Whilst I was in monkey heaven Gio decided to finally get some mountain biking done. we have been trying to organise biking throughout three different countries and up until Bolivia it hadn't panned out. It was a little more hard core than Gio anticipated... he fell of three times (from his downhill Kona), once in to a stream! Twice over the handlebars - but luckily not down the giant drop on the side of the tracks...
Mountain biking with actual mountains!
He survived...
The kamikaze guide
Sadly we finally left La Senda Verde. We enjoyed a night at the nearest town, home of the best restaurant in Bolivia (not a very hard title to win) - a very unassuming outdoor place that served great French food.
Next stop was La Paz once more, for some last minute shopping and then it was time to really get moving through Bolivia. The next journey was a 12 hour night bus to Sucre. A lovely city which made you forget you were in Bolivia - simply because it was so affluent. Sucre was once the capital of Bolivia and has held on to the judicial system and the cash!
We liked Sucre a lot, lovely to wonder around, a great central market and a couple of great chocolate shops...yes a bit of a theme there! We were, however, very lazy whilst there and spent a lot of time not doing much. We blame the 20 year old from Belgium who took us out on our first night in Sucre. We ended up at a local gig, sound good? Well it was entertaining but the band only did Metallica covers - so not quite the local music we had in mind, still, it was a night to recover from.
Next stop was Potosi, just for an overnight stay - which turned out to be a shame as it was a lovely town. We had a delicious meal in a local pub with an open fire, it's pretty blooming cold at night as Potosi is at 4070 meters.
Next day we were back at the bus station bright and early to continue our journey through Bolivia to a little cowboy town called Tupiza. Tupiza is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid reportedly ended their days. The route between Potosi and Tupiza took about 7 hours, about 6 of those were off roading! Quite an impressive feat for a double decker coach! Sitting right at the front we couldn't believe our eyes as the driver went through small rivers and across the countryside. Needless to say it was a long and bumpy ride - during which we were holding our breath most of the time!
When we arrived in Tupiza it was like a ghost town with dust blowing through the streets. Eventually we found a little hostal, with lovely cactus wood furniture, and slept, a lot (must have been coming down from the adrenalin fuelled bus journey).
The scenery around Tupiza
It wouldn't have been right to visit somewhere like Tupiza without getting on the back of a horse. So for a few hours, one windy afternoon, we did just that. Not the most comfortable afternoon but he scenery was amazing and my horse was lovely!
I even had my own cowboy hat for the afternoon
For some reason Gio couldn't find one to fit!
From Tupiza we organised our visit to the Salt Flats - one of the big sights to see in Bolivia. What we hadn't realised was that the scenery before you even get close to the salt flats, on the journey from Tupiza, would be the most amazing scenery we had ever seen (next issue!).
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