Bolivia or bust

Monday 21st April

Today we left the rural north of Argentina and headed for Bolivia. It promised to be a long day, our tour notes promised a 12 hour day, but it has consistently been underestimating the time we spend in the truck.

The trip out of Argentina was OK, a bit slow in some places, but we kept climbing steadily to 3750 meters. Unlike all our other climbs, this one wasn´t on a winding road up the side of a hill, but a long straight climb. So we didn't really notice that we had reached the high point of the trip so far.

Although we were slightly behind schedule when we got to the border, it was here that it all went wrong. We were delayed for 2 hours by typical South American officaldom. The people who let us into Argentina made a mistake in the paperwork, and so we suffered.

All this meant that by the time we got into Bolivia it was nearly dark, and we had to tackle the tough Bolivian roads in the dark. This wasn't as bad as my journey into Cambodia, but it wasn't far off. It took another 4 hours to travel the last 80 km to our destination, Tupiza, meaning it was a 15 hour journey by the time we arrived at our hostel (at 9pm - yes we left at 6am). All we had time for was a run to a local restaurant for dinner and then to bed.