Thursday 7th November we caught the 8.30am bus to Tupiza and eventually arrived at 2.15pm. The drive through the mountains was awesome and we passed so many well maintained football pitches...what a strange thing to see though! We were driving through the mountains literally in the middle of nowhere and yet we would see a huge green football pitch next to a few mud-brick buildings. Very strange. Maybe football is their passion here. From the bus stop we found Tupiza Hostel, which was only 35 bolivianos per night. It seems that they don't really have dormitory's here so I am so glad I arrived here with Michelle, otherwise it may have turned out quite expensive as a solo traveller. We didn't look at every hostel, but the ones we went into were 2 bed rooms. Having checked into out cute little bolivian style bedroom we went for a coffee before checking out some of the agencies to find out about the tours. We ended up going for dinner with two French guys who were looking for 2 more people to join them for the Salt Flats Tour on Sunday. We said we may be interested so decided to meet up for dinner and have a chat. Dinner ended up being Spagetti on the streets for just 6 Bolivianos! It felt like being back in Asia again eating on the streets. And then we went for dessert in a little cafe near the plaza. I really think I am going to stop eating the cakes they have here because they all look so delicious but really do not taste half as good as they look, so I'm not going to waste my calorie intake on these deceiving cakes anymore! As we were walking back to the hostel we came across a parade full of different groups of dancers and bands. Apparently they were practising for some Fiesta next week. I have figured out that Bolivians LOVE their parades! Every city I have been to in this country I have come across a parade. By half past 10, Michelle and I were exhausted so went back to our room for a good night sleep.

On Friday, the sun was up and we were ready for our 5 hour horse trek to see the landscape of Tupiza. We had a very friendly 18 year old guide who took us to see some awesome canyons! I felt like we were in a film set, on our horses surrounded by a very dry & dessert-like landscape and trekking through all kinds of different coloured mountains (red, grey, purple), huge cacti (which apparently have really nice fruit you can eat in Summer), and very dusty paths. So much fun! It was so peaceful there...when we stopped the only thing you could hear were the flies buzzing around our heads! Ok so you wouldn't believe it, but after 5 hours of trekking on a horse I was shattered. And yes I know its the poor old horse that has to do all the work carrying a heafter like me on their back, but I think I was the one more exhausted by the end of it. Our day trip finished at half 3 so we decided to stretch our legs with a nice stroll back to the city. It only took 30 minutes and then we crashed and burned on our beds...

It was our third day in Tupiza and we really needed to get a tour booked for the Salt Flats so we spent the morning wondering around the different agencies to see if there was anyone who wanted to join us on a 5 day trip. We struggled a lot as the standard trip is just 4 days from Tupiza to Uyuni, but I had my mind set on climbing one of the volcanoes which added an extra day to the trip. We were feeling a little disheartened having spent a few hours visiting different agencies but not having any luck. In the afternoon we decided to visit a place where our horse riding guide said was his favourite place around Tupiza. Having made a packed lunch we jumped in a taxi to take us to this mysterious place...NAME OF PLACE. When we arrived we could not believe our eyes. The views were just fantastic - we had a river, sand, greenery, mountains, a railway track, and some really awesome rock formations. After tucking into our packed lunch, we spent the afternoon strolling around taking in the scenery and just enjoying every minute of tranquillity. It felt great to be there because we didn't bump into any other tourists (I don't think many people come here) and only passed a few locals playing in the river. It was nice to see they appreciated their surroundings, it really was gorgeous and Michelle and I had the biggest smiles all afternoon. We walked back to Tupiza along the rail way track which took about 2 hours with a few stops to take photos. We found out later that the train that used to run along the railway only stopped running a year ago because the track would wash away in the rainy season. It's a shame because I can imagine the train journey would be incredible. When we arrived back in the town it was time to revisit the agencies to see if they had found anyone who wanted to do the 5 day Salt Flats. I think our positive thinking was all that was required as there was a Dutch couple who had spent all afternoon walking around looking for us and they even left a message at our hostel to say they wanted to join us. We were so happy! We booked with La Torrez agency and paid 15000 boliviano's for 5 days (not including National Park fee which was 150 B and for the guide for the volcano on the final day which was about 350 B for the whole group). We felt so lucky to have found someone and were also pretty happy that they were from Holland as I haven't met one unfriendly Dutch person yet on this trip...we will just have to wait and see :) xxx