Sunday, June 20th: Getting Ready for New Year

Feeling Yunga

Why can´t I sleep long, like Blandine? It´s 7:30 and I´m wide awake. The early Yunga sun lures me out. Ok, fine. I´ll come out and play, I have no Yungas-in-early sunlight pictures in my collection yet. It´s quiet outside, everybody else has copied Blandine´s intentions to enjoy the warmth of the bed a bit longer, it is Sunday after all. The whole valley in front of me is covered in a cloud carpet. If it were any thicker, you´d swear you could ski on it. Magic.


A good thing gone bad
After the photo session I sneak back into the bedroom and softly wake up Blandine. It´s 9:45 AM, time for Sunday brunch. The Hotel Esmeralda breakfast is highly rated, but after yesterday I´m suspicious. We walk into a busy breakfast room. My suspicion is immediately confirmed: again the food is good, but the place is short-staffed. The naïve child labourers are happy to help, that´s not the problem, it´s just that they don´t do their job in a very structured, effective way. Clearly there is no proper management: half of everything is missing at the buffet: forks, knives, plates. By the time the staff have responded to my request, the other half has gone missing. Now there are no cups for coffee and no juice glasses. I fill up my plate and join my sweetheart at a sunny table on the adjoining terrace. Coffee and juice will have to wait.

The staff is aware of the problem. By the time we finish breakfast, an older man holding a stack of clean plates comes over to our table, introduces himself as Kurt, and apologises for the mess. Everybody had decided to come out to breakfast at the same time, he reasons. I smile and wisely keep my mouth shut. According to him it´s the problem of the “queen bee”: “She spoils it for everybody else, she has no people skills, to say it nicely.” I couldn´t agree more. Something needs to be done, but I don´t know what, so the conversation remains a bitching session.

Coroico – La Paz

We take it easy for the rest of our stay, then grab the first bus back from Coroico to La Paz. We´re glad to leave. The minibus ride to La Paz is supposed to take 3 hours, but it takes longer, because the driver has problems getting into third gear. The high revving in the second gear is annoying, but I take advantage of the slower driving to shoot a few extra pictures of the surroundings. Blandine is less happy: she sits on too small of a seat next to the driver and her buttocks don’t appreciate it.

A lazy Sunday afternoon
The afternoon in La Paz we keep as quiet as in Coroico. We have reserved no hotel to go to because we are going to attend the Aymara New Year, celebrated at the winter solstice. Yes “winter solstice” in June, it’s the southern hemisphere and freezing cold at night at this altitude. The tour starts at 10PM, so we have a few hours to kill. It´s goingt to be a magical, cultural event, we can´t wait. We change clothes, have a slow dinner at a Mexican restaurant. The owner turns out to be Belgian, from near Antwerp. What are the odds? When he finds out that we stayed at Hotel Esmeralda, he adds “I’ve worked there for four months as a chef. That place is a mess, but it’s not going to be fixed any time soon because of this witch of a woman.” After only 24 hours of observation I tend to agree with him. We make the 10PM appointment, on time, dressed in about all the possible layers we have. It’s going to be a cold night.