Ate my first piece of camelid yesterday. An Alpaca steak, served with instant mash and er... doughnuts. To be honest it tasted like porky beef, but was still quite good. Oh yes, and we haven´t been blown up by a volcano yet, although we did see a big one yesterday, as well as vicuñas, llamas, guanaco, alpaca (alive), lakes, nandu (like an emu), foxes (like foxes), flamingo, giant coots, and the ace of the lot: the viscacha. Which is really just a fat chinchilla that lazes about rocks and occasionally jumps about them, but it is funny to look at and kind of surly, in a rodent way.
Had some mild altitude sickness too, coz some of the big lakes and villages are at 4500m, but its ok now. Still having the hyperrealistic dreams though, which is always entertaining. We´re off on our last long travel stint this afternoon, heading to Peru, and we might be able to carry straight through to Bolivia if things work out, where we´ll be going to the Island of the Sun, birthplace of the Inca, and probably haggling for things made from wool of various camelids. Place your orders for South American goods here. Although I really can´t bring back any coca leaves, although they do make a tasty herbal beverage.
As we head north the bus trips are becoming more entertaining. On the way to Putre, on a bus that goes all the way to La Paz, we were sitting with some people heading to Bolivia and some going to Putre. The bus drove about 500 yards down the road, and then mysteriously all the people going to Putre were herded off the bus. We then drove another kilometre through some kind of checkpoint, after which the deposited passengers mysteriously reappeared. Quite what that was all about I have no idea. And then the bus dropped us off at the turnoff to Putre, which we could see just about 500m away, but it was across a canyon and we had to walk another 3 miles to get there... Ah well, good acclimatisation anyway.
I´m going to try again to upload pictures, but I´m making no promises....
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