Humahuaca, Argentina - Tapiza, Bolivia 21.4° S Lat: Sunny, Hot! 30°; el. 3,000 m

Stories From The Road!

Well, I was thinking earlier today that my journal was going to be just a few photos taken out the bus(es) window, but I guess after all these years of travel that I should have known better. We started our day at the Humahuaca bus station, a going concern. Lots of people around catching buses to the local towns and also folks arriving for work and the markets. We also hired a guard dog for our gear, or more likely he found leaning on our packs while he took in the early morning sun to his liking. 

Our bus was a rather used double decker and after paying a fellow 10 pesos to put our packs under the bus, everyone has a job here, we found nice seats up top, but soon discovered that the windows were all badly scratched. Maybe the bus had been used in narrow jungle roads in an earlier life, but as you’ll soon see there aren’t no jungles in these parts. I took a series of photos out the side and front windows during our 2.5 hour trip to the Argentina/Bolivian border towns of La Quiana and Villazon. We had a steady climb at the beginning. The bus was working very hard.

Then the landscape started to change. We passed through a really interesting gorge.



And from there we spilled out on to a very high plain that ran for miles. 

Up ahead we spotted another change.





Then we passed this unusual sight by and headed out into the plains again. So desolate. Small little homesteads farming a few sheep, some cattle, but mostly lamas. We could have had lama for dinner last night, but I kind of don’t want to eat one of these beautiful animals. Mostly I had veggies and a small piece of lamb.

I knew it was high here and pretty sparsely populated, but until one sees it up close travelling with the locals and seeing the stops in tiny hamlets and even on the side of the road without a building in sight, you just can’t quite appreciate what life is like here. It’s remote, barren and it looks very harsh. However, it is also stunningly beautiful with amazing landscapes and contrasting colour. 

This is how I picture southern Saskatchewan in the dirty ‘30’s. Mom?

The people are dressed head to toe because of the intensity of the sun at this elevation and they are shy, though quite friendly. Also very helpful when asked. 

We finally reach the frontier towns and the usual bus station.

We know that we have to walk across the border, so off we go. We a demonstration about something, complete with a band.

We ask directions a few times, the last from a tough looking military type, but always we get a smile and some help. Finally we see a stream of humanity coming and going and we know we’re close.

Strangely we get stamped out of Argentina...cross no man’s land...

And don’t get stamped into Bolivia??? We offer our passports, they see Canada and wave us through. Wonder how getting out will be?
We walk through the border hawkers and such and ask directions to a bank...we need local currency. It’s allied the BOB here. Cool! Bank found we ask some police where we can find a cafe. They laugh and show us a tiny place next to the bank where we have a cold drink and use the facilities. We then decide that a walk will be a good thing and set off across town. We’d been told to be very careful of the taxi rip offs. We soon ran out of paved road, but pressed on. 

Found a soccer field, no solid tackles please.

After a good long walk we find the new station.

A lady approaches us and confirms our names and tells us our bus is ready. Annemarie thinking it’s a scam say no thanks. I say, well she has our names, must be right. We go inside and ask ast the info desk and the guy takes our voucher and walks us outside to the same lady who approached us earlier! Too funny. We load the mini bus...

I play hide and seek with the lady’s son.

And we are off! 

The driver drives like a crazy man! We stop literally in the middle of no where and let a woman off. 

We look at each other. I make a silly face and the driver tears away!

We pass through a small town and I’m impressed to see a new place for the kids there to play. Nice.

Drop another couple off.

Arrive in Tapiza 

and connect with our guide and stuff. We hit the bank and pull a whole bunch of bills out of an ATM. Caitlin you were right about feeling rich here with the bundles of money. We carefully return to our room, sort out said pile of money and then meet our guide and happily give him all the cash. Get outer briefing for the next 4 days and arrange to meet tomorrow early. Work done, we find a late lunch, and yes, there is even a light here.

We will be on the road with a driver in a 4x4 the next four days. Looks really exciting! We will have wifi one of those nights and I’ll post if time. Some brilliant days ahead!  Now off to walk this town, find dinner and get an early night. Last night dinner in a nice place with a small band playing some really good local music for us. Wonderful!