Originally we wanted to begin our Salar tour from Tupiza until we discovered it was almost double the price for the extra day which would enable this. Instead we took the 'very public' day bus from Uyuni which true to form spent 25 minutes spluttering up in the mountains where fortunately numerous downhill-roll starts were possible.

Tupiza is set in 'Wild West' countryside . The rugged scenery with its weird eroded rainbow-coloured rocks and cactus-studded slopes reminded us of the setting of the 'Big Thunder Mountain' ride at Disneyland, Paris. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the notorious American train robbers, fled to this part of Bolivia where they continued their life of crime before dying in a shoot-out.

Tupiza is a small town with a pleasant central plaza, flanked by red mountains. It has an overwhelming number of small tourist restaurants all of which seemed to have identical menus even down to the lost-in-translation wording.

The Lonely Planet describes 'tranquil Tupiza' as having a pace of life 'a 'few beats slower than in other Bolivian towns.'  We appreciated this on our first night with a few beers. However, the next morning we found ourselves at the beginning of a 'triathlon!'  This would entail jeep (not so bad), mountain bike (together with high-viz jacket) and trek (our preference over horseback to give us a chance to get off our backsides). During our 'triathlon' we visited El Sillar, a couple of canyons and saw many impressive rock formations. We had a riverside lunch of Bolivia's best saltenas before encountering the most challenging part of the day: building a temporary road to get the jeep out of the sandy riverbed lunch spot.

Not fully satisfied by the physical component of our Tupiza 'triathlon,' we ventured up the graffiti-strewn summit of Cerro Corazon de Jesus to catch the sunset over the town.

Day bus back to Sucre, 10 hours.