No water at all in either bathroom. Not even cold. I had to waste valuable drinking water. The only minor satisfaction is that I had a shit before I found out. :-) I doubt they care much, you are not supposed to flush the toilet paper and the bin next to the bog is overflowing onto the floor, so what's a bit of stuff floating in the pan?
Intermittent cock-crows as I wait outside in broad daylight. I noticed this yesterday and probably before, but clearly that crowing at dawn thing is only vacuously true in that the things crow continuously.
4:40pm. Only just found out it's an hour earlier here than in Chile.
All going pretty well, we're done for the day except dinner. In that sense arguably a bit dull. Sunset is, I believe, in a couple of hours so if that doesn't clash with dinner that's cool.
No idea where we are in named terms, but my GPS says 22.27384S, 67.82062W. It says it's only 2448m above sea level here, although our driver says it is over 4000m. I genuinely don't know who to believe.
(Hmm, just done it again after leaving it on longer and it now says 22.26454S, 67.81614W, elevation 4357m.)
There are twelve of us on the tour, all are native English speakers (English, Scottish, Northern Irish, Canadian, New Zealander) or fluent in English (the other English guy, originally from Newcastle but like me having lived in London for about 12 years, is here with his Swedish (I think) girlfriend, and we have a Swiss guy and a French woman along too).
Minibus transfer across the Bolivan border. Leaving Chile required queuing for a passport stamp and to hand in the immigration paper. Entering Bolivia (half an hour's drive later) involved the usual immigration fom and entry stamp but was pretty quick. Picture of president Morales on the wall in the shack which was the border control post.
Perhaps at a naff rate they helpfully provide money changing facilities right in the border post. After you get your passport stamped you hand Chilean pesos over to the guy sat next to him and he gives you Bolivianos. I changed CLP40,000 for <whatever the Bolivian currency code is>400. I don't need it yet and in fact there is nowhere to spend it if I wanted, but it always seem a good idea to have some local currency to hand.
We then split into two groups of six to go in a couple of slightly ratty four wheel drive vehicles. This seems to form a natural split, the two groups don't travel exactly together, although we do the same things.
Some fairly impressive scenery, including a couple of places with flamingos, the latter having impressivelyred water due apparently to minerals.
The 'place we are staying' (it is too basic to be called a hostel) seems OK if basic. We have two rooms, one for each group of six plus their driver.
Lunch OK if basic - a fried egg, a small sausage, mashed potato, cucumber and tomato.
No real problems with the altitude, whatever it is here or elsewhere. According to the driver one pass we went over was about 4900m asl. Slight headache which I assume is altitude related and a very occasional tendency to feel short of breath while talking and walking.
Skies very cloudy, which is a shame as I bet there's next to no stray light here. Maybe we will be lucky tomorrow at the hotel at the salt pan.
No toilet paper provided here, fortunately I had been lugging a roll around since leaving the UK. Sadly, that means nothing I've brought has been total dead weight and able to be omitted on a future trip. I used the towels in the hostel in San Pedro and at the baths today (I did go in, quite pleasant) and as I say the toilet paper came in too.
I opened my suitcase to get the TP out and put it in my backpack just as we were transferring over to the 4WDs. The sheer quantity of books excited a certain amount of hilarity. I had the last laugh though as the roll of duck tape I have been carrying with me also came in useful, to mend someone's backpack and to plug up holes in the vehicle where dust comes in. Kidneys mate. :-)
Bit of trouble getting back to the hostel last night. The road nearby is unlit and the first two times I started to walk down a dog started barking madly and scared me into trying to find another route. No success, and on the third attempt to get up that road I managed it with only minor canine audible interference.
Very impressive stars that night, which I did see better as a result of the dog forcing me to walk back in the opposite direction. Still, I'd rather it had kept quiet to start with.
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