Making Tracks

Are we in Arches National Park?

We are currently ousting this blog from Buenos Aries (although this is still about our time in Bolivia). We are getting ready for the new year and continuing our adventure no matter what bumps we hit in the road (literally and metaphorically). While we have spent some time in Chile and Argentina, it is amazing to see how much fun we had in Bolivia and we are definitely missing Bolivia as we re-read about our adventures and all the cool things we did there.

 November 7^th – Fingers Crossed

It was a little surreal to be finally leaving La Paz and hard to say goodbye to the community we had made, but thanks to them, among others we had met in La Paz, our saga of vehicle issues and health problems was still, all things considered, a positive moment within our trip.

The coolest hot showers we've ever had!

We left as early as we could bring our selves to leave and after our final goodbyes we started our journey towards our next must-do stop in Bolivia; Toro Toro National Park.  According to Google it was going to take us 10 hours and although we had enough road snacks and podcasts to keep happy, after 8 hours on the road we were done.  Thankfully that brought us to the 3^rd largest city in Bolivia, Cochabamba. 

Rupert's new friend

The campground in Cochabamba was perfect.  We knew we had made the correct decision to stop when we saw the toilets and outdoor shower the belonged in a high-class resort and pet llamas beside us with a temperature in the low 20s at night.  The place seemed like paradise.  As we set up for the night Paul diligently checked the vehicle hoping that everything was as it should be, and to our delight the van was running perfectly.

 

November 8^th – A descent we will not forget

Javiar, the campground host, was a bit surprised when we said we already wanted to leave Cochabamba.  It was obvious he loved his city and wanted us to experience a bit of it before we left.  After explaining that we were a bit behind schedule he quickly designed a highlight list of things he thought we could/should do in one day.  It was hard to say no to a list of must-do activities, so we decided to stay another night.

Laguna Mal Paso

The first must-do activity was to hike to Laguna Mal Paso within Tunari National Park.  The National Park is “only” 14 kilometres from the campground but the drive is almost double the amount of kilometres and it goes up a long and windy road into the mountains. We felt like we were on a forestry road in BC, surrounded by pine trees on an unpaved road. The drive took us more than an hour to complete and brought us to a high elevation lake.  We weren’t 100% sure how to get to Laguna Mal Paso but, based on google and some old llama paths we charted a route.  

The hike was beautiful and a stark contrast to the community below it and after a few hours of hiking were finally overlooking Laguna Mal Paso.  It was around this time we learned that there was an easier way to reach the lake through another entrance, but in the end we were happy with the route we had chosen due to the landscape we walked through.  At least this is how we felt until we started our walk back.  We wanted to take the most direct route back to the van meaning we kept to the ridge line, which we guessed would save us walking at least 3 kilometres.  The problem was that the trail we were following disappeared and after another kilometre we were standing on top of a cliff.  The good news is we could see the van, but we had no way to get to it. We scouted the area and did find a way down but it was steep and required us to descend very slowly and carefully. Kendra wanted to turn back and try and find a different path, but Paul with Rupert on his back comfortably in his backpack decided the best way to go was down. The descent was terrifying but we did it.  Kendra cried and made sure to hyperventilate for dramatic effect, but Paul coached her down. 

Kendra crying while climbing down

We don’t think we saved anytime as it must have taken us almost an hour to walk 500 metres down.  By the time we got back to the van we were exhausted but overjoyed to be done.  We are not too sure the hike was worth the effort but that could be because our hearts were still racing from the decent we had to do.  One thing we failed to mention as well was that this hike was around 4500 m elevation so walking on flat ground had our hearts and heads pounding.  Hiking at elevation is no joke and while we have joked in our past lives about elevation in Jasper, that elevation is nothing compared to the past two months for us.

