Tupiza tales

27th - 28th January, Tupiza Bolivia

Well, turns out Sucre wasn't done with us yet. We got to the bus station and stocked up on snacks, only to be then told that there was a blockade near Potosi so no buses were running to anywhere. Immediately I ran to the bus counter that sold us our tickets and they were very nice about giving us the full refund immediately. This is apparently very common in Bolivia, and the worst part is they don't ever know when the blocade will end so you need to go to the bus station everyday!

We didn't worry too much, we went back to 7 Patas which luckily still had rooms and played matchstick poker till late. We cancelled our Tupiza hostel but the next morning I found out that the strike was over. So Bernie and I rushed to the bus station and bought the last 4 available tickets - the best news was that our Icelander felt well enough to come with us! Unfortunately they didn't have the sleeper bus options on this one, but 8 hours isn't really too bad. 

After a lovely afternoon chat with the latest arrivals at 7 Patas, it was finally time to say goodbye again. We got to the station, paid the leaving tax and were on a nice bus. The Bolivian buses are notorious for having toilets on board that are locked during the entire journey and the buses don't stop either, so I was prepared and stopped consuming any liquids from 2 pm. But actually, this bus made a dinner stop so all was good. 

We reached Tupiza at 4 am which is the worst time to reach anywhere, but we immediately got into a cab and made our way to the originally booked hostel Los Salares. We'd called the hostel earlier and they were okay with us showing up at that hour. Luckily, the owner actually did open the door, and since we had paid for the room for 2 days, he led us straight to our rooms to sleep! Beauts. 

Woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny day and a very different landscape outside our window. When we got out of the hostel, we were all so surprised to see this lonely building, it looks half done (as do all the buildings in Bolivia) but actually the rooms are really nice. We walked 5 mins to the center of this shabby little town as the clouds gathered. I began cursing the guy who recommended we visit Tupiza because it's not pretty, and the tours from here to the Salt Flats are an extra day.

We found the tour agencies and then were told that they couldn't do the 3 night 4 day tour and drop us off at San Pedro de Atacama in Chile; instead we have to go all around the Flats and back to the start, and then back down to Chile. A whole extra day and night in extreme cold and high altitudes. I was not happy as you can imagine. I don't know why I agree to veer off my heavily researched plans, but now I know better. We went ahead and booked the tour with Torro Tours for 1,250 Bolivianos pp that starts tomorrow morning. I have researched and researched and researched... And I know it's going to be freezing cold, and the altitude reaches 5,000 meters above sea level, and the accommodation is very basic... But every single person has said that Salar de Uyuni is the most amazing thing they've seen so I'm going to put away all my apprehensions and quietly wear my thermals!

Anyway, it began raining very heavily so we ran into the first pizzeria and it turned out to be absolutely delicious, definitely the best so far in South America. We will probably return to London connoisseurs of Italian food and hamburgers, it's almost the national food of Bolivia!

The rain has been belting down and the roads turned into rivers so we rushed back home. Unfortunately, none of the ATMs were working with any of our cards, so we all are surviving on a kitty of 20 bolivianos, hoping that we can pull out money at 7 am tomorrow before our tour begins. Hasta la vista, next blog post from Chile!