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Published: August 31st 2012
San Vincente
Not Butch's graveWe hadn’t got a lot of sleep over the last couple of days so when the alarm went off at 7.30 it was hard for us to stumble out of our bed. Despite having our crappy heater on all night in our tiny room we still woke up freezing. The breakfast was surprisingly good with a good variety but the only problem was that they let a busker in to perform whilst we ate. Of course as he only performed one pathetic song on a Ukulele and then went around demanding money off everyone. Absolute bullshit to be subjected to this sort of rubbish over your morning coffee, particularly when after giving him all the change we had on us he stood there demanding more……welcome to Bolivia.
Didn’t have a lot planned today other than recovering. Uyuni is a fairly small compact town with not a lot to see or do but today the festival was continuing so it made for interesting viewing. We have quickly realised that Bolivians love to party and they party hard, and on our walk this morning it seemed as if every second guy was carrying a crate full
On the road to Tupiza
The lovely town of Atocha of beer……this is my kind of town. First thing this morning we wandered up to get bus tickets out of town and we had three choices all of which weren’t overly appealing but we are now in Bolivia so we can’t expect top notch first class. After wandering around town for a while we stopped at a café for a coffee and watched the world passing by. Spent the afternoon writing up our blog as that seemed a little more interesting than the town.
At 5 we headed out for a beer and a game of chess at the Whipala pub whilst watching the passing parade outside the window. The parade started this morning about 11 and was still going strong , and to our utter surprise seemed still fairly orderly. We had seen so much alcohol being passed around this morning so expected a messy afternoon and night but most people seemed reasonably sober and well behaved. After our beer and a game of chess we went and had dinner at a place called “camel” that promised Middle Eastern food but we were in for a rude shock. Our first sign that the restaurant was absolute crap was
when a couple of locals walked out after getting served soup without paying. The waitress was less than apathetic and struggled to even care about taking our order and then failed to even speak to other customers who came and went without getting any attention. An older guy turned up who we assumed was her father and may have had TB by the way he coughed whilst folding napkins….mental note don’t touch the napkins. We could cope with all of this but when the waitress sat at the next table and started picking her nose whilst watching the television, we just knew that we had a winner in the worst restaurant in South America…welcome to Bolivia.
The digital readout in the main plaza showed that the temperature was at 8 degrees when we left the restaurant but it felt closer to zero. The town was still buzzing with pumping ear splitting music and hundreds of dancers and endless fireworks….this was party central. We walked around for half an hour taking in the vibe but the cold eventually got to us so we headed home to the warmth of our room.
Day 319 Saturday 25th August Tupiza
La Poronga The alarm went off at 4.45…oh crap, just hate these early starts. We dragged ourselves out of bed and did our last bit of packing, before sticking our heads into the dining area where the owner had told us yesterday that she would leave out a thermos for tea and coffee as well as some bread rolls for our early morning bus. Well we discovered that she had left us nothing, which was what we had expected. At 5.45 we crept out of the hotel and made our way to the Bus station in total darkness passing heaps of locals making their way home after “a big night”. Unsure if this is a regular occurrence in Uyuni on weekends or if it was because of the festival but the thumping music went all night and only stopped at 5.10 as we were getting ready to leave. When we got to the street where our bus was parked there was a digital readout of the time and temperature and on our arrival it read -5 and by the time we got underway the temperature had dropped further to -7, so yes it was very cold.
Our Bolivian bus was a
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La Poronga bit of a wreck, which we expected and when they started it, the whole street was filled with a huge plume of smoke that reminded me of one of Dad’s vintage bikes, this isn’t what I would want from a bus I was about to take a 7 hour trip on. We didn’t get underway till 6.15 and there was a slight draft in the bus so we were frozen to the bone and kept wishing for the sun to rise so it would warm up our tin can. The road to Tupiza ended up being a rough dirt road and we crossed many frozen streams along the way. At 8.30 we came to a stop at the town of Atocha and straight away we knew we were going to be here for a while, as the bus reversed into a spot and shut the engine off. Well we sat and waited and then waited some more. We got off and walked around a bit taking in the lovely town we had found ourselves in. Recently they released a list of the most livable cities in the world and Melbourne topped the list, and I am fairly confident if they
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La Poronga compiled a list of the “most unlivable” cities Atocha would probably come a close second…after Bulahdelah of course. The town was really just a large collection of wrecked vehicles with a stream/sewer running through it, and lucky us we were stuck there for two and a half hours. By the time we left the town near 10.45, we were starting to wonder why our bus had to leave Uyuni at 6.00am and couldn’t have left at a more Godly hour….welcome to Bolivia.