The second must-do activity was the market of Cochabamba which many say is the largest market in South America.  We challenge that statement as we felt it was smaller that Otavalo in Ecuador, but maybe it was only small because it was a weekday.  Markets tend to get exponentially larger on weekends.  We were able to purchase food we were missing, some olives, and even some delicious ice cream so it wasn’t a total disappointment, it just didn’t feel like the largest or most interesting market we had been to on this trip, but if you’re in the area definitely stop and check it out.

The final must-do was to take a gondola to statue of Cristo of the Concordia, so even though we had already walked 22,000 steps we made our way to the gondola station.  It took so much for us not to cry when, after 30 minutes of walking, we learned the gondola was closed for maintenance.  We knew we were exhausted and it was time to go back to the campsite.

The view of Cochabamba

We were pleasantly surprised when we returned to the campground to see some familiar faces, a couple Paul had befriended in La Paz (while Kendra was posting some pictures to Instagram).  We ended up getting along with each other really well and after ordering a couple pizzas together had decided to once again meet up with each in Toro Toro.

 

November 9^th – Back to the Badlands

After saying our “see you laters” to our new friends and picking up some groceries we started our drive to Toro Toro National Park.  As we drove the landscape started to dynamically change reminding us a mix of Southern Alberta, near Drumheller and the American South West (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona).  The area was dry, hot and full of red colour.  It was beautiful.

After finding our campsite for the next few days we made our way into the community of Toro Toro where we were further reminded of Drumheller thanks to the dinosaur statues found everywhere in the community.  Toro Toro is known for its large collections of dinosaur fossils making it the Drumheller of South America. 

Our time in the community gave us the opportunity to purchase our tickets for the national park and hire a guide for the next couple days.  Slightly unique to this national park is a policy that you are required to have a guide to visit any of the tourist sites.  Thankfully the cost is quite low at 100 bolivianos or the equivalent of $20 CAD for each 4-hour tour.  We decided to do three 4-hour tours, booking 2 for tomorrow and 1 for the day after.  Unfortunately, Rupert was not allowed to come with us to the sites.

 

November 10^th – Crawling through Caves

Traffic Jam.

We were asked to be at the guides office by 7am so we could pick up the guide and be at the start of our first tour location for 8am.  Yes, we drove the guide and ourselves to the location of the tour as it was far cheaper to do this and it meant Rupert would be left alone in the van for the minimum amount of time.

Our first tour was of the Ciudad de Itas, a location where people lived almost 3000 years ago.  The area was full of cave drawings made from blood and fruit, beautiful vistas of the surrounding areas and most famously large caverns larger than most we had seen in any national park within the United States.  It really felt like we were back in the United States within Arches or Colorado Monument.  The only difference being we had the place to ourselves and we got to see viscachas. Viscachas are like a rabbit chinchilla hybrid and they were just perched in the rocks wiggling their little noses. We thought the day couldn’t get better until we made our way to the next tour location.

It looks like the southwest in the USA!

Viscacha

  

The most famous attraction in Toro Toro National Park is the Caverna Umajalanta, the largest cave system in Bolivia, it is even showcased on the 10 Bolivianos bill.  

These stalactites are on the 10 boliviano bill.
 

We had heard that you can’t be too big to enter the cave as it requires quite a bit of crawling but when Paul asked if he was too fat to enter the cave all the guides assured him he would be able to explore it.  After donning our helmets and headlamps we descended into the cave.  Within about 10 minutes we not only were crawling through the cave, we were army crawling, dragging our bodies through tight and narrow corridors.  Although we don’t define ourselves as claustrophobic our hearts were racing.  We climbed further and further below the surface until we were 200 metres below the ground and a little over 700 metres into the cave.  We were told it continues for at least another 7 kilometres but we would need special equipment to continue.  People know the cave extends further than 7 more kilometres but have been unable to go any further thus far.  We assumed we would be retracing our steps back out of the cave but surprisingly we were directed down a different pathway more narrow than the ones we had previously gone through and after more crawling and climbing we began to see light at the end of the tunnel.  Our caving adventure was amazing!  It was the perfect amount of “extreme” for us to be completely pushed out of our comfort zones without feeling like we were going to be trapped and/or die.  We had such a sense of accomplishment when we finally stepped back into the light.

