Butch Cowley and the Suntanned Kid

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After the excitement and inspirational tour of the Salar de Uyuni, the town of Uyuni itself (with the exception of the quite exceptional MinuteMan pizza restaurant) was rather, well, dull and uninspiring. So much so that - after updating our blog - we were quite keen to leave on the first train, bus or donkey.

Our next destination was to be Tupiza - Bolivia's 'Wild West', less than 200 km to the South-East.
Unfortunately, escaping Uyuni proved to be rather more of a challenge than we had anticipated. A train heads south to the Argentinian border every 2-3 days, but by the time we had got our brains in gear, we had missed the first available train, so it would be at least 48hrs before we could hop on another. No problem. Buses leave to Tupiza every morning. Naturally we'd missed the one for the day, but at least we only had to spend one extra day in dullsville.

We duly checked out of our hostel at 7am the following morning to leave plenty of time to get to the bus stop. Unfortunately the bus company were not quite so organised. There would be no bus that day. OK. We got a refund and headed again to the train station - the next one would be leaving early the next morning. 15 hours is plenty of time to buy a ticket. Ah, the next train is already sold out, you say?...

It turned out we were not the only ones desperate to leave Uyuni. A charming young Swiss fellow and an entertaining if somewhat crazy Polish guy (who may have had Turets, not sure) were also looking for the emergency exit. Fortunately after a couple more hours waiting around we were able to negotiate seats in a 4x4 with one of the drivers returning to Tupiza, having just completed the Salar tour.

This was probably where we felt like we were really getting off the tourist track for the first time. The road to Tupiza is windy, bumpy and somewhat hair-raising in places, but incredibly beautiful. Amazing volcano shaped mountains. Add to that the setting-sun and pan-pipes playing on the stereo and we quickly regained our contentment.

Tupiza itself proved more diverting (though we did spend one afternoon happily lounging by the pool); we took in a variety of street-side-stalls, finding that there is more to South American street-cuisine than empanadas. How about llama stew with white corn and potatoes? Humintas (a semi-sweet, seasoned corn polenta-type cake, steamed in the corn husk) and multi-coloured jelly with whipped condensed milk on the top.

However, we didn't just eat. We also took one day to do the local 'triathlon', consisting of a couple of hours riding in a jeep, coupled to a couple of hours 'mountain-biking' before climbing on a horse for a saunter into the desert for a couple of hours. That seemed like the thing to do in the town that was the scene for Butch Cassidy's final shootout. OK, so the horses were not quite Champion-the-wonderhorse standard, but they were generally good humoured (Mad's particularly seemed to be having a laugh, stopping every few hundred metres to chow-down on whatever grazing was within easy-reach).

The bikes were a different matter. It seems the company had largely skipped bicycle maintenance 101, though they had apparently attended bicycle field-repairs 201, which gave them the skills needed to wedge an appropriate stick into the gear cable, thereby ensuring the bike stayed in a reasonable mid-range gear for the duration of the ride. We did each have at least one reasonable brake, which was handy given the finale of the triathlon was a 10km decent along another dusty, bumpy, windy mountain track. Despite all the dubious mechanical issues we had a hoot. Definitely earned a few more humintas after that😊

Scores on the saloon-doors: Pauly 6.5, Madly 7

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Photos

Tupiza market
Who will buy my boo-iful narnas

Forget the death road
This is the start of our downhill

Comments

[Deb n Des]

Show me the way to Machu Pichu
Hi, Thanks for stick/gear info, am sending in to Mountain Biking mag and will split the £50 Top Tip money! Ta for postcard even if you did go 5 star n fly in by helicopter- we'll forgive you, you are getting on a bit.... Can't wait to see the photos and see if I recognise any of it . Have fun x