Bolivia - Tupiza/Villazon

15th - 17th September ´08

Although we treated the southely towns of Tupiza and Villazon as mere overnight stopovers, they´re worth a brief mention in order to appreciate our road to Argentina. The initial 8 hour bus journey from Uyuni to Tupiza followed a similar hair-raising experience to our previous one... more cliff-winding roads, more bumpy terrain, more Bolivian odours, and more relief when it was finally over. Having arrived in sparsely populated Tupiza (approx. 20,000), the town offered little more than its wild-west´esque countryside (also the famous setting for the demise of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). With tranquil surroundings and comfortable hostels, it would have been easy to sleep off a couple of days here... however, in our current frames of mind we were eager to reach Argentina.

Our Bolivian road misfortunes ceased to disappoint the following afternoon... another 2 hour delay saw us patiently waiting on the dusty, half-broken benches of the bus depot... when we eventually set off on the final leg of our journey to Villazon our unmaintained vehicle had been filled to the brim (aisle included) with passengers from another broken down bus (notice a pattern here?)... And what should have been a straightforward 3 hour road-trip turned into 8 whilst we queued on the side of a carriageway for roadworks to complete. Continuing through the pitch-black rural lands, load-carrying locals would embark and disembark from some bizarrely remote sections of our trail... there was a real community feel to the whole episode with our driver offering rides to anyone requiring them (regardless of capacity), and selfless locals helping the hitch-hikers on board. Unfortunately, our delayed arrival into Villazon had seen the closure of the Bolivian Immigration Office, trapping in this haphazard border town for the night (our circumstance being the only excuse for spending a night here). On the flip-side, we had shared our enduring experiences with 4 other travellers (a Dutch couple and 2 Mancunians... United supporters... not so flip!) with whom we ended the night with refreshing beer and tasteless pizza.

The following morning more disorganised chaos ensued as the 6 of us attempted to cross the border into Argentina. After 1 hour of queuing for a Bolivian exit stamp (amongst a congregation of Eva Morales protestors) followed by 2 hours of endless queuing for an Argentian entry stamp, we congratulated ourselves on reaching our goal. With no time to spare we hailed down a couple of taxis for the bus station where we were relieved to board the next bus to Salta.