Friday, October 16, 1998
Rurrenabaque is quite isloated from the rest of Bolivia. There are basically two choices for destinations: La Paz and a small city called Trinidad which is described in the guidebook as "an open air sewer." I decided to go back to La Paz for the weekend. Check out some discos perhaps and get some decent food. Unfortunately, there are only two ways back to La Paz: via the World's Most Dangerous road that I had already risked life and limb on one time and TAM -- Transport Aero Miltary. Nothing could get me back on that road from La Paz again. TAM it would be.
The military airstrip is basically a grass field surrounded
by fairly tall mountains. I was not inspired by the site of it.
And, when the large dual turbo jet prop plane came to a rest in
front of an unlocked chain link fence, I was sure that the road
must be safer. Still, about 30 people got on board and I was one
of them.
We taxied for what seemed like 20 minutes and then with a roar of the engines, we were off, just barely clearing a group of monkeys in nearby trees. The hour long flight was actually quite pleasant -- a uniformed soldier served coke, and I somehow managed to speak to a Bolivian hotel owner for almost the entire hour -- in Spanish! Needless to say, I am happy with the progress that I am making on that front.
Our landing, at 14,000 feet was quite touchy and I needed some air after the turbulence we had experienced. Unfortunately, there IS no air in La Paz at 14,000 feet ASL, especially when you're arriving from near sea-level. Elly and I sat and waited for the baggage and then headed for a downtown hotel via taxi. I spent quite some time that afternoon updating the web with pictures from the jungle and pampas. After a light dinner, we went out to see a live band and then I headed straight to sleep.
Saturday, October 17, 1998
Yet another day for the web update. Sometimes it is really frustrating to deal with inadequate computing resources. Today, it took me almost 5 hours to put 3 megabytes of pictures and such on the web... At least it was raining outside, so there was very little to do anyway.
After the web fiasco, I decided to try to find a patch for my sweatshirt. After about 2 hours of hiking around the busy markets being told "Yes, just up the hill", "Try such-and-such street" , "Take a left and then go three blocks and then another right" , Elly and I decided to just give up on the prospect and we split up for the rest of the day. I went to have some pizza and then to see Small Soldiers and then out for a nice glass of scotch at the local British Pub, the Pig and the Whistle.
Sunday, October 18, 1998
Travel in the third world is basically a set of challenges and compromises. Today, I really wanted to go to Uyuni, a small city approximately 10 hours from La Paz. After saying goodbye to yet another dear friend, Elly, I left for the bus terminal.
What I didn't know is that there are no buses to Uyuni on Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon. I could wait and take a night bus that left at 8, but that seemed a little silly. I decided to wing it and I chose an intermediate city -- Oruro -- in hope that I could get a bus to Uyuni from there.
After three hours, I arrived in Oruro only to discover that there were no trains or buses to Uyuni until the next morning. OK, time to compromise. So, I picked another destination instead, the colonial city of Sucre, a city that I had decided to miss but was not somewhat forced to visit.
After
buying my ticket, I went to lunch and met a delightful family,
Denise and her father. Both spoke excellent English and I really
enjoyed spending lunch with them. Then, I went off to a regional
soccer game. Unfortunately, the home team lost. What I noticed
most about the game was the hordes of military officers and police
in full riot gear surrounding the field. Seems last time these
two teams played, things got really ugly. I left as soon as the
outcome was properly determined and avoided what could have been
a bad scene.
The bus to Sucre left at around 7. I somehow managed to squeeze into the tight seat and prepared for a very cold night -- altitude from Oruro to Sucre varies from 3000 to 4000 meters and it can get down to -10 at times...
Monday, October 19, 1998
At 4:00, the bus stopped in Potosi, an old colonial silver mining town some three hours from Sucre. The driver had us all depart. What? I wanted to go to Sucre! "That bus leaves at 6 from the other terminal," he said. So, weary-eyed, I put on the backpack and started heading to the other terminal. The fact that I was walking fully loaded in a strange city with no map at 4:00 in the morning was not lost on me, and to be honest I was quite scared.
The other terminal was somewhat abandoned. There was one bus preparing to leave, back to Oruro. Somehow, I lucked into finding a guy named Shawn from New York who is serving in the Peace Corp. He too was going to Sucre to meet up with his girlfriend. A Bolivian woman showed up a few minutes later. Instead of freezing in the cold and exposing ourselves to robbery while waiting for the 6 AM bus, we all decided to take a taxi. A 3 hour taxi ride costs about 100 Bolivianos, $18. It was money well spent.
In Sucre, I checked into a very nice hotel right near the main square, showered, and then went walking around the city for the rest of the afternoon. A very nice English teacher, Anna, directed me to the "don't miss" sites over a continental breakfast. At the top of her list was the cemetary and the main park. Both were excellent.
While shopping, I happened to overhear a conversation about "Dinosaur Footprints". Intrigued, I spied some more and determined that there are indeed prints somewhere near Sucre... I delayed my trip back to Potosi and decided to check them out the next day.
Tuesday, October 20, 1998
Nothing about dinosaur prints was listed in the guidebook. The people at the hotel were not very helpful either. But, I was determined. Out in the main square, I asked a few taxi drivers and finally hit pay dirt -- a taxi driver that knew exactly where they were. For 30 Bolivianos, he'd take me out there to CAL ORCKO and give me a little tour. Sold!
We
drove about 10 kilometers from the city to a large cement production
factory called Fancesa. After bribing the guard for the factory
with five Bolivianos, we drove up to a very large exposed limestone
wall almost completely vertical. The guide/taxi driver stopped
the car and we walked directly to the wall. He pointed to large
depressions in the limestone substrate and it was easy to see
that they were indeed dinosaur prints preserved by millions of
years of sediment and force unimaginable.
Here's what I got from the guide, who unfortunately only spoke Spanish. 100 million years ago dinosaurs of all types roamed the altoplano in Bolivia. A limestone base formed the ground near this site. After particularly heavy and muddy rainfalls, some dinos came by and walked through the land leaving their footprints. Sediments calcified the footprints over the next thousand years or so as the land is very, very dry. Eventually, the forces of platetechtonics took over and the same forces that built the Andes mountain range forced the footprints deeply embedded in the limestone almost completely vertical. The mining company, Fancesa, used the limestone quarry on the site to make cement. One day about six years ago, they came across these impressions in the limestone they were clearing away. Instantly, the site became home for scientists, archeologists, and other "scientificos". If any of this is wrong or inaccurate, blame my ability to translate Spanish or the knowledge of my taxi driver...
After Cal Orcko, I checked out of the hotel and headed back to the bus station. I took a three hour ride to Potosi, which I determined I might as well visit because it was on the way and seemed to have some interesting history as a colonial silver mining city.