Day 290 Hostel Lockdown 21 November 2012

Today was census day in Bolivia, which occurs once every 10 years. We were lucky to experience it!

We woke up at 9am and Martijn went to get both of our tickets for breakfast. He came back to the room with only one and told Ana that her breakfast was being held hostage until she filled in a National Census form for Bolivia, like he had just done.

   

We knew it was census day and we would have to be locked in the hostel (anybody walking on the streets would be arrested by the military police) but we did not know we would actually be counted for the census. We answered questions such as name, age, country we live in, marriage status, languages, education level, and why we are in Bolivia. Later in the day we heard that we could go out of the hostel with our passport ready to be shown to military police. As we were considering this option a truck full of military police drove by the hostel and we quickly decided on staying in.