Really off the beaten track.

18-20 January 2010
   When one visits the bus terminal in Tarija, you find that all buses leaving Tarija in the Eastern direction go at night. But really, I love seeing the countryside, and if I have to travel by night, with bad sleep and not seeing a thing, then I will leave Bolivia and go someplace else. So, I pushed the question, and found out that there was another bus stop on the edge of town with buses leaving by day, and so I got a daytime bus to a town called "Entre Rios". It was just over 100kms away, but the journey took over 3 hours.
   It was a beautiful small town (the name means Between Rivers), and I stayed in a nice comfortable place on the plaza and spent the afternoon walking in the countryside.
   The next morning the scenario of being told that there were only night buses was repeated. But I kept pursuing the question, refusing to believe it, until I learnt that if I walked out of town to the Mercado, I should find a bus going out late that morning. The bus took me to Villamontes. The 6 hour journey was amazingly spectacular, it wound around narrow roads that clung to the side of the steep terrain. At one point we had to wait while machinery cleared a landslide from the road.
   Villamontes has a tremendously pretty plaza, but all the side streets look like a construction team never finished. I had the most fantastic meal there too.... an Argentinian style Parrilla. I told the man I didn´t want much and he kindly brought me the best steak on the grill!
   From Villamontes I took a bus to Santa Cruz. Getting a day bus this time wasn´t as challenging, although the general attitude suggested I should be travelling by night.

Toy Soldiers? In the Town of Entre Rios there were a lot of men, aged about 15-25?, with wooden guns. It seemed to be some military training.

 

The Bus driver, Entre Rios to Villamontes. I sat up the front and watched. He stayed awake on Coca leaves and pills. I´m glad he stayed alert.

  Housing along the road.

  The views weren´t quite captured on photo, and they weren´t stopping for me to take photos-

 Ok, not the best photo, taken out the front windscreen of the bus, but I´m hoping you can see the way the road drops off, with no rail. It was like this most the day. I´m glad the driver had those coca leaves keeping him awake.

  The parrilla steak I enjoyed so much. Made all the better becuase I hadn´t had lunch. (You get used to people getting on the bus and selling food, and so you don´t bring any, and then nothing gets offered to you!)

 

 Wow... it´s so green, not a bit like home! Road to Santa Cruz.

Notes:
Bus Tarija to Entre Rios $3
Accomodation: Entre Rios: Plaza Hotel $5.50 *****
Bus Entre Rios to Villamontes $4.50
Fantastic Parrilla Dinner in Villamontes $4.50
Accomodation: Villamontes: Plaza Hotel $12 *
Bus Villamontes to Santa Cruz $7.50