Puerta del Diablo
Inca Canyon
Corrugated dirt road
Ever heard of shaken baby syndrome? Well, apply it to fully grown adults and you have our truck ride from Uyuni to Tupiza. We opted to take a small corrugated dirt road of 250km, rather than a big wide tar road of 500km in order to get to Tupiza. It was a 250km ride over rough rocks, gravel and sand at an incredibly slow speed. Some people managed to sleep through the bumps, but we also had to deal with inhaling mountains of dust that entered the truck through the windows (not to mention the smell of burning rubber from time to time, which had Rogan out circling the truck on many an occasion).
Again the scenery was amazing but our progress was really slow, and bone-shaking at times. Early on we lost a shock absorber in the front, this was later followed by one in the rear. As we were on the home stretch we rounded a corner and were met with a bus with a flat tyre. There was not enough room to pass so we parked up behind them. All the bus passengers had disembarked and were wandering around the driver. They had huge difficulties removing the tyre, so Rogan went to help and ended up lending them our tools. Turned out the spare tyre would not fit at the front, so cue more faffing about while they decided to remove a back tyre and do some tyre swapping. After 90mins we had lost interest and daylight. Perudo was pulled out, we passed time amiably and tried to not focus on our stomachs which were making themselves known. It was about 9pm when finally, after many wrong turns, we made it to Tupiza - the complete lack of sign postage and the dark did not help one bit. Still, we managed to grab a lovely spit roast chicken dinner and a drink, for a mere $1.50, so all was bright and breezy.
The beautiful surroundings of Tupiza are full of canyons, cacti and valleys; it looks like scenes from old wild west movies. Options here are to go exploring by foot, horseback, mountainbike or by jeep. Legend has it that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their end at the hands of the Bolivian army near Tupiza. Tour operators offer rides to the rumoured site but this was of little interest to me. Instead I went for the cheap and cheerful option one, walking with Jeanne, Francois and Heather. We grabbed a map from a tour operator and set off in search of Puerta del Diablo. The map was very vague so we had to employ the help of a few locals in clarifying stuff, after a massive wrong turn, we eventually started heading in the right direction.
Breath-taking views surrounded us on all sides (and this time it was caused by sheer beauty and not altitude!). The weather was perfect, I could have sat and stayed in the canyon for hours. We eventually came across a flat rock and deduced that this was the Puerta del Diablo. Venturing a bit further we made it to Inca Canyon, only stopped from progressing further by a steep rock wall that I choose not to attempt to scale, for fear of not being able to get down without causing myself an injury, because a sprained ankle wouldn't be inconceivable here. We met with three others of the group who had made their way to the canyon in a 4x4, and they very kindly pointed out that what we had made out to be the door was in fact, just a slab of flat rock. They turned us in the correct direction and we set off once again to locate the door. Having found it we took the necessary pics and ambled back to Tupiza town as it was well past lunch and stomachs were rumbling.
It was a Sunday afternoon and to our horror, everywhere in town was closed. Three restaurants that looked open turned us away as they were siesta-ing! Bolivians really aren't too bothered about working. Eventually a lady took pity on us and led us into her 'establishment'. There was a family get together happening in the garden area and so we were ushered to the end of her garage. There was no real choice in food, she had what could have been lamb, or chicken. The food was accompanied with cold boiled yellow potatoes and horrible grey potato chunks with white stuff on it (looked a bit like mould - but wasn't obviously!). The chicken however was amazing; succulent, juicy and with a hint of spicy goodness.
Tupiza is our last stop in Bolivia, next up is Argentina again. I'll be a bit sad to say goodbye to Bolivia, the landscape was amazing, the people quaint, traditional and friendly, but more importantly it's slán to inexpensive food/drink and back to the cold reality of normal (not so cheap) prices. However, ooh la la, bring on the meat!!!! Bife de Lomo I have missed and dreamt about you, soon we shall be reunited again...
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