you stay over for a day or two in Bolivia? There must be some interesting things to see outside of the airport.

@ Josh -- I'd LOVE to visit Bolivia, and plan to return (and really want to fly to both La Paz Airport and Uyuni Airport. In this case I just couldn't get away from home any longer, as I have a commitment at home tomorrow.

That observation deck looks like a prison yard

The glamorous life of a travel blogger revealed!

Recently I bought a Rio-Madrid-Rio ticket. It is a non-stop flight, but I realized that the return flying using the route Madrid-Buenos Aires-Rio de Janeiro would be cheaper! Instead of a 10 hour direct flight, I choose to stay 12 hours in the long-haul MAD-EZE, plus 3 hours in the EZE-GIG flight, with an almost 5 hours stop in EZE. With this choice I flew the new Iberia A350 (that does not fly to Brazil), stayed at the Iberia/AA Buenos Aires lounge (as AAdvantage Platinum) and tried the British Airways 777 in the EZE-GIG-LHR route. Inside the airport no need to leave the airside. During the boarding, the BA staff noticed our Iberia issued boarding card (for the BA flight) , and she said it was a quite uncommon situation.

LOL this made me chuckle, and good on you for taking it all with some humor, Ben!

Not sure how you were able to deal with a mosquito-infested area, that's the worst...

Looking forward to reading the rest of your Latinamerican adventures...and I agree with another reader, make sure you spend some time in each of the countries...South America is full of amazing places!

Weird stuff with these arbitrary rules set by staff. A year ago at JFK I wanted to go through security with my printed LOT boarding pass (7 hours before departure). The agent who checked the boarding passes said that the LOT boarding pass is not good, I cannot go through security, I have to wait another 5 hours until the LOT desk opens and get them to print out a "real" boarding pass. He was adamant about it. So I waited 2 hours until he left and another agent took over, went these, and she let me go through immediately.

I wonder if it would have been worthwhile to visit the city. I once visited a city during a layover where the taxi driver agreed to a certain fare or the meter, whichever was lower. He then drove by several attractions and stopped at one for a few minutes.

I once had a layover in Santiago de Chile and they refunded me a departure tax even though I had two separate tickets for the connection.

That buffet looks as bad as any copa club's 🙁

Remember yesterday when I asked if it was a case of don't meet your heroes? 🙂

Manchester also denied me sterile transit while self connecting, I flew in from IAH on SQ and was connecting to PRG on EasyJet. Had boarding pass in hand and everything

We readers of the blog love to read about your more esoteric and complex trips, and for you, thank goodness the layover provided you some fodder to fill the endless need for content. Keep up the good work even if miles and Miles keep you hopping.

Is that just platters of chips for a buffet?

Good info on the MIA VVI route and the layover.

I assume you spent your time in the VVI 'office' continuing to investigate the currency exchange rate issues at Mexico's Bonvoy/Marriott properties. Looking forward to you follow-up that you promised!

Definitely do a longer stay in Bolivia if you ever get the chance Ben! It was one of the coolest places I've ever visited. The scenery going from Salar de Uyuni to San Pedro De Atacama in Chile is some of the most surreal I've ever witnessed.

Also, La Paz is a really interesting city to visit (I believe it's the highest capital city in the world), not to mention taking off from LPB in El Alto is quite an experience. The runway is over 13,000 ft, and you definitely need it! I flew on the now-defunct Amaszonas when they had just acquired their CRJ-200. Small plug to my trip report from over 10 years ago when I traveled around the Altiplano: https://milesglu.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-south-american-altiplano-march-2013.html

I'm sure much of the info is completely out of date, but it gives you an idea of how cool the entire region is.

I arrived at SEA at 5 am last November and - apart from the mosquitoes - it was an equally unremarkable 7 hours wandering around the terminal.

Love trip reports like this, thank you!

Agree with Garrett. A 3 day jeep safari with an adventure outfitter across the Salar de Uyuni was exciting. In a world where many global destinations have turned into Disneyland, Uyuni remains authentic and the road less traveled. Plus after crossing the high altitude border into Chile, one can accommodate in luxury digs in San Pedro de Atacama.

I almost died in Bolivia. Screw that place

Tip on getting through to the international departures halls - Show your Priorty Pass card and say you are going to a lounge. It appears they have the rule of restricting access untill 2 hours before the flight to control crowding in departure areas of all Bolivian airports. If you are going into a lounge, then you cannot be part of the problem of over crowding in the departure areas. I go through their airports 20 times a year, and it always works for me.

" The whole thing wasn’t a big deal " - but you sure did a lot of complaining about it....

This is Bolivia - not Singapore.....

In reading this article I was going to comment that the US does not offer a sterile transfer for incoming international flights at all and foreigners if applicable need a US visa