Day 7 – Bolivia (continued)

We all woke up in the morning looking pretty bad. Everyone had headaches, bloody-noses, and were just exhausted. Matt was trying his best to rally against the altitude sickness, but it was rough going for him.

The first stop was at a massive salt lake surrounded by volcanoes with many flamingos. That sight alone was enough to perk all of us up, including Matt. We traveled overland through the high Altiplano bouncing along, wondering how in the world Emilio knew where to go. We rarely saw another vehicle. Emilio only had 1 cassette tape which contained only 4 songs, so by the middle of day 2, we knew all 4 songs by heart.

We stopped for lunch at a small pueblo and met a little boy named Miguel who was 5 years old. He was so cute. A lunch table was set up in a small room which was also a tiny grocery store, but it did not look like anything had been sold in quite awhile. Miguel hung out with us for lunch. He spoke a Spanish dialect that was difficult to understand, but we learned that he liked school, even though he did not go to school right now and that his father had just died. Barbarah gave him some treats and he came running back to us proudly wearing his little backpack. The pueblo was very poor. Llamas and pigs were wandering around the pueblo. The people we saw were spending their time separating grains by using the wind to blow away the dust, leaving behind just a pile of grain.

On we traveled, stopping to watch llamas and quinas, around every bumpy turn was a sight that made the uncomfortable drive worth it. We arrived at a salt hotel by sunset. The tour group we chose to travel with was the only one that spends the night in a salt hotel. The only rule was “Do Not Lick the Walls.” Everything except the toilet and stove was made of salt….our beds, rooms, tables, seats, walls, floors etc. Surprisingly, despite the temperature plummeting outside, the thick salt walls kept things nicely insulated. The best thing was that we each got a hot shower. We all looked much better after our showers and had dinner together which consisted of Llama steaks, rice, papas fritas and soup.

I feel asleep right after dinner all bundled up in my salt bed. There was one outlet for power in the common area which was full of battery chargers. Matt stayed up helping others with their cameras, cleaning the dirt off all the image sensors.