The day was pretty much perfect except for one issue, when we arrived back to the van one of our tires had gone flat.  Our rear tires are in pretty bad shape after driving all of central America and a large portion of South America but we are hoping to limp the tires to Chile where we can get good quality tires for an affordable price.  

After a few minutes using the air compressor we were able to drive ourselves back to Toro Toro.  For those who have seen our van, you may notice that we have a spare tire on the roof. However, we have only used it once, in the Yukon, after bending two rims in Alaska. We could have changed the tire then, but figured to take the easy way out and use the air compressor.

Rupert not being helpful while Paul changed the tire

Shortly after arriving back to the campsite our friends from Cochabamba arrived into Toro Toro.  Unfortunately, they arrived after we swapped the tire from the roof so they missed an opportunity to help us.  If only we had known we would have delayed this task.  We also checked the air pressure in all our other tires to make sure we wouldn’t have any further issues. Thankfully they didn’t come empty handed, they quickly pulled out a bottle of rum and we started catching up and talking about our trips through North and South America.  Before we knew it, it was pitch black and ¾ of the bottle of rum was gone. 

 

November 11^th – Soaking beside a waterfall

Katharina and Michael (our new German friends that we met in La Paz/Cochabamba) decided to join us in our final tour of Toro Toro.  The tour included walking to various sets of dinosaur foots prints found in the ancient river beds filled with unique rock formations, including “lovers bridge”.  After about an hour we reached Toro Toro Canyon a deep and wide canyon that reminded us of Chasm, BC; however, this was not the main attraction of the tour.  The tour we had selected was a tour to El Vergel a waterfall surrounded by pools that you can swim in.  The only issue was the location of the waterfall.  We didn’t realize it was at the bottom of the canyon meaning we had to both walk down to it, and more poignantly, walk back up it.

Fossilized Dinosaur Tracks

A Kendra-sized dinosaur footprint

Mirador of the canyon

Lovers "sketchy" bridge

The walk down the canyon was beautiful and relatively easy.  It was hot, around 30 degrees, but cool breezes whipping down the canyon kept us cool.  After about a kilometer of walking we turned the corner and found the waterfall we had been promised.  It was amazing, the water was refreshing and the waterfall provided many great photo opportunities.  We moved from pool to pool to pool taking photos and relaxing.  The canyon even provided rocks that appeared to be perfectly designed for sun bathing.  The time flew by.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to and end so we put our clothes back on and started our ascent. *We wore bathing suits for those who interpreted that last sentence as us being nude. The heat and dry air made the hike especially tiring, but we did eventually make it back to the van. 

On the hike up we had a great idea.  All the relaxing by the water and the heat reminded us of summer BBQs and before we knew it we had finished the tour and Paul had driven us to the local butcher to purchase meat before heading back the campground.  We had previously noticed the campground had a charcoal BBQ, so after asking permission and paying some money for the charcoal we lit the BBQ and cracked open a couple beers and made the final ¼ of the bottle of rum disappear.  The BBQ was perfect with the chicken being some of the best chicken we have had in our lives.  The dinner was the perfect way to end the day and our time in Toro Toro.

Winner, winner, chicken is for dinner!

 

November 12^th – In a van down by the river

We once again said goodbye to Katharina and Michael.  They were staying in Toro Toro one additional day to do the tours we had previously done so we decided to make our way to Sucre.  According to google the drive would take us 8 hours so we left as early as possible.  After 6 hours of driving, we were pleasantly surprised that we were on schedule to arrive to Sucre by 3pm so we started reaching out 3 different campgrounds to see if there was availability.  There was no availability in any of them and there was no formal campground anywhere between where we were and Sucre.  What made the situation worse is that it was 40 degrees outside. Everything we had read and heard from other travellers ahead of us on the road was how Bolivia is at a high elevation and it is never really warm because of the elevation…but none of them had visited Toro Toro or Sucre or any of the towns in between.