Well to make up for the early start and the long delay we got to see some incredible countryside especially the closer we got to Tupiza, this land is amazing. About twenty minutes from our destination our bus had to stop at a road side sign so our conductor could climb on top of it to reach the high windows where he had to do some silastic work. Sort of guessed that this is where the breeze was coming from, and wondered why he couldn’t have waited till we got to town, I also wondered why I keep wondering about such things and trying to apply logic to situations where logic doesn’t exist. Well the guy with
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View of La Poronga from the road the sealent gun did a good job as we arrived in Tupiza in one piece at 1.30pm and after putting on our very dusty bags we headed into town to look for a hotel. First stop was at the Mitru Hotel where we got a good room for 200 Bob ($29). Did have a bit of a confusing Spanglish conversation where he was only going to give us the room for one night but in the end we got it for the three we wanted it for…we think.
After dropping off our bags we walked into the centre of town for a feed and whilst sitting in a restaurant spotted Sophia and Lea who were the two German girls from our tour to Uyuni. Had a chat to them as well as a feed before heading back to our hotel to look into doing some tours. Our hotel has a large commercial tour group attached to it and we dropped in to investigate what we could do in the area over the next couple of days. The prices were a lot higher than what we expected but after spending the afternoon stewing over the pros and cons we booked
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Canon del Duende two days of tours with them. We are sure there are a lot cheaper options in town but “Tupiza tours” has a good name and thought we might as well jump in boots and all, as we may never return to this corner of the world again.
After booking the tours we had a well deserved shower and headed out for another stroll around town. Thankfully the only working ATM in town was able to spit some cash our way so we could at least pay for our hotel and some food. Around the main plaza was a huge parade of school children aged about 6 to 8 carrying candle lanterns. Unsure what the reason was but there was a little level of mayhem involved and we wondered how many kids went home with hot wax running down their arms. Had dinner at a Mexican/Italian restaurant, (which may seem odd but the town is filled with them), and got a fairly average feed but it did only cost us 61 Bob ($9). The town is fairly unremarkable but does have a nice laid back feeling about it and Shelley loves it for the fact that it is at least
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Canon del Duende warmer than Uyuni. We both can’t wait to get out and check out the surrounding scenery the next couple of days.
Day 320 Sunday 26th August The hotel breakfast was yet another appalling feast of stale bread rolls and little else. Thought maybe there were nothing open in town and that was why we got served rubbish but we would later pass three open bakeries. After putting up with stale bread rolls and bad coffee we got ready for our day on the road and then went downstairs where our driver “Freddy” picked us up at 9.30. Freddy couldn’t speak a word of English and didn’t try too hard to be understood but it generally wasn’t too much of a problem to us as today was all about seeing the scenery. We had the whole jeep to ourselves and it felt so good to be chauffer driven around and being able to stop where ever we wanted to take in a view and photograph it. On the drive in yesterday we passed so much amazing scenery that we wanted to photograph but couldn’t so it was great to now be able to see and do it.
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In the Canon del Duende The trip started with us heading north out of town to see the amazing land formations at Choroma Mines, Monte Rico and La Poronga, all of which are weird shaped multi coloured rock formations. We drove back into town, picked up our lunch boxes and headed out south to Canon Del Duende. To get there we had to pass through a narrow crack in the mountainside where Freddy parked the jeep and we got out for a forty minute hike down the canyon. This ground here is mostly soft volcanic ash that is easily eroded by wind and the occasional rain and is turned into thin tall fins or towers. A lot of the soil is a deep green, blue and red colour caused by lead and other minerals. We walked as far as we could down the Canon Del Duende to the point where we had to crawl on our hands and knees beneath large boulders, and we then had to turn back. The soil here ranged from ground as hard as concrete to loose soft almost shale like stuff that dissolved in your hand like a Cadbury flake. In some areas the cliffs were dotted with green
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Further inside the Canon splotches that must have been some sort of copper. Walking down this canyon made us realise how dangerous it would be to be here in a flash flood with the high sides making it a perfect trap.
