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A JOURNEY IN BOLIVIA 1988

the people here: calm, but alert. When it was completely dark, the headlights had to be turned on, because at dusk they drive here without light in order not to blind the oncoming vehicle. Now it turned out that the engine was not running when the light was on. The choice seemed to be: either light on or engine on. Driving without lights on an unpaved road with many curves next to a deep ravine seemed to encounter problems. Fortunately, there was a technically gifted young man on the bus. He switched the lights directly to the battery. They could not be switched off, but at least we drove with lights.
Half an hour later than we had hoped, we returned to our alogamiento Bustillo. Dusty and dirty we went to the Chinese restaurant for the last time. Only then did we find time to take a shower.

Wednesday, August 24th

For the last time we ordered our egg sandwich with coffee for breakfast. We packed our plants and were ready by ten o'clock. The long wait started, because we didn't have to be at the airport until half past twelve.

We arrived there in plenty of time and thought we read on a sign that the plane would not depart until a quarter past three. However, that was a mistake. It was only an hour later that I discovered that a number of letters had disappeared from the board: the departure was not supposed to take place until five o'clock, so it became a quarter to six. I had the pleasure of sitting next to two Bolivian colleagues, with whom a nice conversation developed, among other things about my income. By the way, we had a beautiful view of the Andes despite the falling twilight. La Paz with its lighting was also fascinating. We even saw a glimpse of Lake Titicaca.

At the airport of La Paz we met a Dutch volunteer who told us some interesting things: a week earlier not a single plane had been used for domestic flights, because they were all broken and there are a lot of accidents with buses. We suddenly felt that we had been very lucky.

At the airport there were again a lot of taxi drivers, who were willing to take us to the city for $ 10, -. It was nice that the price immediately dropped to Bs 10 when we threatened to take the bus. We had no more problems with the altitude, although it was better not to make efforts.

We came back to the Milton hotel.