Proof it was 40 degrees outside.

After a lot of searching we found a spot down by the river to camp, we felt like real van lifers; we even befriended the local dogs.   

 

A Rupert Update:  As some may know when Rupert is tired of walking we lay his backpack on the ground and he willingly will sit on/in it; he thoroughly enjoys being carried by us.  We have also noticed that a lot of the street dogs in Bolivia have ticks. Rupert is protected from ticks with his Bravecto/anti-parasite treatments, but he hasn’t had a treatment since August, so he is a bit over due.  After hiking in Cochabamba we noticed a pink/red spot on his back that he had been trying to itch on the hike.  After some googling we determined that he was bitten by some sort of bug but was recovering.  Further googling and the realization that we have been in areas with ticks have turned us into professional google vets and we have determined Rupert had a tick granuloma.  Luckily there is no signs of any ticks because his previous medication likely killed the tick shortly after it bit him.   It is mostly healed now other than some hair loss.  

Broken Van, Broken Hearts

 We did not realize how far we were behind in posting this blog.  We have been busy the past few weeks as we explored Bolivia, left Bolivia, entered Chile, left Chile, re-entered Bolivia, collected some crazy stories, and re-entered Chile. We are posting this from Santiago (for the 30 of you regular readers) and are hoping to share all our crazy adventures with you over the next few days. But anyways, here's an update from our time in La Paz.

October 29^th – Social Media catch up

There is a very specific campground we want to stay in while we are in La Paz, it is a campground owned by a mechanic who is spoken of as an angel.  Unfortunately, we are at the point in our trip where we need an angel.  We noticed a week or so ago that we had a pretty substantial oil leak and there was something…off, with our suspension.  We wondered if it was our sway bar again, but the sound and when the sound occurred was different than previous times we have had issues.  Although we were “over” vehicle issues and debated just driving it until it died, calmer heads prevailed and we knew it was time to see a mechanic and brace for impact (or for the bill).

Unfortunately, when we tried to check into the campground we were told that someone who originally was supposed to be leaving had changed their mind and decided to stay another day meaning we decided to stay another day in our hotel.   We spent most of the day catching up on social media or relaxing in the hotel pool and sauna.  The day flew by, much to our annoyance as we didn’t do any real exploring.

Interestingly a friend of ours has a boyfriend who lives in La Paz so we spent the evening at a local bar drinking and laughing talking about our trip and life in Bolivia until today turned into the next day and it was time to return to the hotel for the night.

 

October 30^th – Getting the news we knew we would get

The first thing we did when we woke up was message the owner of the campground, who said although the person once again decided to stay longer, he would make room for us, but to not arrive for a few hours.

We had unpacked everything and made ourselves at home around the hotel meaning that Kendra spent most of the morning reorganizing things and placing them back in the van.  Paul had checked the oil and was disappointed to see the oil level.  Before starting to drive he decided he would go for an adventure in search of oil and ideally gasoline.  Much to his, and Kendra’s surprise, the adventure was 100% successful.  He was able to purchase gasoline in a jerry can and get the oil they needed for the van.

The drive from the hotel to the campground through La Paz was surreal, the city truly is a modern beautiful city with lots of character.  Each neighbourhood we drove through seemed to have its own flavour, shops and colours.

The campground host, a mechanic by trade sure was busy and trusted.  When we arrived at the campground it seemed everyone had a few problems they wanted his opinion or help on meaning we would have to wait a few hours for him to inspect our vehicle.  When it was our time it didn’t take him long to give us the news we always thought we would get.  Our van has some quasi major issues that are too large in scope for him to fix.  Thankfully he had a friend who owned a large mechanic shop with many employees, who luckily, had familiarity with our type of engine and was confident he could repair it in a day.  The campground host made us an appointment and made us promise that the vehicle would be at the shop for 8am so that they had the full day to work on the vehicle.

Pollo Ceviche...no thanks.

