Bolivia, ponchos, fedoras and curious hotel rules

Early morning in Tilcara and our bus doesn't arrive because the axle has broken somewhere along the way. We wait a couple of hours for the next and pass the time chatting to a young Czech couple, Petra and Pavel. How often have you met a Czech couple in your travels, especially one that has spent a year fruit-picking in New Zealand?

01 Lady with Hat, Villazon, Bolivia

The border crossing between Argentina and Bolivia is one of the most low hassle and casual we´ve done. Anna is asked for a few Bolivanos for borrowing a pen from a youth. Nothing more.

It´s never good to judge a Latin American country by it's border towns (and ports). They're often a meeting place for opportunists and vagabonds - some harmless and others not so. Villazon at an altitude of around 3400m is much more pleasant than we expect, and although the people seem a little morose and non-communicative, they are not specifically unfriendly.

We encounter a crazy indigenous woman begging at the bus station who is not satisfied with a few Bolivianos and starts hitting Pavel with her sombrero. Later we have a great bowl of soup and a very poor pizza.

Both of us feel low in energy. Maybe it's the altitude, or the dodgy empanadas we ate in Salta a few days ago.

We have our first sighting of ponchos and fedoras.