|
Chapter 2
Gringo Bill’s want $20 (£12.50) but the hospedaje next door has hot
water for 40S (£7.40). We
unload our rucksack and walk up to the baths.
It costs 5S (£0.93) each to get in.
There are new wooden railings and a new bridge but the baths are
still the same and run by the same chap.
It is very hot and getting hotter.
We discover there are no trains to Quillabamba because there has been a
rockfall. The only way to
get there is by bus from Cusco. This
is a disappointment as to go to Quillabamba was the main reason for
coming to Aguas Calientes. There
is a train back to Cusco tomorrow, at 15S (£2.70) for the first class
local train. Tickets are
available from 1100. The
train leaves at 1630 or possibly 1300.
The posh train from the posh station costs 97.50S (£18.00).
The helicopter costs $90 (£56.00) but takes less than an hour.
We are very tempted. There
is supposed to be a party in the square that night but it is rained off
by the superb storm and lightning display.
Tue 2nd November
I start queuing for train tickets at 1000 and buy them at 1130.
Jen has already gone up to the baths and I follow.
Marla and her brother join us and Jenny an Australian travelling
alone. By the time we get
back to the station the train is full, with people hanging off the end
of each carriage. We
don’t have any idea where our seats are and board at the wrong end of
the carriage. Muttering
“permiso” I manage to worm my way through and turf out the people
who are sitting in our seats. I
shout to Jen at the other end of the carriage and by putting the
rucksack on her head she manages to get through.
It was her day for carrying the rucksack.
At Ollantaytambo all the local people get off and race for the buses
which zoom past us later. The
train arrives at Cusco at 2130. It
is pouring with rain. We
walk to Hostal Amari but they have no room.
We are already soaked and cannot face scouring the city for
accommodation. We end up at
San Blas paying 50S (£9.25).
Wed 3rd November
Yesterday’s newspaper has the headline “Sismo destruyo decenas de
casas”. We learn that 600
families were affected and 150 homes destroyed in an earthquake at
Chuschi, 200km south of Ayacucho on the 31st October.
Our EcoAmazon trip tomorrow costs $135 (£84.00) and $80 (£50.00) for
flights. We also book a
ticket on a bus to La Paz for Saturday night at 25S (£4.60) each.
In the evening we decide to dress up and go to the most expensive hotels
in Cusco for cocktails. We
visit the Hotel Monasterio, Inka Palace and Golden Tulip (good spelling)
and feel the first was the best. At
least staying at San Blas means we can leave some of our belongings
there without any worry. They
never did find my wheels though.
Thu 4th November
 A nice early start – the airport at 0600. Puerto Maldonado is not as hot as last year.
We are met by Edwin and taken for a juice in the market.
I read for 1½ hours on the boat trip which makes it pass
quickly. EcoAmazon is very
quiet. They have bigger,
better rooms and are building more. We meet a Belgian couple, Pascal and Solange.
Our first excursion is to Monkey Island with Elias, our guide.
We have a stock of bananas and feed them to the four varieties of
monkey and the coatis. Jen
and I play Rummikub later with Pascal and Solange who pick it up very
quickly. In the evening
there is the caiman expedition, on which we are joined by other guests.
Fri 5th November
Another early start at 0600. We
do the same walk as last year to the hidden lake but see more.
The jungle is full of owl butterflies and Monarch butterflies.
We see vultures, herons and bats.
Elias speaks a little English and tells us of the medicinal uses
of the trees and plants although at times we know he is making it up.
Jen falls in the swamp. On
the way home we play a trick on Elias because he is walking so far ahead
of us. The four of us hide
behind a bush and then Jen screams.
Elias comes running back and we all fall about laughing.
Sat 6th November
0345 start. Did we actually
go to bed? It is a
beautiful morning. Back at
Puerto Maldonado we tell Edwin of our complaints (I can’t remember
what they were now) but also that it was wonderful.
We discover the reason for the ridiculously early start.
Some of the others are catching a plane before ours.
We have several hours wait at the airport.
At San Blas we reorganise our rucksacks and Jen deals with her laundry
– swamp stuff. I go
riding to Chin Chan with Alan (my guide) and Luna (my horse).
My horse is rather thin but willing.
Alan chatters away in Spanish all the time. Jen goes to the sauna. We
take over the San Blas lounge until 1900 when we leave for the bus
station. It is a huge place
with every bus company represented.
We have to pay a tax of 1.20S each.
Our modern coach leaves on time.
