Busride - Blogabond

We had planned to catch a train to Tupiza that night but the tickets were sold out and we were forced into yet another early start in order to catch the 6am bus the next morning. It was a no frills affair – the bus was filled with the frost of morning and people wearing an unreasonable amount of blankets. We were forced to sit apart as it was already so crowded and we both found ourselves next to bulky Bolivians enveloped in hundreds of warm, enviable layers. I waited until my guy had fallen asleep before I considered cuddling him but eventually decided against it. In between broken sleeps I noticed a great deal of banter around a guy getting on with a huge wheelbarrow. It was a strange morning but when I did finally rouse myself somewhere towards consciousness we slowed and stopped off at a small mountain town for breakfast.

The landscape had changed once again and now we were in the presence of cows and goats who grazed in dry fields- I took this to be a sign that we were no longer so uninhabitably high in the mountains. Soon the sun drove all the cold from the bus, I was sweating now (you really can’t win with these Bolivian bus rides) and shedding layers as I looked out onto cactus strewn hills and immense, towers of layered rock. The landscape was that of a Western film. By the time we reached Tupiza I was wearing a t-shirt and feeling suitably smug to be able to do so.

The following three days were dedicated to hot showers and lie-ins. After the hotels of Potosi and Uyuni, our new abode seemed extravagantly comfortable. It even had a kitchen so we could make our own breakfasts and lunches and then consume unhealthy amounts of burgers and fried chicken from the street stalls by night. Relaxation and cholesterol aside, there wasn´t a great deal of anything in Tupiza and soon we were restless and eager to get to Argentina, our first stop being the capital of culture, Cordoba.

written by

steve_stamp on August 6, 2009 from Tupiza, Bolivia

from the travel blog: The art of being lost

tagged Busride, Wheelbarrow, Tupiza, HotShowers and Streetfood

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Tupiza

Tupiza, Bolivia

Heading South?