TUPIZA–22nd Oct

Potosi

Bolivian toilet break (ie: pee beside the bus!)

We only stopped in Potosi for one night as a means to get to the next place. The only 'attraction' here is the still active silver mines, which we decided against seeing because of the bad conditions down there and general danger of the mines themselves.
 Still, we enjoyed our evening, before travelling onto Tupiza the next morning. It was another 12 hour bus journey on a windy dirt road on the side of a mountain – not for the faint hearted! We found it pleasant though, but then again we had travelled almost to the South of Bolivia by bus – always long journeys with no air con/ toilet on board/ meals!

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Tupiza was a small, quiet, sunny village – reminded us a little of Rurrenabaque, the gateway to our Amazon trip, except not picturesque. It certainly wasn’t the town & it’s numerous bad pizzerias(all named ‘Italiano/ Italiana’!) that attracted visitors here – more it’s surrounding landscape. About a mile outside town on either side Tupiza suddenly transformed into a desert – like landscape with white sandy roads, tall multicoloured red & brown rock on either side – sometimes freestanding pole-like rocks, and cactus sprouting up randomly perfecting the picture. It was like being in an old Western movie – and why wouldn’t it since this area was where Jesse James and The Sundance Kid finally came to their deaths!

We booked ourselves in with Tupiza Tours for a ‘Triathlon’ tour for the next day, Sunday. Later on, we discovered that there was no ATM in town, we had about e20 to do us until Monday, and no money to pay for the Triathlon. After speaking with Archie though in Tupiza tours, he very generously offered the option of paying for both the Triathlon & Salt Flat tour when we returned from Uyuni in 5 days ("I trust you because you're Irish"!). We owed them probably 2 month’s or more Bolivian wages so this was a massive favour for us and a big deal for him.

The Triathlon consisted of a tour by minibus around the outskirts, a 3 hour horse ride, then mountain biking downhill from one of the surrounding mountains into the town.

After the bus tour and lunch we were dropped off at the stables outside town to pick up our horses. Given we were all beginners except Niall, we naturally assumed our horses would all be old quiet donkey types, to accommodate for our lack of experience. I had forgotten though – this is Bolivia! My horse was a small 3 year old cranky beast, that didn’t want me on his back at all! After my first hour of trying to hold him back, at the same time with all the other (better behaved) horses also attempting to gallop to keep up to Niall’s giddy tall gelding; I finally got off when we stopped for a break. I sensed if I stayed on any longer that he’d eventually try to throw me off, and anyway – I just couldn’t control the lunatic! The scenery was amazing though and everyone seemed to really enjoy the trip. So after our break and short stroll around, me & the guide swapped horses and we all finally made it back to the stables!

We were then driven to the top of a windy road on the side of a mountain where we picked up our bikes. The journey down was so much fun. The group was really easy going and stopping on most corners for photos, since the views were so spectacular. Also, the road wasn’t quite as steep as the one we did in Sucre meaning the pace was easier and not as dangerous, so we all thoroughly enjoyed the 20km spin down – taking us about an hour.

Back at the office we had a chat with Ali & Brendan from Australia, who were on the tour that day and were also planning to join a tour the next day to the Salt Flats. Since we all got along so well we figured why not ask Archie in Tupiza Tours if he can get the four of us into the same jeep – after all, 4 days in a jeep and sleeping in the same room can be very long if you don’t all get along! So the ever – accommodating Archie changed a few things around to get the four of us into the same jeep for the tour and we all headed back to our hostels for a shower and an early night (after another crappy pizza!). Tupiza tours proved to be one of the best tour companies we had dealt with during our entire stay in South America. The next day we would embark on our second biggest adventure in South America – The Uyuni Salt Flats!