From Chile to Bolivia; in deep within days

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We spent our last days in Chile in the town of Arica, where we visited some of the oldest mummies in the world preserved, as they were found under one of the houses. We also watched a world class bodyboard competition here; I have never seen such large and powerful waves as those on the shores of Arica´s beaches.

We left Arica on a morning bus headed for the Chile/Bolivia border. We´d decided to make our first stop in a small village, Sajama, in a National Park and the bus literally dropped us off on the roadside soon after the border. Luckily there was a man with a minivan, so we got a ride to Sajama along with an old Bolivian lady who was dropped off in the middle of nowhere to herd her Llamas! We arrived at the park and the lady in the park entrance office said she had a room we could stay in for our three nights there, so we took it; it was in a little round stone out-house with brick beds and plenty of blankets. That day we had travelled from sea level to high altitude, you could definitely feel the thinner air when you walked and it was noticeably colder, even under my 7 layers of clothes.

The village was small and so so quiet, with a small plaza and stone church. There were a few shops, and even restaurants and hostels, although all seemed closed. The shops were generally joined to someones house and you just shouted ´Hola´until they appeared...we asked one lady if she had any vegetables and Im pretty sure she went into her kitchen and brought us back a selection from her cupboard; like everything weve bought so far in Bolivia they were cheap!

The Sajama National Park is a beautiful place, lots of open space with nothing but Llamas, with the Sajama Mountain on one side and two volcanoes towering over the other side on the Chilean border. One day we walked to the águas termales´in the park and had the idylic hot pool to ourselves, with amazing views at the foot of the mountain. (Although it was hard to get out of the hot water into the freezing cold air, even with the sun shining).

On the second day we had planned to walk to the Geysers...but Sajama had other plans for us. It was Mothers Day in Bolivia and the lady who we were staying with told us we could go to the Plaza and watch the children´s Mothers Day dances. We sat and watched as things were set up and lady´s arrived in their colourful traditional skirts and trilby hats, perched high on their heads, with long black plaited hair stretching down their backs. We asked if we could join and they were happy to have us, so we sat in the circle of chairs; the only óutsiders´ and Stu the only man in the circle of ladies! The children performed dances and songs in traditional dress, but another main focus of the event was food: Continuous streams of sweet treats, hot chocolate, cakes and jelly were brought out by the children, and passed around, as they poured pink confetti under the women´s hats too. A full meal of potatos rice and llama meat was even given out at the end too.

However, perhaps the most entertaining aspect was the series of competitions that took place, which I can only describe at Mothers Day Kareoke and Dance Off´s, where mothers competed for prizes of cooking oil and crackers. As soon as a competition round invovled further audience participation I knew our pale faces would stick out of the crowd...sure enough, before we knew it we were up at the front, Bolivian music blaring from their sound system, and us attempting to copy their traiditonal dancing (I felt like Michael Palin). Stu managed to tame down his usual questionable dance moves and I think all were entertained! It was definitely an experience worth missing a walk to the Geysers for and it was the kind of day and experience that I´d hoped back packing would bring.

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