Weather: Whole experience eloquently summed up by this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSAJ0l4OBHM.... Ironically the only horse I have met so far was called Rock, possibly more appropriate than a horse with no name.
Llama count: Not so many, but we could have done with some to pull the Toyota, that seems to be still suffering from altitude sickness despite Freddy mending the radiator ´Con plastico y Superglue´, which I think translates from Bolivian Spanish to Cambridgeshire English as bailer twine.
We were the only tour group which helped their guides wash up, and insisted that Freddy and Janet joined us for dinner. This was spectacular diplomacy, and means that every guide in south west Bolivia is looking out for us, and many have offered to drive in convoy with Freddy in case of another break down. Luckily there is to be no more official breakdowns. However, the Toyota will only start when pushed.
First push of Toyota...
Lake Number 1... Red Lake
The sun rises over a lake which is naturally red. This partially explains why the flamingoes here are so pink, they are all a Barbie shade, none of this English rose nonsense you find in Whipsnade, or the Isle of Wight Flamingo world for that matter. Interestingly I have also lost all English rose complexion, and am also Barbie pink. I think this might be sunburn though, don´t think I can blame the lake.
Second push of Toyota...
Lake number 2... White Lake
More Flamingoes.
Third push of Toyota...
Desert with amazing lava formations, only a spitting distance away from Chile. They have lava that looks like trees, and enormous odd formations to climb. I climb to the top, and then get vertigo, and go down with shaky jelly legs, very slowly.
Fourth push of Toyota...
Another lake that looks like the Alps, with the snowcapped mountains in the distance
Fifth push of Toyota...
A hotel next to a lake with almost domesticated flamingoes.
Sixth push of Toyota... this time it took 100 yards to start, it really did not appreciate the dust in this corner of the desert.
Lunch with Andean rabbits, which look like a cross between rabbits and squirrels, weird things. The French feed them salad, and Freddy gets out his sling shot to get rid of them (the rabbits not the French). He is a surprisingly bad shot, or maybe its so he doesn´t offend anyone. Anyway Tally would have killed them in one go.
Seventh push of the Toyota...
I get to see a smoking volcano, the French and I are certain the Toyota will definitely not start this time.
It does!
We stop in a tiny town to see a market, and a 1970s museum about the local pre-Inca tribes. They had an interesting habit of burying their dead in the foetal position, and mummifying them in coral. Consequently curious tourists can wonder round a cemetery peering into holes in the coral and seeing dead bodies. I think the bones might be plastic they look too clean, and there are no fracture marks on the skulls... Very Bolivian tourism.
The Toyota is pushed for the ninth time..
And we reach a hotel completely made of Salt. Everything here is Salt including the beds which looks a bit chilly. It is on the edge of the world´s largest salt flat that from the windows is only a thin white line below a blue horizon (it reminds me of Holkham beach, in fact there are many aspects of Bolivia that remind me a bit of Norfolk.)
I play catch the stone with a local 5 year old girl, which basically leads to a one sided game of gentle catch, and another sided game of throw the stone as hard as you can at the stupid English tourist, and suck it before hand just to show her you don´t care.
Everyone goes to bed early, the French want to party, but we are in a different hotel to all the other youngsters. There are only elderly Brazilians here.
Everyone is in bed by nine.
No one expects the beloved Toyota to start in the morning (including Freddy).
No comments:
Post a Comment