Into Bolivia

Land border crossings can sometimes be quite eventful but thankfully getting from Argentina to Bolivia was not too dramatic. Where we crossed, there was simply a bridge that you can walk across with border check points at each side. The whole area was full of activity as the locals would carry big bags of goods across from Argentina to Bolivia, and then hurry back to get more – they looked like a line of ants! The paperwork formalities on the Argentinean side were straightforward although the Bolivian guard had to check his list a number of times to make sure Estonians were allowed in. He gave Kadi one stamp, had to re-check his list, hesitated a little (probably still couldn’t find Estonia) and then gave her the other approval stamp anyway. They also ask your occupation and for some reason when Kadi said she was a Nurse (“Enfermena” in Espanol) the guard sought some clarification, but when Conor explained he was an Actuary, there were no questions asked (they must have loads of actuaries passing through these parts!)

The Bolivian side had a lot more activity than the Argentinean side. It was funny to see massive bags of Coca leaves for sale: the leaves that they use to make Cocaine with. They are legal here and they also chew them (for a mild stimulant effect) and drink it in their tea (to help with altitude sickness). From here, we took a 2½ hour bus up to the tourist town of Tupiza, where we spent the next few days. Things are a lot poorer here (as was obvious from the state of the shoddy bus and dusty roads) but also a lot cheaper (the bus ride cost us just €1.50 each).

Tupiza itself is a nice little town and there are a range of activities such as hiking / horse-riding / mountain-biking to keep you busy during the day, but we planned to use this place as a base to start our tour of the nearby Salar de Uyuni (more on that later). However, things are extremely quiet here at the moment so it took us a while before we could find a group who wanted to do a similar tour as us. (The guest houses and restaurants are empty, and tour agencies are regularly harassing us to take tours with them....hard to believe that in August, the town was so full that some back-packers were even sleeping on the streets!) Nevertheless, we passed the time easily, and managed to fit in a 2-day horse-riding trip into the countryside.

These were our horses, Spirit (left) and Moro (right)

The horse-trek was fantastic, and we passed through some really stunning scenery (around mountains, through valleys and towns, across rivers and long grassy fields). We both had minimal horse-riding experience before but we were equipped with genuine cowboy hats and bandanas so we looked like the real deal :) The horses were fairly well trained and (usually) did what they were told. Most of the time we were just trotting along but every so often the horses would get a notion to just go for it and they’d gallop along with us holding on tight! Some experience! Most of our pictures are of the back of Kadi since her horse (Moro) had a bit of an attitude and always wanted to be in front. Whenever Moro would stop to eat some grass, Conor would use the opportunity to get in front and go for it with his horse (Spirit) – but sure enough, when Moro was finished the grass, it would start galloping until it was in front again! :)

We stayed in a very quiet town that night when seemed to have no life (it had no shops or bars) and it wasn’t until we were eating dinner in the homestead later that we realised THIS was the happening place, as some locals came in and bought beer from the house-keeper and sat down to watch the tv. After 2 days on the saddle, our butts were glad to take a break for a while!

We should make a special mention of the restaurants in Tupiza. There are about 6 tourist orientated restaurants in the town and they all seem to look exactly the same and have the same menu. They also like to blast(!) the tv showing coverage of some recent street festival or Bolivian folk music. Plus (probably because it is out of season) they are all fairly empty all of the time so the service is fairly unenthusiastic. Just yesterday, we were in a family-run place where we were served dinner and drinks by a 12 and 14 year old, while their older sister breast-feeded her baby nearby and the brother lounged on the chairs and watched the tv. It’s a different world here :)

Tomorrow we are setting off on a 5-day tour of the South-West Circuit (including the Salar de Uyuni) and we’ll update you on that when we get back (if we can find interweb!)