Stopping for Lunch En Route in a Field of Llamas

Tuesday started out as a good day. It was time to go gallavanting in the Bolivian desert for four days in a Jeep. John woke up  feeling much better and we breathed a huge sigh of relief. His cough was still horrible, but at least he had strength. Our Nissan Jeep roof rack was loaded to the hilt with backpacks, gasoline and coolers, we met our driver and cook and 3 other tourists and bounced down the gravel road, ready for adventure.

Llamas are Everywhere

Antelope Run Wild

Our driver was good but unremarkable. Our cook was quintessential. Her name was Rosemary and she was quite chubby with two long braids that cascaded down to her waist. Her skirt barely covered her knee-highs and she loved to giggle, especially at John when he mooned the other Jeep that passed us a couple days later.

Geysers Bubble

We made friends quickly with the other 3 tourists. There was a Polish couple, and Pierre, a guy from France who was fluent in Spanish and who would prove to help us out in a dire time of need. More on that later. There was another Jeep full of tourists that was travelling with us, so we had our own little caravan.

Part of the Blue Lagoon

Our driver launched right into the desert onto nothing that really resembled a road, bumping along the uneven terrain. Within minutes we were approaching a huge herd of goats–probably at least 100–and the driver seemed to have little patience for this road block. He blasted his horn as the goats let out little bleats of protest and scurried out of our way, their little beards swaying this way and that. It was a good thing that horn worked, too. Because not too long after a llama ran in front of us. We were so close to hitting him that I was certain we would be having llama stew for lunch.

Awesome scenery

Yes, the wild life was different. Llamas were everywhere. Sheep were less apparent, and so were donkeys, but antelope grazed liberally. We even saw a couple foxes. And the flamingos! They were everywhere! If I had only known that they were such a commodity, I would not have chased them around Pattagonia and opted for warmth instead.

The Green Lagoon

The jeep wasn’t particularly comfortable and we were in it for hours. There was a tape deck and our driver had a penchant for Spanish music, which was charming at first. I chuckled to myself when he periodically ejected the halted tape and smacked it on the dashboard a few times to get it working again. But when I started hearing Brian Adams and Roxette covers with a polka beat and an accordian, the music grew obnoxious very quickly. And that tape just kept playing over and over. And over.

More Geysers

The altitude was intense. They kept telling us that we were 4200 above sea level. Used to the Imperial system, John and I assumed that was feet. But no, that was meters! No wonder I was feeling a shortness of breath. Poor Pierre was positively green. We chewed cocoa leaves to help us deal with this. Apparently they increase energy and oxygen, and yes, that is what cocaine is made from. But the leaves are legal as it takes about 50,000 leaves to make one gram of cocaine.

Flamingos Are Everywhere in the Lagoons

It’s all about the scenery. It was stunning. We saw deserts and lagoons that ranged from piercing blue to emerald green to white to red. I’m not kidding, either. This part of Bolivia is so rich in natural minerals that they cause the lagoons to be different colors. We also saw rock formations and geysers and an active volcano. The mountains were stunning and the desert was barren in a beautiful sort of way. The only way I can describe the things we saw is that Bolivia reminds me of a patchwork quilt. It’s chalk full of different terrain and scenery, all beautiful of course. But that’s a given. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

The gravel and wind and rain create stunning rock formations

The higher we went, the colder it got, and when we arrived at our hostel for the night, we were treated to cement barracks and no heat and limited power. We would be sleeping dorm style with the others in our Jeep. We all huddled around in layers and layers of clothing and drank tea and got to know each other. John and I went for a little gander around the village, which was extremely primitive, and waved to the staring children. We stumbled across a pit of sheep skulls, too.

The Red Lagoon

Before dinner was ready, John took a turn for the worse. He said he needed to get to bed and looked positively terrible. His cough had grown worse, and it was awful to listen to him hack and gasp for air. All through the night he coughed and coughed, and I felt helpless to do anything. Of course he was keeping up the others as well. It was a very chilly night and our wake up call came at 4am the next morning. It was dark and there was no power. We used our flashlights, loaded up our bags and John was way, way worse. He was coughing so badly he vomited. He was huddled in bed, freezing, too weak to carry his backpack. And this is the guy that insists on carrying both our backpacks when we’re going from point A to point B! It was apparently that this was no longer a common cold, and I was very concerned about him.

A Ruinous Village En Route

He only grew worse that day. He lay in the back seat and barely moved. For the first time ever, I never saw him crack a smile and he barely talked. The only movement was awful coughing fits that would occasionally result in vomitting. It wasn’t a stomach ailment; he was just coughing so much that his reflexed caused him to puke. And he hadn’t eaten anything either so he really had nothing to puke up.

It's so gorgeous

 I was starting to second guess doing this trek and everyone else on the tour was concerned as well. If we were still in Tupiza, we would have sought medical attention, but here in the desert we had no choice. I asked our driver if a hospital or doctor was en route, and the answer was no. Apparently there was a medical center on day 3, the following day, and with Pierre interpreting, we told the driver that it was important to get John some medical attention.

Flamingos Run Rampant!

I was anxious and concerned. He wasn’t running a fever but seemed so ill and so weak. He didn’t talk and barely moved. I couldn’t do anything and felt some measure of guilt and the ‘if only’s'…if only we hadn’t gone on the tour, if only I hadn’t dragged him to South America in the first place, if only we hadn’t done those long bus rides…but of course you can’t live in the world of if only’s.

More of the Blue Lagoon

That night we slept in another cold, heatless, powerless place in the middle of the desert. It gets cold at night! He went straight to bed but was up coughing violently for much of the night. He left the room to let everyone sleep, and I followed him, feeling so helpless. He vomitted again from the coughing. I asked if there was anything at all that I could do, and he said, ‘Just get me a gun. I want to die.’ I promised him we would do whatever it took to get medical attention the following day but it couldn’t come soon enough…