I must stop making rude comments about Peruvian buses.
Sun 7th November
We arrive in Puno at 0430 or was it 0530. We have to change buses.
The ticket collector ripped off the part of ours that says La
Paz. The people on the new
bus want us to pay extra for Puno – La Paz.
The old bus people can’t find the original chit.
They go through all their tickets and find the other halves.
They keep wanting to know when and where we bought the tickets.
I have an envelope with the name of the tourist agency.
We are shown to another coach.
Dawn breaks over Puno. The
sky is very beautiful in mauve and pink and blue.
We expected to have to wait until 0800 and we spend the time
watching the dogs and the bicycle carriers, for cargo and people, in the
street outside. We are
moved to yet another coach. Our
tickets have long since disappeared and we are travelling on an envelope
now. We meet up with Jenny and a Scot, Paul, who came to Puno to
visit Lake Titicaca. We
arrive in La Paz at 1700 ish. We
want to go to the youth hostal but can’t find it.
Hotel Turino is suggested by the taxi driver.
They are checking in eight Argentineans so there is a bit of a
delay. A room with a bath
costs 70B (£7.45).
Mon 8th November
 We head for Sagarnaga to look for tourist agencies.
At Saranani Tours we meet Gonzales and his friend who speak
English. They offer us
trips to Rurrenabaque $210 (£130.00) for six days and Uyuni $100 (£62.00)
for four days. We check on other tours with other agencies but they do
not speak such good English and are more vague.
We return to Saranani and hassle Gonzales, in the nicest possible
way, for $10 discount. Gonzales
disappears to buy us tickets on the plane to Reyes (not Rurrenabaque for
some reason) and his friend talks politics.
At the Internet café I look up the Chilean boat trip Jen wants
to take with Navimag. All
the available cabins are very expensive.
We eat out that night at restaurant Huari where there is a cover charge
of 25B each for the floor show. They
have two bands for one hour each and the dancers. The dancers are very talented but we didn’t think to bring
a camera. One of the dances
simulates fighting. Then
they are dressed as scarecrows. The
girls have beautiful tops in black velvet with beading.
Later the men wear huge ornate suits which must be heavy.
I am asked to dance by a fellow diner who suggests I swing my
hips more. This does not
have the same effect with
leggings as with the dancers’ short skirts.
We eat llama steak and llama kebabs, which are excellent.
The waiter brings us llama jerky (tiny fried strips of llama) to
taste. When we leave the
restaurant La Paz is deserted apart from a few young drunks.
The Burger King building in La Paz is worth a mention.
We thought it was a bank when we first saw it.
A huge modern structure, it has big windows and a giant sculpture
in the entrance.
Tue 9th November
As we walk through the city we pass a demonstration with firecrackers and
riot police. Saranani have
not managed to get our train tickets from Oruro, to start the Uyuni trip
so we stop for a while and chat with Gonzales about the cocaine business
in Bolivia. He is happy
that cocaine brings money into Bolivia and does not like the US
interference. He promises
to bring the tickets to our hotel tomorrow.
The bus to Coroico leaves from Villa Fatima and there is one just
leaving. This is the trip
described in the guide book as the most dangerous in South America.
It is safer now that the road is one way up in the day and one
way back in the evening.
We drive through the mountains and encounter snow and sleet.
I am still wearing shorts. The
vegetation changes to jungle type.
The road is a single track cut into the mountains.
There are spectacular drops.
It is very reminiscent of the road to Kathmandu except then we
were in a double decker bus. The
trip is supposed to take 3 hours from 1200 to 1500.
At 1430 we stop. There
is lots of walking around up and down the hill.
Perhaps 15 vehicles have stopped. Someone explains in Spanish but
all we can understand is that it is something to do with a lorry.
Jen and I go to investigate.
There are lots of people under and around the lorry which has
broken down in the middle of the road.
When we start moving again we begin to meet traffic coming up.
Our bus has to manoeuvre as close to the edge as possible so the
other vehicle can pass by on the inside.
The journey takes 6 hours in all.
We arrive in Coroico in the mist and rain. Coroico is perched on a hill at 1760m amid orange  and banana
groves and coffee plantations. Hostal
Kory, off the main square, has a cold swimming pool. We want to eat in the restaurant attached to the hostal but
the atmosphere is gloomy as there is no electricity. Then the electricity is restored and life comes back to the
restaurant. The cook is an
Argentine and the waiter is French.