Got back to the jeep and we were driven to a lovely spot on the Rio San Juan where Freddy fed us a filling and tasty lunch of Tamales containing spicy llama meat, ham and cheese bread rolls and fruit. We had time before and after lunch to walk around the river and enjoy the quiet solitude and view. Unfortunately like a lot of beautiful places in Bolivia the area was smothered in litter. The level of rubbish in this country is staggering and way beyond anything we have ever seen before, it is a real shame. We understand with so many social problems in Bolivia it is hard to prioritize a campaign to reduce rubbish but when you travel through kilometre after kilometre of fields covered with plastic bags it really is depressing.
After lunch we were driven around to the Puerta Del Diablo, (Door of the Devil) which is a high long fin of basalt similar to the breadknife
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Shelley crawling through the Canon at the Warrumbungle Mountains. Around the corner from there was Valle de Los Machos (Valley of the males), which has tall rock formations similar to penises. Once again we were reminded of the rock formations we had seen in Cappadocia Turkey, and although they may be more numerous there that didn’t diminish how amazing these ones are. A bit further along we stopped once again so we could walk down El Canon Del Inca. This valley was probably the least impressive for the day and we couldn’t walk very far as it was blocked by huge boulders, but the high sides of coloured rock were still amazing.
We then headed back to town and then south along a great paved road that led to Argentina but 10km from town we stopped at El Angosty for a look over the old and new road tunnels. The final stop of the day was 4km further along at a lookout over the confluence of the Rio San Juan and the Rio Tupiza. Freddy took us for a walk down to the river and under a rail bridge and further along the river to La Torre, which is a huge rock tower along
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Inside Canon del Duende the river bank. At 3.30 we returned to the jeep and were driven back to the hotel. Today had been expensive but was worth every penny because the scenery was absolutely sublime. Bolivia so far has been one surprise after another and the countryside is incredible and as amazing as Uyuni has been Tupiza is just as great.
We dumped our camera bag back at our room we headed down to the bus station to get tickets out of town. Didn’t have a lot of luck with this simple task and were met with blank stares and misinformation so resolved to ask the tour agent at our hotel when they open in the morning about tickets. Near the bus terminal was a small street fare with kids rides, cake stalls and chance game. There were also a large number of foose ball games and billiard tables set up in the street for people to play. We picked up a bag full of small pastries for 4 Bob (60c) and had a great pre dinner snack.
Back at our room we had a shower before heading out to dinner and ended up getting a fairly good pizza at a
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Train bridge over Rio San Juan restaurant we had lunch at yesterday.
Day 321 Monday 27th August Our trip yesterday kicked off at 9.30 but today’s was 8 so we were up extra early. Breakfast was supposed to start at 7 but when we went downstairs there was no sign of life and when we returned at 7.45 they were just opening the doors for some other tourists…welcome to Bolivia. Thankfully our jeep didn’t turn up till 8.15 and once again we got Freddy. Before heading out of town we had to stop at Freddy’s place so he could pick up his breakfast and then on the outskirts of town we had to once again to stop at a control point/toll booth. Every vehicle coming or leaving Tupiza through any road has to stop at these places, where a rope is tied across the road and the driver has to get out pay some money and we think leave his details. Once this is done the rope is lowered and you can proceed and had me glad that they don’t have the same sort of toll booths on the harbour bridge. Whilst at this stop point Freddy’s sister jumped on board and
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On the way back from San Vincente we gave her a lift out to the middle of nowhere so she could tend to her llamas….well we think that’s what he was telling us.
Freddy stopped heaps along the way today so we could get photos and one of the best was at El Sillar (the saddle), which is where the road straddles a narrow ridge between two peaks and two valleys. The drop on one side was dramatic enough to keep Shelley away from it and the views over the nearby valleys were sensational. Our drive today was out to the small mining town of San Vincente, which is 115 km from Tupiza through once again varying and amazing landscapes. We travelled up to nearly 5000 metres, saw lots of mines and hundreds of llamas and a few Vicunas before we got to the town at around 11.00.
