Tupiza

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Oh dear, I am very behind! Sorry! I have finally been able to find a place that will let me upload pictures and they are added to the last 4 entries - I´m On A Boat, Bariloche, Mendoza and Salta & Tilcara.

Tupiza was my first stop in Bolivia. To get there I had to get a bus to La Quiaca on the Argentine side of the border and then another bus from Villazon on the Bolivian side - it took all day. The journey to La Quiaca was gorgeous - the hills looked like they were made of sandpaper and powder paint.

Exiting Argenina took about 5 seconds. Entering Bolivia took about 2 hours. And I felt like I nearly died. Whether it was from the old pizza I had eaten for breakfast or from a bout of altitude sickness, I don´t know. In what I can only loosely describe as a queue at the Bolivian side of the border, I suddenly felt very faint and sick and had to crouch down over my rucksack. It was also pretty hot which wasn´t helping. There seemed to be two lines going into the immigration room. The exit was the same as the entrance so there was a bunch of people coming out constantly too. Then there were the people who were going in and out ignoring the queues. There was some chat over which queue was for entering and which was for exiting and none of it seemed to make any sense - I apparently was in the queue for exiting, even though I was in the line coming directly from Argentina, rather than the one coming from Villazon. At some point while I was crouched low with my eyes shut - but at the same time trying not to let too many people push past me - there was a clamour for the border police to organise the lines. They must have done so because when I felt able to stand up again, I was near the front of the queue and it really was a queue. Thankfully, I felt fine after that.

Villazon was very colourful compared to La Quiaca. I had an ice lolly, visited a stinky hole in the ground, riskily leaving my rucksack with the granny outside and waited for my bus to Tupiza. I waited an hour longer than I expected because I forgot about the time difference. The bus was unmistakably Bolivian - colourful, with slidey windows that probably don´t work, and cholas standing in the aisle with their possesions wrapped up in colourful blankets. The road was mostly bumpy and unpaved, but it seems they´re making a new paved road as from time to time we´d be on it. As seems very typical for Bolivian buses, we broke down on the way. I was quite impressed with the efficiency of the driver as he leapt from the vehicle, retrieved his toolbox and fixed whatever was broken; we were not more than half an hour late.

Tupiza looked very nice and I would have liked it a lot more had a Bad Thing not happened there. It´s small and dusty and surrounded by red, red mountains. You can do lots of horseriding there which I would have liked to do but...anyway. I was booked in at Hotel Mitru, the only place with a pool and also the home of Tupiza Tours, which had been recommended to me for the Salt Flats tour. You may not be able to understand how excited I was to have a room all to myself. With a private bathroom! It was heaven. I even had a TV. I´ve liked dorms and sharing with others - it´s a good way to meet people - but it was so lovely to have a break.

I went for dinner that evening to one of the many Pizzeria Italia restaurants (the pizza here is much better than in Argentina) with Tamara, whom I recognised from the hostel I´d stayed in in Salta. She was also with me the next night when my handbag was stolen, containing a whole bunch of cash, two cards, my mobile phone, my camera and a really crappy book about Eva Peron. I know, I know, shouldn´t have had all that on me, shouldn´t have taken the bag off. Anyway, Tamara was lovely and supportive and so were two other couples in the restaurant who were also staying at our hotel. I spoke with a policeman and he spoke with everyone else, and the upshot was that I had to go to the police station the next morning at 7am to get a report. They didn´t see me until 8 and I had to sit with the accused and his family all that time, which was a little odd. I did get to see the police do their morning national anthem singing and flag-raising though, which was interesting.

I got back to the hotel half an hour late for the tour, without any cash and owing the hotel 330 Bolivianos (33 quid). I was ina jeep with 4 others, including Tamara, and there was another jeep going too in which one of the couples who had helped me the previous night would be travelling. Everyone was very kind and understanding and I felt a lot better as soon as we got going!

Yes, there are no pictures of Tupiza. I only took five anyway and they´re the only ones that I lost, thank goodness.

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Comments

[Heather]

I really enjoyed reading your post about Bolivia! It reminds me of my own time in South America. My blog is looking for travel photos, etc, to share. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email me at [e-mail]. Continued fun on your travels! Heather :)

[Jess]

oh dear, sorry to hear about the bag snatch, no-one can pass through south america without being some sort of victim of some sort of crime. did you get anything back? chin up, keep trucking x x x

[emskibub]

Yes, I was expecting it at some point. Luckily they didn´t get much that can´t be replaced. Could have been way worse! x