A JOURNEY IN BOLIVIA 1988
Monday, August 15th
Eating the fried chicken was probably a mistake. Again I had to visit the toilet a number of times. But we had no reason to complain: at half past eight we would rent a car.
We were right on time, but the boss had already left. He would be back at noon. We waited in the hotel, but Kik got impatient at eleven and went to have a look. During his absence it turned out that the neighbour of the hotel had a friend who could also provide us with a car. I looked up Kik to tell him the news. At the very least, it would strengthen our negotiating position. The owner of the car was still not showing up.
At noon we went for dinner opposite the rental company. We had just ordered an almuerzo when the boss came home. Kik went there and I was left in the pleasant company of a medical student who had a subscription to almuerzos in this restaurant.
The negotiations went well and Kik happily told us that we could pick up the car
at two o'clock in the afternoon. When we got there at the appointed time, we were
told to wait until the next day. The other car was also cancelled, because the owner
did not want to rent it out.
To spend our time wisely, we targeted the cement factory
to search for S. canigueralii var applanata. We hailed a taxi and for Bs 5, we got
to the cement factory. The limestone hills there did not seem favourable for any
sulco's and we did not find anything. A little further was another mound of rocks.
By thistime I felt good enough to scramble up it, but had no results. Kik didn't
feel very fit now. We had to go back: bad luck. Actually, we were a bit in dread
of going back on the dusty road, but as if we had asked for it, a very old taxi arrived
and took us back to town for Bs 4.
In the evening we thought we should have a decent meal: no cena and no fatty chicken. Surely a good restaurant can be found at the Plaza. On the way we were approached by a nice little man, who gave us a charrango, a kind of guitar made from an armadillo, he wanted to sell. He asked us $ 70. Because he was so insistent, we decided to make a game of it and offered $ 20. We suspected that the price of such an instrument would be in the neighbourhood of Bs 70.
We found a good Italian restaurant, where the pizza was not expensive, but tasty. We had only just stood outside when the charrango salesman who had already
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