Crossing the border and adventures in Villazon

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No pictures in this one: I thought it was worth posting this short entry as we do not often get to cross land boundaries in the EU anymore and it was also the most uncomfortable day of the holiday so far, for reasons I will explain.

The night bus from Salta left at 00.45. The red wine and steak did not help and I had a very bad night´s sleep. We arrived early and it was barely light and freezing cold. I got a taxi to the Immigraciones and joined the already large queue knowing that the officals would not be there for another two hours. We got hrough the Argentinian side and then had to wait while the Bolivian officials photocopied some immigration forms to fill out . How could they run out of forms! But I got into Bolvia OK.

Villazon is a bt of a dump and only good for transport links to elsewhere in Bolivia. Hot, dusty and 3500m high. This meant doing anythng strenuous, like walking, talking or breathing, was much more tiring than at lower altitudes. Pretty soon bad headcahes and a feeling of nausea kicked in, mixed with tiredness from coach, this was not good. Shared a cab with anothr couple to the railway station as I could not face walk with ruck sack.

Nausea and headaches all made trying to recover wash bag containing malarone (malaria pills) from back of taxi more difficult. What was wash bag doing in back of taxi? I was air drying by carrying it around with me as shower gel had burst open and I went for a walk into town and got another taxi back to the station where I left the wash bag. Flagged down another taxi and manged to explain that i had left a small bag in a cab and we went to the cab office but it was not there so we cruised various taxi ranks till, by some luck, we found the driver who returned the bag, complete with malarone. I suppose the drugs coud have been replaced bt it would have been inconvenient.

Scond issue: No train, due to flooding on the line, or leaves or a cow. Or whatever. Given that there is only one train a day this is a bit of an issue. We had also waited most of the day to be informed of this So it was a mad dash from the train station to the bus station to get a bus to Tupiza before bight fall.
I am not a train freak but this was the only train I was going to get in South America so i was a bit disappointed. The train was also meant to be a bit quicker and more comfortable than the bus. Still, the bus ride at least provided a taste of things to come and , in hindsight, was not as bad as it could have been. The main problem is that there are no tarmac roads in the southern part of Bolivia so the buses )and cars) run on gravel roads. It was a very bumpy journey and only slightly hair raising. Amazing desert scenery and Tupiza, in a little river valley was quite green and fertile, in comparison.

But we arrived in one piece, still with Jen and Lee, the couple from the train station, we were ensnared by one of the travel agents running the salt flat tours. She needed three people to make up a tour group and offered us free accomodation as an incentive. We accpeted after some umming and awing, and ended quitre a long and stressful day. Again wth hindsight, we landed on our feet.

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