Logbook 2 - Bolivian days
Poco después de dejar Argentina, me dirigi a Bolivia. Seguia siendo 2007, pero era abril. La Quiaca, que es la frontera con el pais argentino, fue el comienzo de un he recorrido de curiosos descubrimientos.
After leaving Buenos Aires I headed north towards Bolivia. It was still 2007 but April now. La Quiaca which is the border town was the beginning of a journey further from Europe.
Graham Douglas
La Quiaca … This is already a different world far from sophisticated BA, lots of Bolivians with kids hopping on and off the bus every few kilometers. At Salta there is a monument to the victims of the dictadura.
In the bus station at La Quiaca the first big sign I notice announces Alcoholics Anonymous, in Argentine blue and gold on a white background.
Some numbers:
Here at 3600 meters altitude, I find I can already walk 500 m.
Yes, without a rucksack and without fainting so far. Then I went down to the border to check it out before crossing tomorrow. Turning round to walk back, the view as you enter Argentina goes like this in road signs:
“You are 5121 Km from Ushuaia”.
“Welcome to the centenary celebrations of La Quiaica, we hope it fills your heart with joy”.
“Drugs and alcohol destroy your future”.
“Las Malvinas son Argentinas”
A bit further along a lorry-load of flour sacks has been left on the pavement and small Bolivians, men and women, are picking them up and running down to the customs post. Each sack weighs 50Kg., more than twice my rucksack when it’s full.
I’m stuck in this sleepy place for a bit longer due to fever, whether it’s Dengue or just some unknown bug.
On Sunday only the bar called Aguantes is open, and it looks like a really tacky whorehouse inside, without the women. The bar has mirrors round the concrete pillars, there is a potted palm that has been sprayed with Aluminium paint, the seats are grubby old armchairs, old red velvet curtains hang over the toilet doors, the carpet is stained and hasn’t been vacuumed for a long time, and the lighting is two dull green striplights.
The only customers at the moment are a family near the door, and 4 or 5 teenagers getting loudly drunk at the bar, while a couple of 2-year-olds play football on the floor with a plastic bottle and scream their heads off at intervals.
A coffee and a small bottle of Bud for a pound, entertainment free of charge.
Tupiza May 8th
I booked a trip to the salt lakes for tomorrow and continue resting today. Spoke to Carla, who told me I’d better hurry back to BA if I wanted to see her again, but also that “me incanta” when I blew her a kiss, I’m a bit concerned about her motives…, and mine too for that matter.
In a small restaurant I put my earphones on and listen to a CD from my walkman. The owner asks if I’d like him to play it over the sound system, and I say thanks, while it dawns on me that he might have taken offence about my not liking his own choice of music.
So, I am eating a plate of pasta in Bolivia listening to Portuguese Fado and Congolese Soukous. Later he asks me to copy the CD for him at his friend’s shop. I wonder how long this was played after I left and what the backpackers and the Bolivians thought about it.
Walking around the edge of town this morning I was behind a little old lady in her typical Bolivian bowler hat and thick stockings when a man waved to her and they hugged when they met. As I got closer, I thought ‘this is a long hug’, but when I passed them I realized that they were both sobbing their hearts out. Ai, Vida.
I made a trip to the Solar de Uyuni for 3 days in a 4x4 with 4 others, a suspicious French couple and a younger pair John and Kate from Birmingham, who were a little more mature and interesting. We get up before dawn every day and Girardo drives while Cristina talks and later does the cooking.
We stay in very basic accommodation and there isn’t a lot to see most of the time, just experience the desolation of the landscape and spot the rock rabbits in the abandoned villages. I realize that I snore loudly, probably the latitude makes it worse - when on the second night everyone waits for me to chosse where I want to sleep, so that they can all rush to the opposite corner of the dormitory.
It takes 2 days to reach the Solar from Tupiza and when we do the highlights are the flamingos by the lakes, the hot sulphur geysers and the sight of sunrise over the Solar before we start to cross it. Approaching from the town of Uyuni it only takes a day to get to the beginning of the Solar and there is already a big group of British gap-year trippers there.
A bunch of rich unfriendly teenagers clinging together while they all do something cool. With their private school accents, they don’t want to talk to us.
Girardo stops to point out a desert fox and throws some bread to it, and we watch as it buries it for later.
In Cochabamba near the bus station, I pass a group of children aged about 10 who are sniffing glue and begging.