| As usual, we arose at 7:00. We packed our gear and prepared to
bid farewell to Chuquichambi. The village Maicu caught us as we were
about to leave, so Rich and I went to his “office” and agreed that Rich
would write a definitive letter that would clear up the whole bicycle fiasco.
We would deliver it to him as we passed through the town on our way back
to La Paz a few days later. What will these people do for excitement when
this is resolved? Just before leaving for Belén we stopped to get
bread at the local bread-maker’s home. Matt caught the whole process
on the digital camera. He had also recorded, secretly, our entire
meeting with the Maicu.
We drove to Belén and presented Brian and Rich to their Maicu.
Then we drove to the campsite and unloaded our gear. Pedro stayed
at the site as the four of us hiked up the streambed that we determined
Brian Hampton had descended the year before. Brian and Rich climbed
up to their last site from the previous day. Matt and I climbed to
the point of the ridge that they would come down and started our sampling.
Brian and Rich’s drill had lost its muffler so we could hear them off and
on all day.
The rocks were bad for drilling where we were so our forward progress was very slow. We were walking in the water all day. I made a sliding descent of a small waterfall. A cold wind blew up the valley most of the afternoon. We knocked off at 5:00 and returned to camp to set up our tents. Rich and Brian returned about ½ an hour later. Pedro finished cooking dinner as the sun set. The cold wind grew even colder as darkness fell. Pedro and I smoked a cigarette and I went to my tent, hoping that my trusty 1974 down sleeping bag and Wal-mart liner would keep me warm. |