It was a bit of a demoralizing realization meaning we spent the rest of the night trying our best to socialize and ignore our fears about the price, length that the repair would take, and the fear that more problems could be found while fixing our quasi major issues.

 

October 31^st – A very scary Halloween

As we had promised we dropped the van off at the mechanic shop for 8am.  Kendra decided to stay back at the campground as we had a suspicion that both of us picked up a stomach parasite and decided that it be better “collectively” if only one of us pooped our pants enroute to and from the mechanic’s shop.  By some miracle the only clothing casualty was a pair of Paul’s underwear (luckily it already had holes in it and was ready to be thrown away anyway- sorry for the TMI).

The only photo we took today.

We spent the rest of the morning and mid afternoon within a 30 second proximity of a bathroom all while receiving message upon message from the mechanic who was uncovering other issues.  As we had said previously we knew there was something wrong with our suspension, what we learned is that most of our suspension (shocks, joints, knuckles, etc.) were all way too loose or broken.  The Pan American highway had taken it’s toll on the van.  We also quickly learned that with the increases in scope to the repair project the van wouldn’t be ready for a couple days.  This was a big issue for us as we had planned to camp in the van tonight; it looked like we needed a hotel.

Getting a hotel posed some issues, mostly that fact that we would be away from a toilet for around a 30 minute period and our passports as well as some other required necessities for overnighting in a hotel were in the van.  Once again we divided and conquered with Kendra getting all the necessary provisions around the campground together while Paul went to the mechanics shop to grab everything we needed from the van.  It was quite a site to see the van in pieces.

Between the news of the van, the site of the van and our own body issues, this Halloween has been rough.  The only real silver lining is at least the issues are being dealt with and the hotel was quite nice with the most comfortable bed we had had in South America, which was also very close to our own private bathroom.

 

November 1^st – Cautiously optimistic

For reasons we don’t really understand we felt better this morning and thus are cautiously optimistic that we would be to explore the area and get some fresh air.  We had heard from the mechanic that they were struggling sourcing some parts for our vehicle meaning that the van would not be ready until Friday because tomorrow; Thursday, is a holiday.

We made our way to the affluent neighbourhood of La
Paz known as San Miguel, a neighbourhood full of massive houses and many embassies.  It was also full of some cool bars (that we drank pop at) and some great cafes.  It was nice to stretch our legs and stop our minds drifting to thinking about the vehicle, the van in pieces with many issues and parts that were located somewhere in this massive city; we are happy that the mechanic was the one finding parts for our van and not us. 

 

November 2^nd- The Day of the Dead

Our clean and comfortable hotel was great except for one key issue, it was in the middle of no where. While it was located in a great affluent neighbourhood, it was a downhill walk but an uphill grind on the way back; a climb that even some taxi’s struggled to do. We decided to gather all our stuff and head to a different hotel in the centre of La Paz with the hopes to experience Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead. 

The day of the dead is a national holiday, and as we were reminded by some locals as we traveled the city by its extensive Teleferico system, it is not like Mexico (so if you’ve seen the movie The Book of Life- Bolivia is nothing like that).  In Bolivia the Day of the Dead is a joyous day where families head to or near cemeteries to have picnics with their deceased relatives. 

After checking into our hostel and dropping off our bags we jumped back into a Gondola and travelled one of the highest altitude cemeteries in the city rich with history.  The first thing we noticed was the amount of bread much of it baked into general human shapes adorned with homemade masked made to look like the deceased relatives.  As we walked to the cemetery the sides of the road were lined with families in tents laughing, drinking and eating.  When we arrived to the cemetery it was full of families, some tears, some songs, some full blown bands, some quiet reflection and prayers.  It was nothing like we expected, interesting to see but we felt like we were intruding on the personal moments of many families.

