A JOURNEY IN BOLIVIA 1988
another. The stones on the road were often large and the holes deep. Apparently we had not learned enough from the day before, because we continued for almost two kilometers. Then we had to give up. This road was impossible to drive with a normal Volkswagen voyage. We happily tackled the way back, which was just as difficult as the way there. I had to perspire while driving and that was not because of the heat.
The question was what to do next. We went back. Two kilometers before Arani we stopped again and found Lobivia obrepanda. In Punata we drank a bottle of lemonade and then we continued our way to Santa Cruz. At km 48 we tried to find Sulcorebutia hoffmanniana. There were large boulders with horizontal cracks, which reminded me of Leo van der Hoeven's slides. We did find L. obrepanda and also Echinopsis and Parodia, but we found no trace of sulcos. Before km 52 we wanted to take a side road on the right, but the ditch before it was too deep. A little further on there was a small hill on the left side of the road. Here Kik found the first sulcorebutia in addition to L. oligotricha.
It was now almost five o'clock and we decided to drive to Epizana. We followed an incredibly beautiful road. The low sun created a beautiful shadow effect in the erosion valleys on the right side of the road.
At dusk we arrived in Epizana at km 127. Here, there is a chain across the road. Next to it is a house, where you have to pay the toll. I drove gracefully over the chain to this house. But then I received a few words of reproach. No one, emphatically no one, is allowed to drive across the chain without paying the toll in advance.
We got a very simple room for Bs 12, in hotel España. After the cena, which we ate dressed in our thick coats against the cold, we made another cup of Dutch coffee with hot water which we got from the hotel.
Friday, August 5th
The previous evening it had already become quite cold, but during the night it had been freezing. In addition, cassette tapes were played at full power for up to four o'clock in the morning. After a bad night we got up at seven o'clock and immediately discovered that there was a thick layer of ice on the windows of the car and that we had a flat rear tire. Kik skillfully changed the wheel. A tire repairman lived next to the alogamiento, helped us out for Bs 5. We made a cup of
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