Crossing the border from La Quica in Argentina to Villazon in Bolivia was easier than expected and not the long lonely walk I was imagining. I had visions of walking across a long bridge with not much around but again my imagination was somewhere else. There was a bridge but beneath it was a car park where the taxi driver left us and on it, a couple of small offices that made clearing immigration like a McDonald's drive through. Exit stamp at one window, please move down to window number 2, entry stamp there, welcome to Bolivia. No fries with that.

Villazon is literally on the border and seemed very busy. It wasn't that different to what we had just passed through but you could tell immediately you were in a different country. I have said before that moving through northern Argentina was like being back in the real South America but arriving at the bus station at Villazon confirmed this. No orderly walk to the ticket window to enquire about tickets, all the touts including the guys offering you private transfers in their vans swarmed around you as they saw you approaching. ''Tupiza, Tupiiiiizzaaaa''. We eventually decided on the bus. Getting on the bus also confirmed you were not in Argentina any more as this was a throw back to the 70s but even along the inferior roads, we made the journey without a hitch and it only took us an hour and a half. It was a relatively easy transition into Bolivia.

We would only spend a couple of days in Tupiza as the main reason we were here was to begin the famed Salar de Uyuni tour. Over 4 days, this would take us through the countryside in the south west of Bolivia, eventually ending up in the salt flats of Uyuni and finishing in the nearby town with the same name. So while here we just took the time to enjoy a few comforts, including lying by the hotel pool one afternoon (yes they had a pool and it was warm enough...just!) catching some sun. Not what you would expect to do in Bolivia but the novelty got the better of me!