3159m
The morning began with an interesting breakfast from this interesting hotel. There was some bread laid out with some little bowls of different things in them on the buffet table. No butter, jam, or any condiments that we could recognise. So, we tried a few. One was a very nice plain yoghurt with frangipani petals and crushed pistachio, almond and some local nut. Then there were the weirder ones; some kind of harissa like paste, some form of seeded mustard as well as a local ghee (unclarified butter). However, there was coffee.
From here we walked into town around 9:30 and looked for an ATM which would work to get some cash out to exchange for Bolivian Bolivianos (BOBs). Yup, that’s the acronym.
Coffee time again and we found the central square which had the church adjoining it. The church was started in the 1500’s and has been maintained. Stunning. A bit of shopping ensued with Charlie buying a Chilean shirt and Fran a warmer jumper. Lunch was at a local baker/cafe which served MASSIVE baguette sandwiches.
We returned to our hotel to await our tour guide, which, when it arrived 10 minutes late, both the driver and tour guide were told off by the groundskeeper of the hotel. She had seen us waiting for 30 minutes and gave them a blast in Spanish. Let’s see if the bus and guide are late tomorrow morning! Today’s trip was to the Moon Valley, just out of San Pedro. It was a nice canyon with; The Great Dune, an old salt mine, the Three Mary’s and the cathedral. (There are some nice photos of them).
As it was approaching sunset we moved out of the valley to a viewpoint to be served Pisco Sours and watch as the sunset have a different illumination to the valley.
We got dropped off in town and walked to a restaurant that I had managed to book (thanks Joel!) called El Diablillo which we had been told cooked grilled guanaco. Well, we did have to try it! We had just ordered and the band was about to start when a fuse blew. Well, it didn’t hurt the ambience. We got by with candles as light and the bar continued to serve drinks and our food turned up (must have been gas or charcoal). We had been described guanaco as something between lamb and beef and I would have to agree. Charlie ordered llama, so we got to try that as well. The power came back, the musician started and we left!