A JOURNEY IN BOLIVIA 1988
thing was therefore loose. We got pretty shaken up on the dirt road.
By half past twelve we arrived in Millares, where the passengers could relax and use an almuerzo. This was an interesting area for Weingartia, but you couldn't take an hour in between, because the bus wouldn't wait.
We drove along for quite some time and sometimes through the Rio Pilcomayo, which
was wide, but was almost dry.
The plateau began for Betanzos. The bus stopped again
in Betanzos. Women and girls offered food and drink. The local specialty appeared
to be a type of egg cake sold in batches of six. They were big and dry, but didn't
taste bad.
After Betanzos we slowly but steadily reached an altitude of 3900 m and reached Potosi at half past four. We immediately bought tickets for the return trip and helped Suzuki buy his ticket. He wanted to go to Uyuni. There were about fifteen offices next to each other where you could buy tickets, but none of them offered Uyuni. That was not possible either, because there is no bus to Uyuni. The solution was simple: Suzuki would stay an extra day in Potosi.
The three of us took a taxi to hotel Centro. Here they had a triple room for us. Suzuki seemed to appreciate our company. It turned out that his English was poor. When he understood what we were talking about, he said enthusiastically "Yes!". He had learned Spanish for three weeks before the trip. We began to suspect that Suzuki was struggling with a communication problem here in Bolivia.
In Potosi is the famous Casa de la moneda, a museum with antique coins. Kik noticed it was open until six, so we hurried there. Suzuki didn't know where we were running, but he gladly went along: "Yes!". However, the gate was closed. At the door a teacher was negotiating with a number of students whether he could still enter with his group, but they were very strict. From the rejection they got a bit merry jolly and we took a picture with the whole group. We wanted to exchange addresses when the door opened after all. Unfortunately only for the group. We were not allowed to come.
We went out to eat as a compensation. Walking through the city we noticed that we were at about 4000 meters, but we were not really bothered by it. The temperature dropped rapidly.
We noticed that more people smoked and perhaps drank more in Potosi than in the other places where we had been.
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