We had lunch in an open-air restaurant and decided to go to Urimi to check out the thermal springs. It’s a 3 hour ride from La Paz.
Went through the altiplano, a police checkpoint, off onto a dirt road, through the frozen ruins of an old town, and down a winding road through the mountains to the Valley of Sapaqui.
There is permafrost on the ground. It's cold and windy on the altiplano.
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| The donkey poop is frozen. |
Here's a little video taken driving along the mountainside.
and coming up to the tunnel ...
There was a big bus stuck in the tunnel in the mountain just before the thermal springs at Urimi.
We had to move to the side – the cliff side – so the bus could back up past us.
At the thermal springs, the water flows out of the moutain. It’s an inactive volcano and the water is wonderfully warm.
We went into the pool and sauna. Men in one area, women in another. In the sauna, there were eucalyptus leaves on the ground and the aroma filled the air. Very relaxing. Opens the lungs.
There is a hotel called Hotel Gloria, one of a chain of hotels throughout Bolivia.
On the way back to La Paz, we saw a white cat that moved off to the right, a white mouse that ran across the road from left to right, a white burro standing on the right side, and a gray rabbit with a white tail bounding off the right side of the road.
We decided to go to Copacabana the next day - we stopped at Rogelio's house on the way home, met his wife Patty and sleeping daughter. Made plans for a trip to CopaCabana.
Back at the hotel, Doc passed out immediately but I was invigorated and couldn’t sleep for hours.
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