The food is excellent but one has to be careful because the room
is full of moths. Big ones,
little ones, medium sized ones and in your dinner ones.
Wed 10th November
Jen and I go out for a walk. We
attempt to take a short cut home and end up scrambling down the
hillside. Tired and dirty
we come across El Viejo Molino, a beautiful modern hotel with a swimming
pool. I wonder where the
money came from?
We stop for coffee and ask if we can use the pool.
We can. We stop for
lunch. 96B later we feel we
ought to leave. Coroico is
an interesting town in a beautiful setting.
It is a pity we didn’t manage to see the coca plantations.
Our collectivo trip back to La Paz is uneventful.
Gonzalez and his friend are waiting at our hotel with the Uyuni
tickets. This time we have
a different room in the old part. The
beds are uncomfortable and the area is very noisy.
Thu 11th November
Our taxi driver wants 45B to go to the military airport but has no change
so we have to give him 50B. The
plane is a Fokker F-27. We
fly over flat plains with tilled fields, mountains covered in  snow and
then lots of bare rock followed by jungle as far as you can see.
The orange colour of the large winding river contrasts with the
green of the trees. The
other passengers give a round of applause when the plane lands on the
grass airfield at Reyes. We
have to wait whilst our luggage is unloaded and collect it from the
plane side.
A ute takes us into Rurre (8B - £0.85 each), belting down the unmade
road in the middle, moving to the side when someone else comes or wants
to overtake. We pick up the
driver of a broken down ute and take him to nearest village. We see herons and butterflies but the trip is too fast and
dusty to see much. Our
companions are four German girls.
Rurrenabaque is 200 km north-east of La Paz. Situated on the banks of the Río Beni it is an important
trading centre and transportation link for Beni Department. The Oriental hotel in Rurrenabaque has a reservation for
Jennifer and Kathryn. The
garden is full of mango trees and parakeets.
When the mangoes are ripe they drop off the tree with a
tremendous crash. At Bala
Tours they confirm our trips.
Lunch consists of beef cazuela (stew), spicy meat, rice and bean salad
and boiled plantain (6B - £0.64 each) in a small restaurant by the
river. It is very hot and
we return to the hotel to rest in the hammocks.
Jen is feeling sick and is sick.
The only thing she wants is water melon.
I scour the town looking for water melon but when I return with
it Jen has decided she doesn’t want that either.
In the evening I do not want to go to one of the gringo
restaurants so choose one full of locals.
There is no menu just kebab, runny rice and salad for another 6B.
There are no drinks except gaseosa and refresca and then only in
litres.
Fri 12th November
A very civilised start at 0900. Jen
is feeling better this morning. We
travel up the river Beni going south. The river has a very fast current. There is jungle on the banks and mountains behind.
After one and a half hours we stop at the Parque Nacional Madidi
checkpoint for the guard to take our names.
Erick, our guide, turns off the outboard to refuel and the boat
heads back to Rurrenabaque at a vast rate of knots.
We are now travelling on the river Tuichi and after three hours we dock
at some mud steps. 100 yards later we see our camp of bamboo and blue
plastic, with wooden staging off the ground.
Erick has mosquito nets and blankets and suggests we rest whilst
he makes lunch. It is very
hot.
After lunch we go back to the boat and are off upstream? downstream? to
go catfishing. I have a
lump of meat on a huge hook on a plastic line.
I get a bite and see something jump out of the water but it is
too strong. Even Erick
finds it difficult to pull in the plastic line in time.
We have to leave to climb the mountain.
Another boat trip – there are so many islands and tributaries
Jen and I are totally lost in an instant.
We cross a beach, with lovely pebbles, following in other
footsteps. There are green
parrots at the top of tall trees and a sheer red cliff face full of
holes where the birds are nesting.
It is time for them to lay their eggs.
I start walking up a water channel full of round slippery
pebbles. It gets more
steep. There is a liana to
hold on to but it is so thin. At
the top of that face I have to swap to another, even thinner liana for
the second bit which is worse. My
heart is pounding and my lungs are heaving.
Erick walks up carrying the juice. We
are now above the holes and can lean precariously over the edge holding
onto trees to watch the parrots. Macaws
in red and blue fly past in pairs, formation flying.
They like to roost in the tops of the trees on top of the
mountain. Erick hears a
monkey. Jen and I are
wondering if there is another way down but there isn’t.
It’s not so bad going down as the lianas didn’t break on the
way up so it is OK to trust them. When
we express our fear Erick just laughs.
