Shó Me The World: July 2014

Country: Bolivia

Town: Tupiza

Duration: 3 days

Accommodation: Hotel Mitru

Day 1

The 1,700km journey from Mendoza (Argentina) to Tupiza (Bolivia) took over 30 hours with two buses and a taxi ride.

We hadn’t realised that we were going into a high altitude region. We actually were 3,442m above sea level at the Bolovian border! Looking back we should have taken more time in travelling north to Bolivia to adjust to the altitude and taken some tablets for altitude sickness as Johnny was very sick and we both found it hard to breathe.
To say that we got a culture shock going from Argentina to Bolivia is a massive understatement. There were hundreds of natives crossing the border by foot and most had massive loads strapped onto their backs, from shampoo to toilet paper to food to babies and they seemed quite poor. Honestly, we did not know what to make of the place!! It reminded me of the Wild West movies.

When we got to our hotel, we booked our salt flats tour with the company ‘Tupiza Tours'. We had planned to do it the following day but we were so sick from the altitude that we needed to adjust for a few days before heading up to higher altitude on the tour.

We paid for one of the cheapest dinners that night-2.50euro for a pizza in a restaurant!

Johnny drinking coca tea, a hot drink made from the leaves of the coca plant (which is also one of the ingredients used to make cocaine!) This tea helps heaps with altitude sickness.

Day 2
The local markets in Tupiza were lovely to stroll around. There were a lot of touristy souvenirs there and I bought an alpaca jumper and a stripy Bolivian bed throw/table cover/blanket with beautiful bright colours.

We went for pizza again (the majority of restaurants in Tupiza are pizzerias!) and then lay out by our pool for the evening and read my kindle.

That night as we went to the centre for dinner, there was a massive parade happening in the square. It seemed to be mainly teenagers, dressed in colourful, traditional dress and dancing to live band music. It was fantastic to see such culture and we were lucky to have experienced it.

Day 3

Today was our ten year anniversary and so I awoke to ten red roses! I don’t know where Johnny managed to buy roses in Tupiza but it was a lovely way to start the day! We had a nice itinerary planned for the event. We booked the ‘triathlon’ tour which consisted of a walk through a canyon, a three hour horse riding trek through another canyon, El Canon del Inca, and finally a 17km downhill bike ride!

Johnny paid for what was the cheapest anniversary meal he will ever pay for!! Our Mexican meal with drinks came to less than five euro!

The next day we set off on our Salt Flats tour from Tupiza to Uyuni!

Country: Argentina

City: Mendoza

Duration: 3 days

Accommodation: Empedrado Hostel (Free wine between 7 and 8pm and pancakes for breakfast!)

Mendoza, in the north west of Argentina, is famed around the world for its vineyards and wine production. We spent three days here; one in the city itself, one in the wine region of Maipú (14km from the city) and one day zip lining over the Mendoza River.

Day 1:

We spent the day strolling around Mendoza exploring the park and the various plazas in the city centre. We sat and sipped tea in a lovely cafe before heading back to our hostel for the free wine! We cooked dinner and had a nice night chatting with some Irish and English people.

Day 2:
Today we did a bike wine tour with a few other people that we had met in our hostel! We got a bus to Maipú and rented bikes from Mr. Hugo's.

Once we got our maps, we peddled off to our first stop, an olive oil farm. We were shown how they made olive oil and we enjoyed breads, oils and jams. We also had two shots of unique flavoured alcohol each! (e.g. chocolate flavour!) We then cycled to two wineries. The first winery was Familia Di Tommaso, a small family business. The second was Trivento, a larger winery. Both very different to each other but we enjoyed free wine tastings at both! Our journey back to Mr. Hugo's that evening was a bit wobbly! He gave us a juice and a bottle of homemade wine to bring back to our hostel! Safe!?? We chanced it! We didn't finish it however!

Day 3:
We booked a zip-lining tour through the hostel reception and got picked up early. When we reached the Mendoza River, we got all our equipment. We glided along six different zip line cables and travelled a total of 1,500 metres. The final and longest cable was 450 metres long! It was quite scary but it was great fun and the views of Poterillos Valley and El Plata Mountain were beautiful. You could also go rafting on the Mendoza River with this company at the same site.