Today has been a long day of traveling once again! I had a
nice breakfast at my hostel in Oruro and met a 19-year old English guy who told
me he thought I was Bolivian at first. What? That’s the first time I’ve been
told anything that random, and I definitely don’t believe it. It’s a good thing
he’s traveling because I think he needs more perspective there.
I read online that you can get to Sajama National Park from
Oruro or La Paz because you just take a bus halfway between the two cities to a
tiny little city called Patacamaya. I definitely thought it was going to be
more difficult than it was – like most everything I’ve done in Peru and Bolivia
thus far. Either way, I simply went to the Oruro bus terminal and listened for
some employee yelling “LA PAZ! LA PAZ!” and approached her to buy a ticket. I
had read online that I would have to pay the full price, about 25 Bs, but she
only asked for 10 so I didn’t ask further. I might still have paid full price,
but I’m not sure. I also tried to get cash from the ATM in the terminal, but
for some reason it was being excessively slow so I left it for time’s sake and
thought I’d probably be fine. More on this later.
It took about 2 hours to get to Patacamaya. I was nervous
the whole bus ride because I didn’t know if I would have to remind the driver
to stop, I didn’t know where the town even was, or how to get around the town
when I got there. Fortunately, about 15km out, I started seeing signs for it
and there were two other people going there as well. Unfortunately, the bus
dropped us off a ways away from the city. The other two seemed like locals,
though, so I simply followed them and eventually got to the town, where I asked
a taxi driver where the stop was to get to Sajama. He offered to drive me, so I
agreed for about $0.80.
The minibus to get to Sajama was much like the one I took
from Cusco to Ollantaytambo, but for some reason I felt a lot more smushed.
Most of the others in the car were French, so I was trying to listen into their
conversations the whole time. I was able to pick up some, but I think now that
I’m trying to learn Spanish, it’s messing with my recall of French. Anyway,
since the trip took about 3 hours, I slept for about half and paid attention
and took pictures for the other half. I started getting glimpses of the beauty
of the area even from the bus.
We arrived, paid the minibus driver and entrance fee, and I
realized that I only had just over 200 Bs left in cash. There was no ATM in the
city, but I think I can make this work. I was originally offered a room for 65
Bs per night, but I told them I don’t have enough money, so they agreed for 100
Bs for 2 nights (maybe I should try this more often!). The hostel is actually
quite nice! It’s a series of one-room buildings decorated as huts, and I have
my own room and private bathroom for 50 Bs (just over $7) per night.
The lady in charge then drew me a crude little map of the
main parts of Sajama National Park – hot springs, a lake/lagoon, and geysers.
Apparently you have to walk about 3 hours to get to the lagoon, 2 to the
geysers, and 1 to the hot springs. Since I wanted to get back before dark, I
just started walking in preparation for tomorrow. It’s actually a heck of a
long way, and since I want to spend time at each of these places I have set an
alarm for 6:30am. Joy. I did see a single taxi along the way, but I can’t be
sure that I will even be able to haul it tomorrow. The view is really great,
though!
The problem with that, though, is that I only have a little
over 110 Bs in cash on me. I have some other currencies, but I doubt those
would do me much good. I need 25 to get back to Patacamaya (also doesn’t have
ATMs, how do people live?), and about 10 to get back to Oruro if everything
goes as it did today. The hot springs cost 30 if the internet is accurate (not
always), and I really don’t want to miss those, because otherwise why am I even
here? So that leaves me with 40-50 Bs ($6-7) to eat and get water with, less if
I want to make 100% sure I will have enough cash to get me back to Oruro. A
meal costs about 25 Bs from my hostel (breakfast is not included, ugh!), but
luckily I brought half a loaf of bread and some peanuts, as well as a water
bottle full of water with which I will have to make do – I will probably have
to buy more water due to the walking I’ll do, but I might have enough money to
get one meal in the two days I’m here. Hopefully, I can make everything last
just about 36 hours until I can get back into Oruro and withdraw more money.
I’m cursing myself for not just stopping at the ATM and being more patient – my
problems are all due to wanting to save that extra couple of minutes that I
didn’t even need. *sigh*
On the other hand, I am spending a total of about $35 for 2
days here, including the hostel and all travel from Oruro. When I get back to
Cochabamba, I have plans to Couchsurf the rest of the time in the city (which
will save me about $150), not including weekends when I want to travel to other
places (Santa Cruz, Quillacolla, Toro Toro National Park, Incallajta Ruins, etc. – though
the latter may be only day trips, which will save me more money by
Couchsurfing).
We’ll
see how it all goes! Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to either get a taxi to
the lagoon and walk back or somehow else not kill my feet.
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