I can only see below me, where to put my feet.
I still try to hold on with my elbows.
It is a relief to be at the bottom, even the slippery stones
don’t seem so bad.
Home for dinner, singani (Bolivian eau de vie) and orange and teaching
Erick Rummikub by candlelight. At
2100 our night walk begins. We
try the river banks at various places.
Although there are no animals drinking, there are lots of
fireflies and the mosquitoes are having a field day.
We have to give up when the biting gets too bad.
Autan, Mosquito Milk, Jungle Juice, none has any effect unless it
is to stop the other million biting.
Bed is a blanket on a bed roll on the wooden platform surrounded by a
net. It is very hard and
itchy. I try using the
spare blanket as a pillow but it is too uncomfortable.
At 0145 I get my travel pillow and despite the heat wrap the
other blanket around me. At
last I can sleep.
Sat 13th November
Jen is up with lark after a night of shouting and hiccuping.
I wasn’t sure if she was being sick or not.
Our jungle walk starts at 0900. We
cross streams and hack a virgin path into the forest, sometimes
listening for animals, sometimes finding animal tracks, sometimes
crossing animal runs but no animals, only a green snake which Erick
implies is very poisonous. We
see a couple of woodpeckers attacking a tree.
Erick demonstrates the liana which supplies water.
It is surprisingly fresh but there is a hint of jungle. I ask Erick how he knows where he is going.
He doesn’t. I ask
how he knows where the camp is. He
looks at the sun and the trees, which have thicker bark on one side than
the other.
After three hours we are exhausted.
Walking is churning me up and I am not sure whether I shall faint
from the heat, throw up or need to stop behind a tree. I ask how far to the camp.
Another hour. I’m
going to die in the Bolivian jungle.
We seem to spend time going this way and that.
Are we lost or are we still looking for animals?
Jen and I couldn’t give a monkey’s at this point and just
want to get home. Erick
takes pity on us and we begin to recognise the path.
How pleased we are to see that blue plastic sheeting.
Jen makes us a salad for lunch, she is gradually taking over the kitchen,
as we can’t cope with anything hot.
In the afternoon we have another boat trip a short way downstream
to go aground on the pebbles. The
river is shallow but still very fast.
We can swim in the deeper part to the far bank, walk up the bank
and swim back across to the shallows.
Erick demonstrates. Jen
and I are convinced we will end up at Rurrenabaque so stick to the
shallows. If I hold on to
the pebbles and I can just about stay where I am.
It is lovely to be in the cool, albeit brown water.
After a long and wrinkly soak I find ticks on my legs which have
to be picked off one by one. We
go back to the beach. The
pebbles are hard to walk on and very hot.
It has clouded over a little but is still very hot.
The breeze whilst the boat is moving is refreshing.
We go back to camp for tea and biccies.
The heat soon comes in and the cool, refreshed body becomes hot
and clammy once again. I
have been stung by a wasp but what’s another mark.
Swimming in the water has shown up all the bites we didn’t know
we had although they don’t seem to be itching … yet.
The backs of my thighs have a lovely crop. Where did they come from?
Ants on the bench last night?
We are astounded at the number of different bugs we can see in
the light of the candles.
Sun 14th November
Pancake and jam for breakfast, a boat trip and then a walk to not see the
monkeys. Although there is
no climbing we still have to clamber up a dry river bed. It
is very hot. Jen wants to give up but won’t.
After two hours we are weakening but Erick is still hacking his
way through the jungle. I
fall over. Vines 1 Kath 0. They try and wrap around my feet. Also stepping on things on the ground brings other bits down
from above to slap me around the ear.
Erick finds us water in the banana like plants and various fruits
and berries to eat. He is
just demonstrating that he could stay alive in the jungle for ages.
We are only too pleased to get back to the cliff edge but then
have to hack our way along it to find the path down.
After the difficult bit scrambling down Erick suggests I lead the way.
“Katrin guia”. It
is surprisingly hard as the path is only slightly different to the rest
of the jungle. Looking
ahead is hopeless, everything blends in.
This walk has started at the other campamiento, past the lavatory
in fact.
Erick says when we get back there will be another group but he doesn’t
know which camp they will choose. As
we have to walk through one and go back to other we will find out.
We pass a clearing containing the beginnings of yet a third camp
– another company says Erick.
At our mooring there is a second boat.
In our camp are the four German girls from our flight deep in
conflab with a guide and two more chaps in the kitchen. Jen is telling the new chaps how wonderful Erick is and how
he is her third son when one of them says “he is my first son”.
