Again no heating in
the hotel (normally it doesn't get that cold here - oh, how I love that taxi driver patter) and the
shower was only lukewarm. But ... all this is well known.
Andy found a german restaurant in the guide book and after leaving our belongings in the hotel we went
there for breakfast/lunch. Both of them had Erdinger Weisbier (a very good german beer) for their first
time and obviously they enjoyed it. Near the burning fireplace we had grilled knuckles of pork and Kässpätzle (german pasta)
- it was really perfect after 22 hours in the train. We decided to meet again in the evening to have
a couple of more beers.
Marion and I had a short walk through the city (just forget it) and we just wanted to rest a bit
in our room. The next time we woke up at midnight! We really overslept. So we just turned and
slept on. At 7 in the morning, after 15 hours of sleep, we were fit again and met Andy and Sam
at breakfast. They really missed us in the evening, but nevertheless enjoyed a couple of more
Erdinger Weisbier. But there more or less 15 years younger and I think they just can stand more than
we can.
After breakfast we went on to Samaipata (by taxi) where we wanted to visit the ruins of 'El Fuerte'.
And we had to freeze a lot in Samaipata. Temperatures around zero degrees and again no heating, no
glass in the windows nor doors in their houses ('Normally it doesn't get ...' - sometimes it's hard
not to become a killer!).
In Chile (some weeks ago) we found original german 'Glühfix' for hot wine and we bought two small
packs - especially against the coldness in south Argentina. Now it saved us and again the two aussies
had to taste something new ...
Afterwards a fast dinner in a freezing cold restaurant ('The windows have to be open because we don't
have any hood in the kitchen!' - ??!? no comment) and just into our sleeping bags.
The next day the weather was even worse, but since we are here and to become a bit warmer we made
the 10 km to the ruins and back again by foot. After our return we had a short lunch and went into
the sleeping bags and waited for the dinner. On our way to the ruins we saw a restaurant for dinner
and what did they serve? Hot wine and a burning fireplace! And who was the owner? Not a boliviano, that's clear
but a french guy! - At least this evening was saved!
After this we parted with Sam and Andy. They went on to Concepcion and we back to Santa Cruz - now with
25 degrees in the beer garden of the german restaurant. The next day we went on to Cochabamba
(about 2500m above sea level) from were we wanted to do and did a very special trip to the Torotoro
national park.
Furthermore we were able to warm up at about 30 degrees and had a very nice gyros in a greek restaurant - we had
it for 4 evenings; - but if it's nice ;-) (I know: Maybe you can only understand this when you have
travelled long enough).
From Cochabamba we went on again, into the high Andes (altitude of the pass: 4496m) to La Paz
(now again we had temperatures near zero degrees), where we had been almost 4 months ago.
Actually we didn't want to visit this chaotic city again. But this time it should be our base for the
next adventure, which we had to skip last time because we were ill: The Choro-trek ...
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