END OF THE ANDES IN MY SIGHTS!
Photos To Follow
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Thanks but no thanks!
I was running along and a young boy comes running after me and holds his hand out. I think he is begging but in fact he is offering me 10 bolivianos, a dollar or so, I am shocked and thank him but no thanks. A bit further on I see a young boy and his grandfather sitting by the side of the road, as I run by the old man asks for money. I stop and give him some, also oranges. I was expecting more beggars here and in Peru, but have to be honest I have seen more on a Saturday afternoon in Dublin.
On I run that glorious day. I stop to photograph some llamas and alpacas and am asked by some women for money. When I refuse they aim their catapults at me, I suspect they are not aiming seriously as they are well wide of the mark and are laughing.
That day I was commuting back in the cab of a truck to my hotel. The driver was telling me about how cool the Bolivians are in compared to the uptight Peruvians!
As I jump out at the junction at Ventillo Cruz I ask the driver for a photo for old time sake.. He lifts up his beer can and waves goodbye!
One for the road!
I am very late getting going the next day. As always I find it difficult to start without breakfast. I asked the woman if she had anything she could prepare quickly. Egg sandwiches she suggested. Great, I will have that. Then she asks me how many I want, I say two. She goes out and returns with two eggs and then goes out and buys the bread! All this before the water was even boiled for my coffee. Best not to be in a hurry in Latin America!
On I run in the gravel as there is little shoulder on the roadside. I have not noticed any Bolivians smoking, I was told this by a Dutch man in Peru that Bolivians that smoke are rare, still there are dozens of cigarettes tossed in the shoulder, that is a mystery to me. Also there are small empty bottles of mentholated spirits and cafe al Cognac everywhere. There is a serious dip in the gravel where I am running, not the best camber, that’s for sure. Today I pounded out another 48km. It was a tough but efficient days work.
I often get annoyed when people ask me why the Irish are such heavy drinkers. Yes we drink, a fair bit but not as much as the rest of the world, far from it. As far as I am concerned the Irish are responsible drinkers, very few Irish drink and drive like much of the rest of the world that I have witnessed. I would say there was less beer can/bottle litter in Ireland than anywhere else on my route.
Further on I come to a construction worker who is asleep in his van. On the dashboard there is an empty beer can, perhaps not his but nevertheless a moron for leaving it there! It seems to me that all of Latin America has a serious drink driving problem.
A strong days running, and almost non-stop, save for a short break 44km day took me to Potasi.
Potasi famed for its silver mines which were once had the largest silver deposits in the world. In fact Potosi was so rich in Silver that the word Potasi was adopted into Spanish slang word usage meaning ‘ so much of. ‘
I am getting tired of the Andes now, tired of the mountains. After almost 6 months and almost 6,000km in them.
For me there is only one road. One road and it has to keep going forward for me, no way back my road is forever forward.
I dream of the day when I look in front of me and see just flat pastures, I wonder will it be like Nebraska, and then I will glance behind and see the monster Andes behind me. The Andes defeated, yes that will be a very special moment!
I often think of the oceans of the world. The worlds landmasses are nothing in comparison to the oceans of the world. The earths land surface is so much smaller, and South America is just one of 7 continents of which the Andes are just part of South America, albeit a huge part. What must the Pacific be like to row across, it must be a great feeling for a trans-oceanic rower to row across an ocean, no bullshit commutes, the real hard way! No I think I will stick to the running!
Leaving Potasi I stopped to ask a man called Victor for directions. Victor pointed me the way out of town, up yet another steep hairpin climb out of town, but first I was invited into his mining office for a cup of tea.
Tea with Victor.
That day I finished in a small village called Cuchu Ingenio.
It had been another tough uphill climb at the start of my day. It was hot and humid day, so I was tired when I arrived at an old hotel cum restaurant here. There were three Bolivian women there. All they could do was sneer while putting their hands up in front of their faces and laugh behind their hands, like three little girls. I see it so much here, many women lack assertiveness, they are very short on confidence. Here they are faced with the terrifying prospect of communicating with a strangely dressed running gringo!
Have you got a place or not? I repeat yet again?
No senor we are full, I am told.
I have stayed in so many of these places that I can usually tell when a place is full, or empty, just like this one appears to be to me. This place most definitely has an empty feeling about it. Just down the road I stopped at a shop where some locals confirm this to me.
Thinking that there is nowhere else to stay that cold night with darkness rapidly closing in on me, I tell the people that I am angry with the women back at the hotel. Someone then tells me that there is another place to stay beside the gas station just up the road. That will do. After I secure a bed for the night, I go across the road to another restaurant for dinner where there is another team of female gigglers!
It seems to me that just about everyone just wants to get married and have babies, pregnant women everywhere, Babies everywhere, so many heavily pregnant women. Working women with babies in blankets tied to their back. I have seen babies wrapped in blankets being wheeled around in wheel barrows. So poor, yet so many mouths to feed, surely Catholism is much of the problem in these poor countries. They don’t seem to have much hope. The saving grace surely is the great family tradition of looking after their elderly parents and grand parents, often 3 or 4 generations living under the same roof.