It is Erick’s dad! They have been walking in the jungle together since Erick was
little. The other group
have a cook and a guide and a second guide for some reason.
Jen points out that Dad should have been with us and Erick with
the young girls. Erick
agrees. Their cook brings
around water to wash their hands before lunch.
Erick you never did that. Erick’s
dad says they are the first class group.
We retreat to play Rummikub, because Erick has the taste for it,
amid much banter. They
might be first class but we have the young man.
We leave them to it and go swimming again. Jen and I have no clothes on and Erick is mending the engine.
He later joins us but is very discreet.
Back at the mooring, Dad and friend are washing up and Erick
joins them with our dirty dishes whilst Jen and I load the boat.
It rains on the way back, and I have a mad scrabble for our macs.
Erick picks up a woman and her four children to give them a lift back to
Rurre. This is normal river
etiquette. She doesn’t
want to go to the jetty in Rurre but prefers the mud half a mile outside
town. She has to lift the
children over the soft ground one by one.
They stand, up the their knees in mud, waiting patiently for
their turn.
The first person we see at the floating restaurant is Jenny so we arrange
to have dinner together later. The
local football team won the cup and the town is full of celebrating
football fans.
Mon 15th November
At Bala Tours at 0830 the next morning there is still some confusion as
to whether we have a flight back to La Paz.
We cannot worry about it and will see when we return to
Rurrenabaque.
Our new group consists of Tom, Michael, Rachel, Robert and us (all
English), a guide, Wil, a driver and a cook, Leo.
We have to travel in a 4WD in the heat and dust for 4 hours.
Towards the end of the journey we stop for some watermelon and
drinks. The café can
supply these but has no running water.
We reach another blue plastic camp.
It contains a group, waiting to go back to Rurrenabaque with our
driver. They are having
lunch. One of the girls
wants more juice from the plastic esky but there is no-one to serve her.
I suggest she dips her cup into the esky but, no, she would
rather wait for the cook to use another cup to collect juice from the
esky and then pour it into her cup.
She says “we must keep up the hygiene standards”.
Jen and I have difficulty controlling our hysterical laughter. Doesn’t she know the cups are washed in the river?
We take a boat down the Yacuma river.
The river banks are full of herons, egrets, capybaras and
crocodiles.
 The trees are full of many other birds and howler monkeys.
When we reach our camp, our guide and cook jump in the river to
cool off. Jen and I feel it
must be safe and join them. We
know there are piranhas around and suddenly I can feel something
nibbling at my leg. Wil and
Leo fall about at my reaction and explain that they are only sardines.
If they were piranhas they would actually bite.
Tue 16th November
We all pile into the boat and go down river. We walk in the searing heat across the pampas to a lagoon,
anaconda hunting. The first
one Wil finds is venomous and only small, 5-6 ft.
The second one is a constrictor and 3.5m long.
I was all ready to give up before finding the second one because of the
heat but Wil insisted on staying a little longer. I have no hat. My
head is beginning to explode despite covering it with my shirt.
By the time we get back to the boat the clouds have arrived (pity
they didn’t turn up earlier) and on the way home it tips down.
We are all soaking wet and our only dry clothes are shorts and
t-shirts (not good for covering up against the mosquitoes).
Later we have another boat trip. We
are told the commotion in the water is caused by dolphins and we can see
something but not enough to determine its species.
It is possible to swim with the dolphins because the crocodiles
do not attack them and apparently will not attack us but we don’t try
it. We climb up a mud cliff
with Wil going ahead cutting steps to another part of the river.
We try fishing with small lines and hooks for sardines and
piranhas. The crocodiles
watch Tom catching sardines and Wil catches a yellow piranha.
Leo joins us. He was preparing food in the boat to avoid
mosquitoes and catches one (sardine) immediately.
Wil tries to catch a crocodile with the piranha.
The rest of us are hopeless and feed the fish.
At the camp the mosquitoes are gathering and bothering Wil and Leo as
much as us which makes us feel better.
I pass on the boat ride to see crocodile eyes at night and am
just falling asleep when they all invade my camp.
Wed 17th November
It rained most of the night. If
it rains a lot the 4WD can’t get through or isn’t allowed through
and we are stranded at the camp by the bridge.
Also the planes cannot take off from the airport at Reyes or
Rurrenabaque. The rainy
season is on the way. The
mosquitoes start as soon as I emerge from my net.
