A New Hope: La Quiaca – S.S. de Jujuy

The bus ride from Uyuni to Villazón was long and uncomfortable. I wasn’t told that we had to change buses once in the middle of the night and the road was extremely bumpy, so sleeping wasn’t really an option. We got dropped off at the new Villazón bus terminal at 3 in the morning. Thus I had to wait for the sun to rise and also for the border crossing to open at 6.

Thursday 5 October

I arrived at the border shortly after 6, and after exchanging my remaining Bolivianos for Argentinian Pesos the crossing was easy. The lady at the counter asked me where I was going. Looking at the big sign I could see from there, I answered “Erm, Ushuaia?” The sign read:

Bienvenidos
a La Quiaca
Ushuaia 5121 km

Continue reading “A New Hope: La Quiaca – S.S. de Jujuy”

The Lonely Mountain: Patacamaya – Sajama

For the first days of my tour I’m on a quest to the Lonely Mountain in order to beat Smaug the dragon and retrieve some lost dwarven artifacts.

No wait, that’s another lonely mountain. This one is Volcan Sajama, at 6542 meters the highest peak in Bolivia. No dragons live there as far as I know. Still, the mountain is pretty lonely and completely dominates the landscape from many directions and at great distance.

One other difference to Bilbo’s journey: I don’t plan to go there and back again. In his words: The road goes ever on and on.

Continue reading “The Lonely Mountain: Patacamaya – Sajama”