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Sunday 13th
Having eaten a rather dodgy meal last night, I took a dose of Imodium this morning, (just in case!), as we had the prospect of a 9 hour journey in the truck, and a border crossing into Bolivia, but luckily I was fine.
As we left Salta, we drove through the foothills of the mountains and up onto the Altiplano, the vast desolate plains, with scrub, cacti and occasional clusters of adobe buildings in various stages of disintegration. The dwellings were the same colour as the landscape, so very well camouflaged, as were the sheep and goats, and herds of llamas and alpacas who seemed to be grazing on nothing but dust and thistle down. I got really excited when I saw them, but very frustrated trying to take pictures of them from the moving truck, as my camera couldn't see anything to focus on, and it all just looked like a blur of brown. After a while I gave up - I'm sure we'll see more in other locations!
As we climbed higher, the road became more winding, and the scenery more stunning, with stripey hills layered in arching patterns of cream, red, green and grey. They reminded me of those bottles of layered sand you can buy at the seaside. We passed a sign indicating the altitude was 3780m, before we descended a short way for our lunch stop at about 3500m. I felt a bit light headed, as if I'd done a night duty and not slept the next day, and Tony said he'd had a headache for most of the morning. What surprised us though, was that when you washed your hands in cold water, and shook them dry, the water evaporated so quickly that your hands felt like blocks of ice! We soon warmed up though, as the sun was scorching, whereas in even the smallest amount of shade, the cold was biting.
We passed through the Bolivian border without incident, but Martin had to wait over half an hour to find the right person to check his paperwork for the truck.
While we were hanging around waiting for the truck, we saw lots of Bolivian ladies crossing the border dressed in their traditional bowler hats, voluminous skirts, sparkly cardigans and thick woollen stockings. Many of them had big bundles on their backs, tied up in the brightly coloured stripey handwoven material. Some of the bundles were babies or toddlers, only identifiable when you saw a tuft of black hair or a wooly hat poking out among the folds of material! Most of the men had big wadges of coca leaves in their cheek pouches, which made them look like overgrown hamsters.
On the drive to Tupiza, we instantly noticed the stark difference between Argentina and Bolivia. We passed by lots of adobe villages which looked deserted, until you noticed a line of brightly coloured washing draped over the wall or spread out on the bushes. Then we noticed people, too, sitting in the dirt next to large bags of onions or coca leaves, and lots and lots of dogs and pigs wandering around everywhere. We arrived at our hotel in Tupiza, and even though it was a bit lower down, at 3,000m, we both had a headache and felt a bit 'spaced out'. Nobody else in the group seemed to be affected, so we weren't sure if it was the altitude or not. We decided not to go on an optional Jeep Tour of the surrounding mountains tomorrow, and just have a quiet day around Tupiza before another long drive day on Tuesday........Goodnight.
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