A few locals on the Teleferico recommended us to also visit the general cemetery where most La Paz residents were buried, and we saw why as we rode the teleferico towards it.  The streets were full of people congregating, preforming, playing, eating, etc.  It was a far more festive environment with streets turned into pedestrian thoroughfares.  While we enjoyed the overhead view from the teleferico, the line to enter the cemetery extended for a few city blocks, so we decided to skip going into the cemetery. There were still families with tents on the sides of roads but it definitely had a different feel than the first cemetery we had gone too.  In the end were so happy we had listened to locals who had recommended going to both the cemeteries we had visited to truly get an appreciation for what Day of the day was all about in Bolivia.

They key selling feature of the hostel we had choose for the night was its rooftop bar.  They are so proud of it they even named the hostel after it (Rooftop Hostel).  We spent the evening watching the sunset over La Paz looking out to the city, the valley, and the mountains in the distance.

 

November 3^rd – The Return

Paul’s stomach issues returned with a vengeance and he was done with it.  He had been told of a great doctor close to the mechanic shop and had decided that he was going to go and get medicine.  Unfortunately for him, there were no available appointments and there wouldn’t be until Wednesday (almost a week away).  In a quasi desperation he went to the nearest pharmacy explaining his issue and asking for anything that they could give him.  Surprisingly he walked out the pharmacy with antibiotics.

After a kilometer of walking uphill we arrived at the mechanics where the vehicle was returned to us.  The bill was a little eyewatering but we knew it would be worth it, especially if we had no other issues going forward.  It felt like we had been taken advantage of, but when we saw the breakdown of the bill 70% of the cost was for parts for our “foreign” (maybe that equates to luxury) vehicle and only 30% for labour which was 2.5 days of labour, so that’s the price we had to pay for driving a North American made vehicle in South America.

One issue the mechanic was not able to fully fix was an issue he discovered relating to our steering knuckle.  Unfortunately, he was not able to source the part, and since ours is loose we are still okay to drive with it loose. The mechanic assured us that Chile has Dodge Grand Caravans and we should be able to find the part there with no issues.  However, we were planning to cross into Chile through the Lagunas Route, which is known to destroy suspensions and crack rims due to the rough washboard roads.  Paul asked the mechanic if he thought we could drive that route with the loose knuckle and he said “yes, just drive smoothly”, but after consulting with others we may have to enter Chile and get the part replaced instead of risking it on one of the notoriously rough roads in Bolivia. Next we returned to the campground and we were happy to see many of the friendly and familiar faces we had befriended last time we were at the campground.  After relaxing a bit and waiting for Paul’s medication to take effect, we decided to explore the last thing in La Paz we had wanted to see, the Valley of the Moon.

The Valley of the Moon was formed due to erosion consuming the upper part of a mountain, made up of clay soil. Over the centuries it has exercised it’s modeling and winds and rains have built this spectacular and unusual landscape of white chimneys. It’s said that Neil Armstrong himself named this enigmatic place as the “Valley of the Moon” because of its great resemblance to the craters that he saw on his trip to the moon.  We are not sure if that is true, in fact it is unclear if Neil Armstrong has been to Bolivia,  but it was quite a nice way to return to our normal adventuring.

After we got back to the campground Paul noticed an odd sound coming from the engine.  It was a whistling sound and with some bubbling noises.  He quickly grabbed his phone and messaged the mechanic saying that he thought something was wrong.  The mechanic, even late at night returned his message saying it is probably a little air leak that he would be happy to repair, but it would have to wait until Monday.  Frustratingly issues with the vehicle had also returned meaning we would be staying in La Paz for a few more days.

