From Argentina to Bolivia

After crossing the border from Argentina to Bolivia, the difference in countries is striking. The first challenge (Bolivia is full of challenges) was getting across the border. The formalities were easy enough, albeit some complicated questions in Spanish (am I a terrorist? have I ever been involved in sabotage?) that I managed to translate. The real challenge was walking through the narrow corridor, trying to avoid the hundreds of people running through the same corridor with what looked like heavy sacks of cement on their backs. They were obviously getting paid per sack, as I said they were running through, and didn´t appreciate being held up by us and our backpacks. There was not enough room to overtake and I couldn´t run like them, even with half the weight on my back, so they pushed us through instead.

Safely across the border, I got very confused with the time difference (I put my watch forward instead of back), I had to wait 3 hours instead of 1 for a bus. I passed the time eating crap food in a cheap cafe (missing Argentinian food already), and warding off the beggers that kept asking me for money.

On the bus, as there was no air-conditioning (I´m missing Argentinian buses too), I nearly passed out with the heat. I have never been so hot in my life, but annoyingly, as I sat there in t-shirt and shorts, the woman next to me had a thick jumper and heavy shawl on. I was saved by a friendly German, who gave me his seat next to the only window that would open. After what seemed like hours, we arrived in Tupiza.

Tupiza is a funny little place, at first I didn´t like the dirty and dusty town, as it seemed to be deserted. I then decided to avoid the expensive tourist cafes, and find where the locals hang out. Although at first the restaurants looked pretty awful - very stark, no decoration, bright neon lighting, a TV blaring in the corner and questionable hygine, the lack of ´put on´ atmosphere was more than made up for by the atmosphere created by the locals chatting and laughing. And of course it is incredibly cheap, a decent meal for less than 1 pound.

Tupiza really felt like ´wild west´country, with a desert like-landscape with loads of red & brown rocks & mountains surrounding it, and cool cacti. Cacti that was at least 25ft tall, and with huge spikes. It is even close to the place where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are supposed to have died in a shoot out. With countryside like this, I had to go horse-riding.

The horse I got was very lazy, and it took all my effort just to make it canter for a short while. At least I wasn´t afraid of it taking off. Annoyed with my stupid horse, I just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery instead. As I said, it was stunning, rocks and hills of all colours and shapes and sizes imaginable. I now know how they used to cross the desert by saying ´turn right at the elephant shaped rock´and ´left and the rock with the funny top´. I saw rocks that were 40ft high, just as wide, but had a depth of about 3ft. They stuck up out of the mountains like someone had just thrown them in there. I saw huge pillars of rocks in a place called ´valley of the chicos (valley of the young men)´. They really did look like people, well people who were extremely tall with no arms anyway.