Tarija

Why oh why do the buses to Tarija only go overnight??? Apparently it´s an amazing road to travel along but all I caught were glimpses of very steep drops at the edge of very tight bends (maybe it´s just as well I couldn´t see all the way to the bottom then?) The driver was excellent (I guess all the ones that stay alive must be) but he wasn´t averse to the odd stand-off when we met a truck coming the other way on a very narrow and tight bend. In Britain we have signs on tight bends saying ¨danger¨ or ¨drive with care¨, here they just have crosses to show where some poor soul went over the edge. Fair enough but does the driver really have to take his hand off the steering wheel to cross himself at exactly that point???

Another lovely square

And what time do we arrive in Tarija? About three in the morning! I´t takes them hours to unload all the goods that have been smuggled over the border from Argentina so we were allowed to stay on the bus and doze till daybreak. Quite amazing how much stuff they managed to cram in - every seat had things tucked under it, above it and in between. Even the driver had bags of corn etc under his legs.

MacRonalds

And what a disappointment Tarija is! Gone are all the lovely friendly people of Argentina, gone are the cheap supermarkets and campsites and gone is any variety whatsoever for a vegetarian. We lasted a day then bought a couple of tickets to Sucre. Wasn´t all bad though - did find an amazing little museum with some fantastic fossils, a huge armadillo shell and the remains of an Andean elephant - absolutely mind-blowing the size of all these creatures.

Looking forward to heading north, have heard good things about Sucre...

Street seller

Street seller falls asleep