The journey from hell: Tilcara to Tupiza on a bus with no toilet

Travel lesson #522: Never attempt long bus rides with a dodgy stomach. They are not fun, not even in the slightest. Highlights of the trip included:

• Overloaded buses - people in the seats in the aisles and in the doorway. Absolutely no way out in a hurry
• No air-conditioning and no open windows - the stale stench of coca leaves and deep fried street snacks is difficult to cope with at the best of times, but when you haven't held down anything except two dry crackers in two days it's disastrous
• Travel sick children - one poor little lad clearly felt worse than me and proved it by vomiting in the aisle at my feet
• Border crossing formalities - get this stamped, fill out this form, walk back and get another stamp, join this line, carry your giant pack back and forth across the border three times until you're ready to pass out
• Realising too late that the toilets in the bus station don't flush - the less we say about that the better
• Bus drivers who dream of becoming rally car drivers - speeding over rocks, potholes and collapsed bridges in a rusty old school bus with no suspension and windows that bounce is not just uncomfortable, it's insane.