After breakfast, I only get small meals now because Leo has
noticed I don’t eat much, it is too hot, the camp is packed away into
the boat. It is still
interesting going down river spotting the crocodiles, turtles, capybara,
monkeys, herons, hoatxin and kingfishers. Some
of our clothes are still wet and all smell.
At the bridge camp Wil takes the other four off for a walk.
Jen and I want to try Wil’s anti mosquito bite cure of alcohol,
milk of magnesia and then acne cream.
Leo is preparing lunch and chatting to the bridge keeper.
I raid the bundles for a net and erect it at the far end of the
camp. Jen removes her
clothes so I can operate on her and then we swap.
There is lots of giggling. Goodness
knows what Leo thought but he doesn’t say anything.
The miracle cure has a wonderful cooling effect and the bites are
relieved for a while.
Afterwards we offer to help with lunch but we are not allowed.
We play Rummikub instead. I
seem to win more often these days.
The 4WD arrives. I get to
sit in the front on my own because I’m a girl with long legs.
We have one tape in English, the Eagles.
A toucan flies over the road just in front of us, looking just
like a cartoon bird. At one
point we have to stop because there is a crocodile in the road.
Eventually Wil joins me in the front because it is too
uncomfortable with four on the seat behind.
It is a nice warm temperature at Rurrenabaque.
We give Wil and Leo a 25B tip each.
There is no electricity at our hotel but who cares about cold showers.
We reward ourselves with an ice-cream and are accosted by a
Bolivian student with a questionnaire in unusual English about tourism
in Bolivia. Our dirty
clothes have to be left outside our room because they smell too awful.
Thu 18th November
We go back to Bala Tours to leave Erick a tip. He’s in the jungle and should be back at 1700 so we decide
to return then. Fortunately
one of the laundries is open. Someone
has recommended the swimming pool and at that time we are the only
customers. The water is
green and cool. We meet
Terence from Adelaide and Adrienne with parents in Carnon Downs.
Terence is constantly on the scrounge (for cigarettes, food,
drinks, sun tan cream, books, anything) which gets a little wearing
after a while. Adrienne met
her Bolivian husband in Sussex and has lived in La Paz for 11 years.
Shortly her parents are coming out to visit and want to move to
La Paz.
We nip out for lunch and then go back to pool. We have to leave to go down to the river and wait for Erick. He
doesn’t arrive. At Bala we discovered that Erick returned early.
We leave a note and the money.
On the way to our hotel after dinner Erick turns up.
Today is a fiesta for the somethingth anniversary of Beni (the
department in which Rurrenabaque is situated)
– come to the disco. Erick’s
Dad is there. Lots of
people are sitting, drinking, outside.
Inside they stand in a line to dance.
I can have Coca-Cola or beer.
Jen and I try some wilder dancing but they aren’t impressed.
Fri 19th November
We breakfast at Café Montacu where we can buy T shirts, post cards and
stickers. The truck takes
us out to Rurrenabaque airport at 1130.
We wait for the plane. The
only refreshment is an unknown spiky yellow fruit with lemony seeds
which leaves stains on your hands.
Jen and I are the last on the plane so there are only 2 seats
left. I sit facing
backwards, without a window. The
only surprise is when we land as I don’t know it is about to happen.
La Paz feels cold to someone dressed in a T-shirt, covered with dried
sweat. At the Hotel Turino
we have a good room in the new part.
We want more information so go back to Sagarnaga.
We know Gonzales has gone to Holland to see his family but his
friend is not around either so we ask someone else.
He gives me an address where I might find some horses.
We ask about the San Pedro prison and Mongo’s, a restaurant
that Rachel recommended to us. Gonzales’ mate has arrived by then so we move to his office
and tell him of our adventures.
Sat 20th November
We enquire at Hotel Gloria about a trip to thermal baths but are told
Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays not Sundays (contradicting our guide
book). Today’s trip has
already left.. The
vegetarian restaurant attached to Hotel Gloria is the same as last year. For lunch we are offered salad, soup, bread, refresca de
alfalfa (a lovely green coloured still drink that tastes of grass), soya
curry and rice, stuffed potato and cold veggies.
We take a collectivo to the horse address but it is too vague and
we cannot find anything.
We come back via the San Pedro prison.
We can go in for a tour for 35B (£3.70) each and a couple of B
for the section leaders. The
Police check the inmates at 0630 and 2100. The State provides nothing except basic food.
The age range is supposed to be
Next
Chapter Top of
page Home |