Tuesday, June 30, 2015

6/28/15: Sajama National Park [sort of]

It’s been a weird day, and I’m glad it’s over if I’m being honest. I set my alarm for 6:30am but when I opened my eyes at that time, I saw that the sun hadn’t even risen yet and decided to take another hour to sleep. I am not sure why, but there was breakfast available in the lobby when I was about to leave, but I wasn’t sure if I would have to pay to it, so I just continued on to walk to the lagoon.

I was mistaken in how painful it would be to walk all the way. It’s 12km one way (takes about 3 hours) – and though the views are nice, they are not breathtaking or stunning in any way. The lagoon is very isolated – on the way, there are some houses along the street but I think I saw maybe 3 cars on my walk there.




I came back to the hot springs, but when I got there, there weren’t even any hot springs. I don’t know if I was walking in the wrong direction or something, but I got to the end of the road and some random local man came up to me. I couldn’t understand everything he said but I think he was accusing me of stealing his bike, so I tried to figure out what he wanted from me. I offered him some money, but I only had 110 Bs and he wanted more than 10. He just kept talking and talking so finally I told him that we could go back into Sajama/the town and I would get change, and give him the extra 20 Bs he wanted. Ugh.




What I’ve learned today: money gets you out of trouble. I’m kind of glad I didn’t find the hot springs (or disappointed in what I did see) because I should have enough money to not have to worry about getting back to Oruro (or maybe La Paz if it turns out to be much easier) tomorrow. Silver lining!
By my estimate, I’ve walked about 7 hours total today. That’s crazy. I listened to Malcolm Gladwell’s entire book Blink on audio during that time, and my legs feel like jello. They hurt a little (though surprisingly not that much – maybe they are getting stronger!) but I’m sure I’ll be on a bus almost the whole day tomorrow (3 hours to Patacamaya, 2 to Oruro, then 4 to Cochabamba – 9 total) so even if I wake up extraordinarily sore, I should be okay!

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