Lauren and Jeff's South American Adventure: Villazon and Tupiza

After leaving the beautiful town of Purmamarca, snugly nestled in a narrow valley in the Andes, we set out for Bolivia. We made it to the border town of La Quiaca and had no trouble crossing into its Bolivian complement of Villazon, as Lauren was on top of getting our visas at the Bolivian consulate in Buenos Aires. Once we crossed into Bolivia, we exchanged a few US dollars for bolivianos as we were fresh out of Argentine pesos. We found the bus station and bought tickets for Tupiza so we wouldn't have to spend a night at the border. This town is somewhat famous, as it is the site where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid finally met their makers by the Bolivian Army after robbing local-area silver miners.

While in Tupiza, we had a few issues with dinero. There were no ATMs and we didn't have enough Bolivianos to pay for our beds and book bus tickets. The hostel wanted to charge us 20% if we used good-ol' american plastic, but luckily Lauren found a bank that only took a 0.7% rip. So we filled our pockets with Bolivian fabric and were on our merry way to the bus station. We were hoping to make it to Sucre by nightfall but couldn't find a direct bus. We bought tickets for the old Spanish silver mining city of Potosi. This trip was a blistering 8 hours along a bumpy, gravel road that blew out a tire about 5 hours in. Not exactly first class. Luckily, timing was in our favor as we arrived in the nick of time to board a bus bound for Sucre, a mere 2 1/2 hours away on a nicely paved highway. Of course, we stopped unnecessarily in Sucre about five times (so the driver could see his girlfriends or collect gambling winnings or whatever his business may have been) before we got to the bus terminal. This added an hour to the trip; even the Bolivians were banging on the windows and shouting "VAMOS!" and "Mi casa tambien!" Bienvenidos a Bolivia.