Tupiza and the Argentinean Border Crossing

Been a while...when we last wrote our heroes had finished their adventure in Uyuni and were going to board a 2am train to Tupiza. The train ride wasn’t great. I had a kid behind me who kept putting his feet up next to my ears on top of the seat, despite me continuously pushing them back off and glaring at him. However, I guess me and Corry can’t really complain, we had somewhat reclining seats with a movie and a sandwich at breakfast time, whilst many of the group were in cattle class sitting on a bench with no back, squashed in with locals – 3 people to a 2 person bench, with animals – both domesticated and livestock, and people and bags cluttering every inch of floor space. Some very grumpy individuals when we arrived in Tupiza, and it didn’t help that me and Corry took the opportunity to rub it in. Think one of the girls even had a cheeky cry, can’t have been our fault though. Tupiza, to put it subtly, was a shit hole. Nothing to do and it was a grimy wee town. Went and had a rubbish breakfast, shouldn’t have to pay for the kind of stuff we got, and then wandered through town for a bit. Most of the group slept the day as they hadn’t got a wink on the train, so the rest of us spent the day having long slow lunches, playing on the internet and wandering the streets. Bit of a nothing day so I won’t say much more, apart from that we had a jizzy lasagne for dinner at a good little restaurant before hitting the sack.  Funnily enough, a few of the girls lost their appetites after a little flat bed truck pulled up outside the restaurant and began to unload huge slabs of meat to the place across the road, completely unrefrigerated of course with flies buzzing around, even my lasagne didn’t look the same after that. Not the finest day of the tour but a necessary evil to cross the border and enter Argentina. Had a few hours on the bus the next morning to the border. Bit of a shambles and I strongly anticipate it’ll be the worst of the tour. We got through the first line easily enough to get our passports stamped out of Bolivia and then began an arduous 3 hour wait in the line for Argentina. Of course we were waiting on the road, they wouldn’t think to have a building. About two-thirds of the way down the line we encountered some French wanks trying to jump the line as they said if they didn’t they would miss their bus. After jumping the queue, being very French about the whole thing, we actually found them on our bus later that afternoon, make your own mind up about those dickless bastards. Anyway, we eventually got to the end of the line and got through. Got a very cursory check of our bags, wish I had smuggled those drugs now, mowed a pizza and hopped back on the bus for another 5 hours or so to Salta. Super to be in Argentina and the quality of women was immediately and noticeably improved. But also many other things, such as roads, driving skills, food and drink hygiene and the cleanliness of toilets before they had been visited by Esquire Corry, also were markedly superior. Got into Salta late at night and hit the hay after some quiet beers. More on Salta (and Christmas!) in the next post.