Tupiza, Bolivia

Tupiza was pleasant and relaxed, we passed through some dramatic scenery on the way on thetrain and got nabbed by 2 women at the station as we looked for accomodation. We ended up in a reasonable hotel with inquisitive kids. Tupiza is set in the middle of a series of reddy / silver hills and there were good views out over the surrounding area from a Jesus statue mounted on a nearby hill. We watched kids doing the long jump at school from up high. The markets here are amazing and theres more fruit, electronics, pants, socks and weird things like llama feotus that you can buy. If you want good luck bury a llama feotus under your house. The mandarins here are the best I ever tasted and I never really liked them before...

Billy the Kid & Butch cassidy got shot here in a nearby village but the site is supposed to be pretty dull so never bothered to venture out there, we did go horse-riding though up through the Cabrada where we could see odd rock formations in bright red towering over us - the Devil´s door is one and the valley of the Penis´another - named because the rocks all look like Rod Stewert (not really... use your imagination - or look at my pics on facebook if I ever find a PC able to upload at a reasonable speed). We went across desert up to a crevace waterfall type area and we left our guide to go explore. Sophie still has a scar on her hand from where he tried to teach us how to "trot" and she dug her feet in a bit too hard and the horse went for it! She was hanging on for dear life!

We decided that we deserved a night out and went to the promisingly named "DnB" night club which was behind a corrugated steel door and decorated like Doctor Who´s tardis with tinfoil trim and felt walls. The seats prettyt much touched the floor they were so saggy and we drank cocktails that were pretty much tripples for a couple of quid. Inside was a weird mix of middle age couples who looked like they´d just come for a quiet drink (although the South American beats were soooo loud and cleverly seamlessly mixed on a DVD player..??), younder couples and random travellers. We spoke to (yelled at) a Welsh couple who were possitively hammered. The girl managed to knock not 1 but 2 drinks over me, but they were friendly and the guy kind of reminded me a lot of Grizz. Anyway they said Bolivian food was rubbish and they were rude and that we should go see the landscapes and head quickly for Peru.

Next day we both had super-hangovers and by the point we left the hotel to eat were still prtty wobbly. I ordered a pizza and soph took one look at it, sank into the sofa and went green. We put it in a box and ate it in bed.

We booked up our tour for the Uyuni slat flats and clambered abord a jeep with an Aussie couple (who seemed positiviely loaded - with money that is) and headed out on a 4 night/3 day trek across the desert.