Llama Chronicles: The Lost Edition, Oruro, Tarija, Tupiza Trip

Oh No,



I have just realized that in all of my everything I never completed or sent a Chronicle about my post-New Year´s trip to Oruro, Tarija and Tupiza, undertaken with my lovely friend and program coordinator, Kris. I´m gonna do my best to finish and post this so that the memories and photos are shared and as little joy as possible is lost.



After New Year´s Kris and I embarked on a two-week adventure down to the Southwest of Bolivia. Our first stop, as a major transportation hub, was Oruro. We decided to spend some time wandering this city, because first of all, why not and second of all, we badly misjudged the train system from Oruro to Tupiza and got stuck. Oruro is cold and ugly and boring. It is worth visiting for Carnaval but not much else, sadly. We escaped as quickly as we could and got ourselves on a 15 hour bus to Tarija, figuring that this way we could take the train back from Tupiza. We made an error and took the cheap bus. It was FREEZING. It was so cold that I put on all of my clothing. ALL of my clothing, including 2 pairs of jeans. Fortunately, we went at night, so it wasn´t until we had just a few hours left that we were aware of how dirty the thing was. I mean, vomit.



Tarija itself was lovely lovely, still in shock over our horrendous ride in, we were very happy to spend a several days in the city. There was a strong wine and sitting-around-a-plaza-in-the-evening culture which was wonderful. Tarija is Bolivia´s wine-growing region and home to the world´s highest vineyards. Bolivians contend that their best wines contend with those of Chile and Argentina. I don´t know about that but wine country is beautiful.



After exploring for a day or so, we went on a tour of the bodegas, including wine tasting, and of the surrounding area. We had a very sweet tour guide and took a walk through the bodega of La Concepción and taking a look at some incredible views. After, we went to a wine tasting at Casa Vieja. Bolivian´s are very fond of sweet things and these wines were DULCE for the most part. It was not so enjoyable but the space for the tasting was really brightly decorated and fun.



We continued on to explore some of the surrounding sights, best of which by far, was this swimming hole with waterfalls in San Jacinto. It was beautiful and the next day Kris and I took ourselves a bottle of wine, a bunch of olives and spent most of the day there. Fabulous.



We also took a drive out to walk through some woods. I don´t remember why this seemed like a good idea, but it was beautiful. We had been warned to buy some coca to bribe the gatekeeper because of the guarddogs. When we got there, we had all forgotten the coca, the gatekeeper was nowhere to be found, and the guarddogs were a little chihuahua thing and a mommy dog with her puppies. Not so fearsome. Once we were well along the way on this path, the heavens opened up and it began to pour and pour, all of us made a mad dash back to the car, but there was no use, we were soaked through. It was awesome.


The bus ride to Tupiza was actually worse than the ride to Tarija, it was long and terrifying with every turn threatening to tip us over off the side of the mountains we were winding through. At one point the driver had us get out to walk. We were only too glad to comply with the request. We did eventually arrive in a place that seemed to belong more the southwest of the United States than to the Bolivia we knew. It was hot and dry with crazy colorful rock formations. We stayed in a cute hotel and arranged for a guided day trip. This was incredible. While I had been a vocal proponent of taking a four day horse adventure to check out the trail of Butch and Sundance, the day trip, known as the Triathalon, was definitely the greatest thing that ever happened. Basically, you spend the day in jeeps, on foot, on mountain bikes and on horses exploring the area. It's beautiful and so fun to adventure in so many different ways. The highlight of the whole thing was the end, when our guide drove us up to the top of a big big hill and set us off down the way on our bikes, riding into a beautiful view of rainbow rock formations. I would recommend this to anyone who gets anywhere near Tupiza.

When we finished in Tupiza (and after a typically Bolivian bureaucratic nightmare to get tickets) we took the train up to Oruro. the ride was long but lovely. Trains are a supreme method of travel. Interestingly, they served a full almuerzo for about 20 bolivianos, a huge platter of rice and vegetables and half a chicken. It was sort of strange to me, being more accustomed to either not being fed or the strange efficiency of airline meals.

Returning home was a bit complicated because there were major conflicts in Cochabamba (riots, fights, burnings) and we got stuck in Oruro for a couple of days until the buses were running again. I won't say that I was unhappy about this, any vacation is a good vacation as far as I'm concerned.

And that was it. It was a great trip, and stands as a major highlight in all of my Bolivia meanderings.