(coincidentally?) with the story that he lived in Punata and had returned to Cochabamba
especially for delivering the photo bag. He insisted on receiving Bs 35 as compensation
for the fuel that was burnt. We thought the story was clever, but to avoid difficulties
we paid and felt another experience richer. Furthermore, we did not want to worry
about it, because we were already full of plans for the coming days.
Wednesday, August 3rd
Before leaving by car we tried to put our postcards on the bus, but the post office
was still closed. We handed the cards to someone from the office next door and hoped
they would arrive.
The car was quickly arranged. At about nine o'clock we drove in a Volkswagen voyage,
a Brazilian type, through Cochabamba.
As I thought, in La Paz, the traffic rules are different than in the Netherlands.
The city is divided into cuadros, rectangular blocks of houses. The streets have
largely one-way traffic, alternating between left and right. This is sometimes indicated.
At an intersection you have right of way if the traffic light is green, a traffic
officer indicates this, or, and this is most common, if you indicate by your horn
that you are the first to approach the intersection. Of course, this interpretation
may have been incorrect, but it worked. There were no signs indicating the direction
to another place. I only discovered later that the street names in Cochabamba are
usually written in small letters under the house numbers, so they cannot be read
from a moving car. So it took some searching in the city to get out the right way.
We had brought two water bags with five liters of water each from the hotel. Kik
bought some fruit and eggs for the road. So we could move forward for a while. Later
we heard that if we survived water from Cochabamba, we could safely drink water in
any village. We stopped for the first time at km 6. To the left of us we saw Cereus.
Here we also found an echinopsis. The next stop came at km 12. We climbed 100 meters
higher from the road (2800 m). Kik was happy: he found Lobivia acanthoplegma fa.
Down the hill we saw the same Echinopsis again, but also Cleistocactus, Cereus and
Opuntia . To see so many cacti in their natural environment for the first time gives
a feeling of excitement. Half a kilometer further we could have a drink. We had passed
the toll and paid Bs 3 for the use of the road to Epizana.