Another fun thing that had happened was we had to leave Rupert in the van since the Valley of the Moon was not dog friendly and when we returned the fan was not spinning. After Kendra had tried a few times turning it on and off and in the reverse direction and Paul doing the exact same thing, we concluded something was wrong with the fan. While this was before we realized there was still something wrong with our van it was frustrating and we debated about dealing with it, but when we returned to the campsite 4/5 of the vehicles there had their hoods popped and toolboxes out fixing things, so we figured we would take out our kitchen and hope the fan wasn’t working due to a loose connection with our battery.  Of course things are never that easy and we ended up taking off some plastic panels (Kendra made sure that any brittle pieces of plastic snapped to make the job more difficult) and then popping out the headliner (the cloth roof covering that vehicles have on the interior roof) and rejoining the wires that had come loose. Again, we can’t say enough about Colombians; they are prepared for everything and willing to share their supplies.  A couple at our campsite from Colombia was working on their van and they had the heatwrap/shrink wrap wire cover thing that we needed and offered us a few.  We only needed one and we hope that this is the last time we need to fix the fan wiring, but we have a few spares because they wouldn’t let us say no to this offering.

 

November 4^th – “Don’t drive your car, it could start a fire”

We decided to have a “nice” morning with coffee and pancakes while we said goodbye to a few travelers who were moving onward.  As a more desirable camping spot in the campground had become available, we jumped at the opportunity to be even more comfortable on more level ground.  Oddly our van barely started when we turned the key and the smell of gasoline instantly surrounded our vehicle and filled the campsite.  We moved the van, but the campground host, briskly walked over, and asked about the smell.  Very quickly we all realized we had a fuel injector leak where he very firmly asked us not to drive as we could start a fire in our engine.   Thankfully he contacted the mechanic that did the work on our vehicle on our behalf to tell him what the actual issue was with our vehicle.  He let us know that the mechanic would come to the campground to fix our vehicle on Monday, we did not have to drive anywhere.

We had talked about exploring, but once again we felt slightly demoralized and defeated and, more than anything, tired.  We spent the day hanging around the campground.

 

November 5^th – An attempt was made

Paul had finished his antibiotics yesterday and had spent the day trying to “get a load off his mind”… this is a euphemism in case you cannot tell.  Unfortunately, for both of us it appeared that things were once again flowing unhealthily fast through our bowels.  People at the campground had recommended another medication so we planned to retrieve it in the afternoon.

One of the “could-do” activities in La Paz is the Cholitas Wrestling an odd mix of Nacho Libra and WWE done by women in traditional Bolivian outfits.  General consensus was it is a 2.5/5 activity, but we were looking for something to do.  Unbelievably after an hour of trying to get an Uber or a taxi as we walked to the main area of town we still were not able to get a taxi to the stadium where the wrestling match would be held.  We were able to get to taxis to at least stop for us, but the first wanted an unrealistic amount of money to drive us to the location and the other just said he didn’t feel like driving that far away (it was an hour away by car).  We did try, but I guess it just was not meant to be.

We did make the most of our misfortune, we got the medicine that we were told would get us back to our normal selves and got some burgers, toppings and ice cream.  It wasn’t the night we had hoped for but, we did make some damn good burgers and ate some pretty tasty ice cream (there was too much ice cream so we felt like we were able to repay the Colombians who shared their electrical shrink wrap with half a container of ice cream).

 

November 6^th – IT LIVES!

As promised the mechanic arrived to the campground and within an hour and a half had replaced all the O-rings of our fuel injectors.  After a thorough inspection we were asked to give it a good drive to make sure that it is road ready.  After finishing some laundry that is exactly what we did.

Our first stop was up some steep hills to a mirador of the Valle Animas another unique geological formation within the greater area of La Paz.  Next we drove it down to the affluent area of town to pick up some gasoline.  This was the first time that we were actually turned away from a gas station, but we were told about another gas station a kilometer up the road which was correct and they filled not only our gas tank but also our jerry can.  This turned out to be a mistake as some of the gas from the jerry can spilled in the van giving the vehicle a less than ideal odour and gave us flash backs to the day we realized our fuel injectors needed new o rings, thank goodness we knew what was causing the smell.

We made it back to the campground and, along with the ca
mpground host we gave the vehicle a good look over.  It appeared that the van was finally road ready.  We could finally leave La Paz and the saga of our broken van had hopefully come to and end.  We only hope the saga of stomach issues reaches its conclusion shortly as well.