Sunday Jan. 1, 2006
Went to breakfast.
The Internet connection at the hotel was down. Rogelio (Roger) the taxi driver picked us up
at noon. Drove through central and south
La Paz. Saw the city government building
(alcaldia). Indian women with straw hats
come to the city from Potosi to search for better lives. We drove past Edward Abraoah Plaza. In 1872 he was the leader in a war between
Bolivia and Chile. Bolivia lost. Gas is about 3.80 per liter.
Drove to the Valley of the Moon. On the way up we stopped at a cactus farm
called Mallasa and looked at the “Molar of the Devil” mountain.
At the Valley of the Moon, we met Leno Quispe, a plant
expert and medicine man of the Aymara tribe.
Lino toured us through the Valley, identifying the plants, explaining the medicinal and
ceremonial, and ornamental uses of the plants and cacti. He also explained about the rainy, dry and
winter seasons in the altiplano (high plains).
Lino had been on vacation all week and wasn’t scheduled to
go to work on Sunday, but when he work up, he received a message from his
Guides to go to work to meet someone.
Lino invited us into the office for coffee. He put on his poncho, hat, and picked up his
flutes. One must be properly attired to play. He played several beautiful pieces for us.
Then Rogelio took us to the Zoo. We took lots of pictures. All the animals in the Zoo are indigenous to
Bolivia. There were mountain lions,
tigers, leopards, and bespeckled bears.
They look like they are wearing glasses – look at the yellow hair around
their eyes. We didn’t go into the snake
house because the lines were so long.
We had lunch in an open-air restaurant and decided to go to
Urimi to check out the thermal springs.
It’s a 3 hour ride from La Paz.
Went through the altiplano, a police checkpoint, off onto a dirt road,
through the frozen ruins of an old town, and down a winding road through the
mountains to the Valley of Sapaqui.
There was a big bus stuck in the tunnel in the mountain just before the thermal springs at Urimi.
We had to move to the side – the cliff side – so the bus could back up past us.
At the thermal springs, the water flows out of the
moutain. It’s an inactive volcano and
the water is wonderfully warm. We went
into the pool and sauna. Men in one area, women in another. In the sauna,
there were eucalyptus leaves on the ground and the aroma filled the air. Very relaxing. Opens the lungs. There is a hotel called Hotel Gloria, one of
a chain of hotels throughout Bolivia.
On the way back to La Paz, we saw a white cat that moved off
to the right, a white mouse that ran across the road from left to right, a
white burro standing on the right side, and a gray rabbit with a white tail
bounding off the right side of the road.
Rogelio asked Doc and me to be his daughter’s godparents. I offered to marry him and Patty in
Copacabana. We stopped as his house on
the way home and talked to Patty.
Back at the hotel, Doc passed out immediately but I was
invigorated and couldn’t sleep for hours.
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