Playing catch up - Tupiza

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Ok, I´ve been to two more countries since i last wote the blog. Thats pretty poor eh! Plusthis computer is rally odd so I don´t know how to upload photos. Also the apostrophe button on the keyboard keep coming up as different things when i press it, its quite dark and i can really see the keys without my glasses (which, along wth may othe things that would be useful, I have failed to bring) and Im waitin for Sara and will ditch this blog entry when she arrives. And, to be honest, I can even remember what Iǘve (see what i mean about the apostrophe?)done!

Now that Iǘve filled you with confidence about what youŕe about to read (are you really still reading it?!) Iĺl begin.

So we always wanted to go to Tupiza, as we heard it was pretty and we could ride horses there. However, with the exciting new plan to go to Chile, Tupiza, which was our nearest stop to the Bolivia Argentina border (Villazon), was kinda out of the way... But, we were commited damnit, and decided to go down to Tupiza first, and then back up to Uyuni, so we could go to Salar de Uyuni (the salt flats) and then into the Atacama desert in Chile. Plan. We were almost foiled at the first hurdle when we fell asleep on the bus to Tupiza. Sigh. In our defence, Bolivian buses are not known for being on time, let alone early. So as we were told we wouldn be there till 5am, it seemed perfectly legitmate for us to wake up at4.30am in preparation. In fact when we pulled in at 4.45am, we were surprised at the thought thas we were 15 mins early to our destination! Unfortunately, we had been about 2 hours early at our destinaion, and were atually now at the border at Villazon. Damn you Bolivia... anyway, some bloke rescued us from the freezing cold morning, and whisked us back off to Tupiza, where we arrived tired and mapless at about 7am, not quite ready to start our day. So we didnt. We just went to bed.

Anyway. Later on, we rode horses. I, being me, was really scared, and as soon as i saw the horse no longer had any recollection of why I had thought it was a good idea. However, when they handed me my cowboy hat and leather chaps (oh yeh) i knew what I had to do. I rode a horse. Apart from getting on, which is always a struggle with my litle dwarf legs, it was actually really easy, and very pleasant. As we had left it late to book, we only had 3 hours to ride, which turned out to be a blessing given my consequent saddle soreness.

That night we caved in and had pizza for dinner. It was a welcome change from the rice, potato, chicken/beef staple. We had spinach on it and everything.

The next day we achieved something wehad not managed previously in the trip. We had a good tour guide. He took us to good places AND explained them to us. Enthusiaticaly! Wow. In Spanish sure, but I got the gist and Sofia was all over it. We were happy enough. He drove us to some vey pretty places, gave us some of his cider made from corn, and gave us a special treat by taking us "off tour" to see a very tall rock formation that looked suspiciously like a penis. I mean what more could you want? Hilarious photography ensued. Though we were quite tame by all accounts - our driver told us some young ladies he brought there once insisted on getting naked for their penis rock related poses and got him to take the photos. I bet that was a good day for him.

Thats about all i remember about Tupiza right now.... apart from how lovely it was to still be warm. It actually really stated to feel like a holiday there, and i think Its probably where I turned a little mental corner, and really started to relax into the trip and into travelling. Hoorah.

That night we got the train to Uyuni, back into the altitude and the cold, so we could take a three day jaunt to see the worlds largs salt flat. Which was much more fun than that sentence sounds.

xx

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