Day 191 - Wednesday 29th March 2006

Arriving at the Bolivian border at 7am the formalities were pretty straightforward and I got another stamp in my passport. It was immediately obvious as I walked from the border to the bus terminal that Bolivia was definately not a first world country.

The streets were littered with bags of rubbish, the contents strewn out over the pavements, stray dogs picking out the edible contents and barking at passers by, as well as each other. The people looked much more haggard and the shops all sold second hand clothes or were offering change of Pesos and Dollars. A typical border town, and it reminded me a lot of Guatemala or Honduras.

Not really offering much in the way of tourist attractions, we caught the first available bus, headed towards the town of Tupiza, 2 hours, 80km and B10 (B13=£1) away.

Despite reminding me of Guatemala, the bus wasn’t a chicken bus, however it was a mixed bag of blessings. In Bolivia there are no paved roads in the south, which meant two hours of bone-crunching pot holes in the dirt track. After two hours my entire body was totally shaken up and I needed a kip and a shower, especially after the night bus to reach the border.

After 2hrs we arrivedand sorted ourselves out, booking a 4 day jeep safari into the Salt Plains and the scenic south west of the country. We paid US$100 each (all food/drinks, lodging and guide were included) and would leave on the Friday, which gave us a day and a half to explore Tupiza and its surroundings. First stop was a lookout point over the town and the multicoloured mountains that rimmed the valley.

It wasn’t a very lively town and there wasn’t really much to see, so feeling a little dazed after the long journey I read and tried to use the internet, but it was the slowest connection ever so frustrated I gave up and went to the hostel to grab 40 winks. Waking up sometime after dark the lads had purchased some of the local firewater to celebrate our arrival in Bolivia. It was sold by the litre from a vat and could probably strip paint. After polishing it off there wasn’t much else to do so it was off to bed for me.