Oct 25 one wheel drive

Breakfast is at 6:30, dry bread. Bt where should they get fresh bread in the middle of the desert? I am anyway impressed how the people live here. And this was the luxury kind compared to what we are expecting tonight. We had electricity and running water. 

At exactly 7 the Europeans are outside with their luggage, Franz is already jumping around on top of the car to get our stuff up, only the Latinos are still missing. :)

In the car we are still quiet. Nobody seems to be in such a good mood as our Turkish neighbor which already talked nonstop this morning and we are all happy he is in a different car.

For a while we are driving through differnet landscapes. Besides other tourist jeeps there is nothing. A "road" - if you want to call it that - is defined by more than four cars taking the same path. There are many ways leading to Rome - or through the desert. We see the train to Chile, some colcanoes, one of which is active right now, 3 lagoons with flamingos and a lot of sand and rocks.

Just before we arrive at the last lagoon, the red one which is especially beatuiful between 2:30-3pm, The jeep gets stuck in the sand. Anyway the car has made some funny noises all day and Franz already had tried to fix so ething before. When we try several times to drive the car out again we notice that actually only one of the wheels is turning, the one that is stuck. 

He is diggin and digging, we bring rocks for the foundation. At least 10 attempts and nothing. He gets the car jack and starts to pump. We bring more and more rocks. Fernando the Brazilian is really mad we have a broken car. We girls try to help but we are not even supposed to push from behind. There are several more attempts with no success and finally another car is coming. Together with the driver and the guys from that car we push and finally get the car out of the sand on the third attempt with them. Finally we make it to the lagoon, our second hostal.

When we arrive my headache is so bad that I don't even want to exolore the lagoon. I gi to bed immediately hoping it will get better. Fernando is here as well with stomache issues. We are at 4700m... The headache seems to come from the shaking in the car and from the altitude, it won't get better and I get up. The girls tell me I need something sweet because that will help the altitude issues. So I have coffee with a lot of sugar, there is anyway no milk. :)

Franz is outside trying to repair the car. We notice that it is getting cold very quickly here and we are afraid of the night. There is no electricty and the light in the common room is powered by a car battery. Dinner is really good again and we get a bottle of wine from Franz which we only manage half though.

In order to get some hot water for my Gatorade hot water bottle, I go to the kitchen which is in the next house. It is a typical Bolivian house with everythg in the same room, wood fired stove, table with benches and a bed. Franz is here to get warm again from working on the car. The whole family seems to live here (grandparents, parents, kid). They are making pancakes and eating hot soup.

The sky is clear and the stars seem really, really close, you almost want to touch them. I find the Southern Cross and also see two shooting stars.

At 8:30 pm we are all under the covers in our sleeping bags because it is really cold and the alarm clock will go off at 3:30am.