Tupiza...wild west?

From Uyuni I finally got to go on a Bolivian train - to Tupiza and to arrive at the very inconvenient time of 4am. So I had planned on sleeping in, and then a bit of a lazy day looking round the city and surrounding canyon.

What I discovered when I ventured out was that it was market day, so I spent a few hours wandering along looking, and sampling some of the saltenas (like pasties - mainly potato with a bit of chicken and spice), tamales (corn balls with llama meat inside), and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Then up to the lookout to see how the town is nestled between red and greenish grey spectacular rocky mountain ranges. And I couldnt help but notice how much warmer it is than La Paz or Uyuni... spose the lower elevation helps. I then decided to explore one of the canyons nearby, so I headed up this valley which narrowed with stunning red rock formations on both sides. It was fun following the canyon, discovering wierd formations round every bend. And further up the canyon got quite narrow, requiring a little scrambling over rocks to continue. And did I mention the cactuses... I guess its them which makes me think of the wild west ... plus the fact that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid died a few town along after robbing a payroll. One of the tourist attractions is to ride horses and visit the cave they hid in, the hotel they stayed in... wierd but it is lovely countryside. I would have spent another day exploring on horse and bike except there wasn`t any other tourists interested so no tour... so goodbye to cheap and friendly Tupiza and onwards to Potosi for me.