Hot Lagoon

We walk all the way downhill to the other side of town to the bus station and buy a ticket to Oruro for tomorrow morning. A wee walk back up the hill to a market and we jump on a mini-bus to XXX Lagoon. There's a small queue of buses that only leave when they're full, and that doesn't mean just when the seats are taken either!

We pass a hand made road sign for XXX and ask if we should get off. "No, mas directo aci!" they shout and point further down the road. We get off where instructed, next to a barely visible sheep trail on the side of a rocky hill. The guide book says a 45 minute walk. In 5 we were approaching the small heated lagoon. Parked next to it was a large motor home with an old German couple who for the past 3 years (excluding a couple of "holidays" back to the Mother land) had been slowly working their way down the continents from Alaska!

We were asked to pay 5 Bs (33p) to swim the naturally heated lagoon by an old man floating around and told not to venture more than 3 meters from the edge. The lagoon was a nice warm bath temperature with a soft muddy bottom (if you could reach that far!). Sean and I swam most of the way round until we decided that there weren't any monsters lurking in the middle of the lagoon but rather most local Bolivians (being in a land locked country) couldn't swim. Hence the 3 meter warning.

Afterwards we scooted back down the rocky hill just in time to flag down a return bus, with the same driver no less! More breast feeding antics in an overpopulated confined area and we're back in Potosi for 4 Bs. Dinner was back at the Koala Cafe for more Chicken and Mash.

Posted by Steve Eynon