Tupiza

Monday 8th November

Near here is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their maker, al least according to one version. I did a lot of internetting and managed a little siesta of 3 hours. The Salar had worn me out. Marianne wandered round town and saw the train which goes to the border and north. Weather warm and short pant worn. We went to the bus depot to try and sort out tickets for the journey south to Argentina. We refused an offer from a ticket tout for a direct journey to San Salvador de Jujuy which involved a bus coming from La Paz.  Clearly he was on more than coca tea! Not a chance.

We settled for a ticket to Villazon, the Bolivian border town and worked out that, with a bit of luck and a fair wind we could catch the 15.11 from La Quiaca  (Argentine border) to SS de Jujuy.

Tuesday 9th November

We had the oldest bus in the world to the border terminal. The road is also in a state of renewal so the journey was quite bone shaking. Nevertheless we arrived on time and walked the 7 blocks in the heat to the border. We went through customs and immigration very quickly and there were no forms to fill in. We took a taxi to the bus terminal at La Quiaca. The Balut bus 15.10 to SS de Jujuy was fully booked so we took the 15.11 to the same destination. The original bus should have taken 5 hours and ours 6 hours. As it turned out the 15.10 got stopped at 2 road blocks ( everybody out and full luggage search (drugs from Bolivia)) and we arrived first at about 21.00.

We took a taxi to Wok Yahi hostel ( it means happy home in Quechwa).