DAY 21
This was the most exhausting day (or three) of travel that we’ve done thus far. Excuse me for compiling the dates, but after 2 sleepless nights, three days seems more like the one long, exhausting day. Someone just turns off the lights every once in a while.
Our extensive travel goal (which we knew would be tough) was to get from Santiago, Chile to Tupiza, Bolivia in time for our 4 day jeep tour two days later.
We started with an overnight flight from Santiago to Iquique to Santa Cruz to La Paz—the only route offered via plane. Needless to say, all the up-down-up-down prevented us from getting any sleep. At 3:45 a.m. (and $270 later), we got our visas for Bolivia and headed to the bus station.
By 5 a.m., we were on a bus from La Paz to Oruro. Four hours later, we arrived in Oruro, a pueblo where coffee was nonexistent and Carnaval was just beginning. There were massive swarms of people in costume, musicians, street vendors, and onlookers watching an all-day parade that crowded the main streets. Unfortunately, maneuvering through the crowds in the high altitude gave mom a small bout of altitude sickness. We bought a train ticket and sat in the cold until our train departed at 7 p.m.
Although we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to catch up on our sleep, we were wrong. The ride was much rougher and train much colder than we had expected. To add to our dilemma, we were seated next to an inoperative door that rushed all the cold air in from outside.
After 14 hours of bracing against the cold and unsuccessfully attempting to sleep upright, we reached Tupiza, our ultimate destination. We arrived by train at 8:30 a.m. and hopped on a jeep for a 4 day tour by 9 a.m.
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