Page 15

A JOURNEY IN BOLIVIA 1988

In the meantime I didn't feel like looking for HS 27 anymore. Molinero seemed within reach and it must be fantastic to find S. purpurea. We found the crossroad, had to choose at a fork and made a mistake. We unintentionally came back to Aiquile, close to the road to Sucre. Not to worry: sulcos had also been found at Novillero. There actually turned out to be a sign indicating the exit to Novillero, but it was no road for a Volkswagen voyage. We began to suspect that this day would not be so successful.

We drove back to Aiquile and a loose rock knocked off the exhaust. There was nothing we could do about it. With a lot of noise we drove on to about two kilometers before Aiquile. To the left of the road was a hill, to the right a woman, who told us that espinas grew on the hill. Indeed, within minutes we found S. mentosa. The woman and her children diligently helped us search, although it was unnecessary as the plants were massive here.

It turned out her name was Señora Velasquez and she was poor, she said. I gave her a few bolivianos as a reward for the help.

Back in Aiquile we quickly found a mechanic (on Sunday) who wanted to help us, but he was still working on a truck. Like many trucks, it was used to transport people. Above the center of the back container is a bar on which people can take hold but that is all there is. I heard from people who had been on such a trip that this is no fun. This truck had a few passengers, who seemed to be a bit impatient.

The mechanic asked us to be patient for fifteen minutes and indeed, after two hours it was our turn. He looked at the damage and said that the repair would take 15 minutes and indeed, after two hours it was finished. Kik and I tried to guess what this job was going to cost us and started to worry. However, the man only charged us Bs 12, for a nice piece of work.

Monday, August 8th

Since yesterday it was completely clear to us that the Volkswagen was not an off-road vehicle. We also heard more and more sounds that did not seem right to us. But whoever does not dare does not win. We had missed the way to Molinero so we wanted to try this again today. At the aforementioned T junction we now took the other road and it turned out to be fine. The road was not bad in general, although there were nasty potholes and we had to avoid a big rock every now and then.

After about 3 km we asked some campesinos about espinas pequeñas, but they