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Published: February 6th 2007
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Still Celebrating at 7AM!
These people have been going since midnight... seven hours of playing music and signing Well the hope of sleeping in on New Year's Day was shattered at seven in the morning by one of the bands from the night before passing by the our hotel still going strong. As there is no way I could sleep through the music and singing, I decided to get dressed and join them as I figured I might as well use my time wisely. I can't believe that these people were still going from the night before. Where they found all the energy to keep on dancing in the streets in unknown to me. These people were still chugging back beer as well. I was very impressed by this. This will definitely be a memorable way to wake up on New Year's Day. I followed the band around town for about 45 minutes before they retreated into a building to continue celebrating. I headed back to the hotel and had breakfast with my friend Lesley in the restaurant at the hotel before getting ready to go hiking for the day. My goal for the day was to make it to the waterfall outside of town.
At 10AM, I finally made it out of the hotel and started walking
Still celebrating...
These people have been going since midnight... seven hours of playing music and signing using the questionable directions I was given. Somehow, I ended up at the summit of a hill outside of Tupiza, which wasn't my intended plan, and had a great view of Tupiza. There was another gentleman on top of this hill with whom I talked to for a few minutes, of course, asking for directions to the waterfall. He said there was no waterfall outside of Tupiza, but I was sure he was mistaken. He told me where some landmarks were that I was suppose to pass to get there, such as the town's cemetery, but that is all the information he could give me. Finally, I was going in the right direction out of town passing some smaller communities, houses with barking dogs, and civilization as I knew it. The scenery around Tupiza, especially where I was walking, contained red mountains, both jagged and smooth. Where I was walking though looked to be a flood plain, but was very dry due to lack of rain this year brought on by El Niño. I kept walking up the dried up river for some time and it kept getting narrower and narrower. From the directions I was initially given, this was
A Pleasent Reminder
No to drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
Yes to life. the correct was to get there. Soon, the path became very narrow and the mountains were towering over me on either side. It was just me and the mountains. I continued walking for about an hour and a half and finally came to a point where I could not pass by walking or climbing. There was a little trickle of water running down the stones. Was this the waterfall I came searching for? I could not hear anything around that sounded like a waterfall. Now everything started to click. The guy who said there was no waterfall was definitely aware there is a waterfall at this point, when there is water, but since it had been so dry there was none. Most attractions you read about in guide books and on the internet usually refer to the high season when the majority of tourists are out, but since it is low season, any of these resources do not bother mentioning what these attractions are like when there are few tourists around. The hike to the inexistent waterfall wasn't so bad though as I got see some magnificent landscape and rock formations.
Hiking back towards Tupiza, I decided to take
a little different route and ended up in a suburb of Tupiza called Villa Fatima, where I sat at a soccer field to watch some kids play and always have a quick lunch before continuing on hiking somewhere which I hadn't decided yet. I decided to follow the tracks out of town and see where I would end up. I met a Bolivian standing on the tracks, alcohol still on his breath from New Year's celebrations, who decided that he wanted to talk to me. The conversation went on for about 45 minutes talking about the military, Evo Morales, and life in Bolivia. The guy was from Tarija and was visiting family and friends in Tupiza for Christmas. He was currently in the middle of his military service so the topic of the military was the dominant topic of conversation. After his family hauling him back to more New Year's celebrations, I continued on my way down the tracks, eventually making it to the town of Pallaca. Walking up the main plaza, I was met by a drunk Argentinian offering me beer. How could I resist free beer? The only probably it was warm. After a short conversation with the
Statue in Tupiza
I think the statue was telling me that I should turn back because the waterfall I was seeking did not exist at the moment. Argentinian and his friends, I was on my way again, more or less following the train tracks. As I mentioned before, the scenery was absolutely spectacular and the weather was amazing on this day. Finally, after an hour and half of walking, I decided to turn around and head back to Tupiza. As the river ran beside the tracks, but was basically empty (except for a a little stream that snaked its way back to Tupiza), I decided to walk on the dried out river. Many people were at the so-called river to swim, bath and do laundry. Many kids came running up to me to say "Hola" but most were too shy to get anything else out. I decided to chat with a few of the people doing laundry in the river and they said that this year there has not been enough rain and that is was difficult to do laundry. Most of the people were wondering why the heck I would be walking all the way out here instead of spending time in Tupiza. I guess not too many tourists come out are these parts to often. One of the women I was talking to recommended that
I walk back on the tracks because it would be quicker and she thought that bad weather was coming. One thing you learn while traveling is to trust what locals have to say about things, especially the weather.
Heading back into Tupiza, I decided to check out the the communities on the other side of the river and really didn't find much of interest. Arriving back in Tupiza, I passed a really big slide. This slide even get mentioned in my guide book probably because it is a good landmark as it really stands out. I haven't figured out yet why they needed a slide so big. It was fenced in and it was closed on this day. Too bad, otherwise I would have taken the opportunity to slide down to say I did it. Heading back to the hotel, I met up with Lesley who was leaving this night to go to Tarija on the night bus. We searched for a place to have a quick dinner and ended up at the market in town, which I was surprised she would eat at considering she had just finished a full months worth of antibiotics to combat typhoid. After
dinner, I walked to the bus station with here and saw her off. From hiking the whole day and being out in the sun (and no burn to speak of), I was exhausted so I spent my night reading and watching a bit of television in the hotel room. Tomorrow morning I would need to be alert as I would be mountain biking and horseback riding for most of the day. What a memorable New Year's!!!
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