It is getting to the point were I'm taking more days free from cycling. I was in no mood to continue this morning after feeling so tired on arriving here yesterday afternoon. I think it is the accumulation of four days riding at or near 3000m altitude. The threshold for feeling short of breath it seems is 3500m and I was over that for a while Monday.

It is a rest day insofar as I'm not cycling. There's other things to see to, most pressing is this journal needs updating. The wifi connection here however isn't so reliable. One moment its working, the next, it slows, and even disconnects. Loading pictures successfully is a rarity. The loading icon spins away for fifteen minutes and if I'm lucky, then the photo will start appearing on the screen. Most times after that time loading it fails with the message "This page cannot be displayed".

The hostel is comfortable. The only failing is there's no common room.

Tupiza is a start point for a 3 day 4WD tour which takes in a national park occupying the south-west corner of Bolivia and continues to finish in Uyuni, after driving over namesake salar (salt flats); and, all the guests in the hostel are small groups, that keep themselves to their groups, here a day or so before setting off on their tour.

This evening though, come another cyclist, someone I can talk with.

A young Englishman who is cycling from Argentina to Mexico. He tried cycling the abovementioned 4WD tour route, but found out he'd need a lot more water carrying capacity on his bike than he could manage. Anyway, he is heading to Potosi a day later than me, so I'll probably see him there.