A Tupiza, Tupiza, Tupiza

The border crossing was a painless experience. We got our passports stamped as locals waltzed past not seeming to need to do anything to move from one country to the other. A dusty street dog had been following us for a few minutes, flopped down, back pushed up against the wall, sleepy. I feel sorry for all the street dogs, their limp walks, cuts and sore, bald patches, the sad look in their eyes. Huddled up at night time on pavements or in town squares, life looks hard.

Although we were feeling decidedly Andean rather than gaucho in the lead up to the border, Bolivia seemed very different to Norther Argentina. A simple town presented itself to us in the glow of the afternoon. It seemed peaceful, or at least I was, thankful to be sitting, no longer walking with my heavy backpack. Women in skirts and knitted cardigans, hair in plaits. Sacks of coca leaves for sale, sacks of pasta, sacks of everything. The whole town was out of power and people were languishing in the park, not much else to do. Ice cream sellers were pushing carts around, a lady came and found us with a selection of lipsalves and nail clippers. A child was pushing an older brother or friend in a wheelchair. A dog bound up to me, jumped up at me and seemed to want to play. I didn't so much appreciate his dirty paws but his excited face won me over.

We got a collectivo to a town called Tupiza, paying with Argentinian pesos. The drive was spectacular. Normally not that bothered by mountain scenery, I feel trapped, I much prefer the sea. But the cold blue glow of open sky as we drove through twilight enveloped me in the cosmos and the cosmos of my own thoughts. The sky at this time of day is more of a phenomenon than any turquoise sea, it's weightless, you can't see how deep it is, your eyes can't focus you don't even know what you're looking at. The brighter stars began to appear as the ever changing curved peaks etched and framed the sky, like a gateway to space. Stargazing up in the Bolivian mountains must be wonderful. We sped along the winding roads, dreamily gazing out the windows. I was so relaxed, it was a harsh shake back into reality to have to get out and find somewhere to sleep for the night and think about practicalities like the new exchange rate, where to eat, talking to other human beings.

Tupiza was basic, internet was non-existent, slow, no wifi. I felt that we were really remote by the point, but it was probably going to be like this for a few days.

It was still a novelty to see cholitas walking around in their skirts and jumpers, carrying bundles of on their backs wrapped in bright woven fabric. They even carry their children around like that. Alarmingly the much older women are permanently hunched over after years and years of transporting their things in such a way.

Disappointingly I wasn't in a snap-happy mood, so these are all the photos I have of the stop off in Tupiza.