A JOURNEY IN BOLIVIA 1988

EXIT

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SORTIE

Friday, August 12th

The breakfast at Hotel Vegas was good, but we had to pay extra. Today we were going to have a look at some of the city, but first things had to be arranged, because we wanted to try to send some plants home by mail. However, that did not just happen: we had to go to the customs. There we were kindly forwarded to the Ministerio de Agricultura. This turned out to be the right place, but the man who took charge was not there. After an hour he arrived and told us to bring him a sample. We did. There was actually no problem, we just had to get a form at a specific office. In this office they turned out to have many forms. On the street in front, men offered to fill in the forms with typewriters. We received form 148 and after a short time we were in possession of a health certificate and an export permit, a reason not to send the plants, but to simply take them with us.

We went to confirm our ticket again, as recommended. In this office it turned out that you could fly for Bs 42 from Cochabamba to Sucre and for Bs 80, from Sucre to La Paz. That seemed very attractive, because you had to pay Bs 28 for the bus and you had to endure a 24-hour journey on our already well-known dirt roads. However, there was another alternative: the train. At the station we heard that the train journey was slightly more expensive than the bus journey, with the added bonus that you had to wait four days in Oruro. The choice was not difficult: we bought airline tickets.

We still had plenty of time to visit Martin Cardenas Botanical Garden in Cochabamba. For this we walked for half an hour at a fairly high temperature. This was almost as exhausting as climbing a hill to look for plants.

The garden was nothing spectacular. We had not already had high expectations, but nevertheless it was still disappointing: either the garden was redesigned or it was neglected. The remainder of Cardenas' collection was in a closed section. But that gate opened for us. There were quite large plants without a label. Most of the plants did not look very lively. Not long ago, this collection had contained isotypes of many newly described species. It was all lost.

The man who showed us this thought we should meet Dr. Marquez. Unfortunately, we were unable to show this extremely important man by which institute or university we had been sent, but he graciously   answered us anyway. He could not say anything about the plants of Cardenas. Under his leadership, an investigation had just begun into the work of Cardenas. We were let into a small room in which

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