Why San Vincente? Well this was the location of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids final showdown and although there is next to nothing left to see here we just felt like we needed to make the journey. The story goes that Butch and Sundance along with Sundances girlfriend Etta Place arrived in South America in 1901
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Scott has a makeover and proceeded to rob banks in Argentina. Etta Place returned to America in 1905 and literally disappears for all time and to this day no one knows what happens to her. Butch and Sundance continue planning for their supposed final robbery that will set them up for retirement and set about stealing the payroll from a silver mine in Bolivia. On 3
rd November 1908 they held up the courier and discovered that instead of having $480,000 he only had $92,000. Dispirited they visited a friend and eventually ended up at the small town of San Vincente on the 6
th of November. Of course after the robbery the posses were looking for them and after a tip off by the hotel owner in San Vincente 3 soldiers came to apprehend them. In the ensuing gun battle, one soldier was killed and Butch and Sundance were both wounded, and because they were trapped in a building with no chance of escape, Butch shot Sundance and then killed himself, (nothing like the Hollywood ending). The guy that was robbed identified the bodies, at that stage unknown and they were buried in the local cemetery. Since then a plethora of circumstantial evidence has come
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Centre of town to light saying that the two outlaws did not die in San Vincente but returned to the USA, but nothing has yet been proven.
Today San Vincente which for a lot of years was an ex mining town is once again a mining town and the once near ghost town has seen an explosion in its population with dozens of prefab homes lining the streets. On our arrival our driver parked his jeep and with a hasty explanation ran off leaving us wondering where he had gone too. Ended up he had just run off to find the custodian of the tiny museum and he then returned to grab us. It cost us 20 Bob ($3) each to walk the one room museum that was filled with all sorts of stuff but nothing that had any original connection to the famous incident. After our five minute look we were taken up the road and shown the building where the shootout occurred, which unfortunately is now a church and was locked.
From here we walked up the hill from town to the cemetery where we had to climb over the side wall to gain access and see Butch Cassidy’s
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Mountains grave. It is a bit of a joke really because despite extensive searching the remains of both outlaws have never been found so the spot marked as Butch’s grave is really just a guess. Shelley came up with the great theory that due to the fact that they were outlaws and killed themselves it is highly unlikely that they would have buried them in the general very Christian cemetery and perhaps they were buried outside the walls. But without the bodies it is easy to see why so many people believe they lived on. The cemetery was a crowded unkempt place and it was sad to see an above ground grave of a small child had collapsed leaving the tiny wooden coffin exposed to the elements, unsure how old it was but I guess maybe the child’s parents are no longer around either to care for the grave.
After seeing the supposed grave of Butch we returned to our jeep and then drove out of town to a pretty spot where we stopped for lunch. On the long return to town we once again stopped heaps of times for photo opportunities of the amazing countryside. Today’s journey was expensive
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Beautiful mountains and in fact was double yesterdays but was worth every penny. There really isn’t a lot to see at San Vincente except just getting a buzz of seeing the scene of the shootout but the scenery there and back is well worth it. We haven’t been to Arizona, Utah or any of those classic American “cowboy countries” but the scenery looks just like the cowboy movies and you could just imagine the duo riding through these valleys and over the hills.
When we got dropped back at our hotel we said goodbye to Freddy and then spoke to our travel agent about getting bus tickets for tomorrow. They couldn’t help us but gave us a recommendation of a company to buy from down at the terminal. Walked back down to the terminal and then had to sit and wait thirty minutes for someone to turn up and sell us the tickets…did I tell you this is a very laid back country?
Once we got our tickets it was 5 so we headed into town for a beer and then back to the hotel so we can jump on the computer and organise a hotel for our next town.
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Natural Rock formations resembling a fortress The WiFi is really crap and the only place you can get a signal is in the foyer, which I think will be the norm in Bolivia. Had dinner at yet another Italian restaurant before coming home to pack. Moving on to Potosi tomorrow and although the town of Tupiza isn’t much to look at the surrounding area is magnificent and it is going to be hard to leave.
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traudy glasencnik
non-member comment
hey guys x
I was just thinking that whilst looking at the pictures and reading thru, it does look like the scenery out of an ole spagetti western. Incredible viewing, the colours and the textures of the rock formations. I also thought those spire things looked like penises, not that I've ever seen a penis that BIG!!! Ever. xx