3159m
We started the day off well by being picked up almost exactly at 7:00am, and were the first people to be picked up. However, this went downhill slightly as the next person to be picked up wasn’t around even after we waited for around 10 minutes at their hotel. We did pick up the next group pretty much on time and only had to wait around 5 minutes for them to be ready. Our third pickup took well over 10 minutes as the girl in question had been informed that the pickup was for 8:00-8:30 and had the documentation to show it. After this we returned back to the hotel of our missing pickup and they had been woken and were ready to join the tour.
It was around 1 hour to get to the Rainbow Valley through some nice scenery involving driving down into valleys and across streams until we arrived at the Rainbow Valley. Our guide then proceeded to take us on a walk through the valley but his dialogue disintegrated when a heard of llamas walked into the valley. What’s the difference between a llama and a guanaco I hear you ask? Good question. Ok, explanation time:
Llamas are domesticated guanacos, and around the same height and build. The wild guanacos are all the same colour, however llamas come in a variety of colours as evidenced in the photos. Alpacas are domesticated vicuñas and, as with the llama/guanaco, they are roughly the same build with the wild vicuña being of one colour compared to multi-hued alpacas. Ok, teacher mode off.
We continued walking through the valley, encountering burros (donkeys that the Spanish introduced). Breakfast had been set up for us which included coffee and coca leaves (no, Matt, I stuck to my coffee!).
From here we travelled to an area covered with petroglyphs, including jackals, llamas, monkeys (traded from lands east of the Andes) and pumas. Some very clear images with some of them.
On the drive back to San Pedro I was discussing with Fran about tomorrow’s activities. On our agenda it states that we are picked up from our hotel and taken to the border. No time given. On return to the hotel I contacted our local agent using the free wifi and WhatsAp. She has no idea, our last tour with them finished with the morning’s tour to the Rainbow Valley. O…..K….., let’s figure out what’s going on here. Access phone and take off airplane mode. Ring local operator ‘Customer Service’ number 9 times. No response. Ring ‘Emergency Contact’ number. Person answers. Informs me that she has no idea and to call her back in 1 hour. Not satisfied. Ring Eclipse travel ‘Emergency Number’. Wake up Sydney person at 3am local time. Sleepy voice informs me that transport is organised by Bolivian contact, not Chilean. Hmm. Check vouchers from Bolivian contact. Yes, they will pick up from hotel around 7am. No problems. Awesome. Continue reading. “Please note, Migration costs not included.” Migration costs??? Searches rapidly on internet. ‘Migration costs to enter Bolivia must be in cash of US$160 or in BOB (Bolivian Bolivianos, for those who didn’t read yesterday’s blog!). Hmm. I’m ok, I have the US dollars. I think Fran has $200. Charlie? $0. Could be a problem here. Send Fran message about costs. Fran responds with “Can you find out from local contact or Shae if the cost is correct?”. Try local contact, no idea. Try emergency contact for Chile, no idea. I am NOT going to ring back to Oz at 3:30am. Ring Bolivian contact. First call, static. No answer. Second call, static. Couldn’t understand what they were saying. Third call, get through to local contact. Cost is for US citizens only. For you, being Australian it is free unless the guards are a bit belligerent and want some spending money, in which case, 20BOB. Much cheaper.