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June and July 2001 JR's Journal Belén
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| I slept extremely well and was surprised to wake up to a bitter cold.
It was easily below zero Fahrenheit. We stood shivering as we ate
our corn flakes, the milk freezing on the sides of the bowls. The
sun crested the ridge at 8:10 and there was a startling 50° temperature
rise in the next 10 minutes. Once our boots were somewhat thawed
out, we put on our field gear and headed up the quebrada.
Our sampling went a lot better as we climbed out of mudstone/siltstone strata and into more and more very fine-grained sandstone. It was a pretty little streambed with walls several meters high on either side. In the middle of the afternoon, Brian and Rich caught up with us. They had come out perfectly, right to our first site. We leap-frogged our way downstream for the rest of the afternoon. At 5:30 we quit for the day and were surprised to find ourselves right next to camp when we climbed out of the streambed. Although there was no wind, the temperature plunged rapidly and we ate dinner under a cold, clear star-filled sky. Rich and I sat in the vehicle after dinner and exchanged data. Afterward, Pedro and I smoked our nightly cigarette and talked of the differences between the U.S. and Bolivia. Presidente Banzer is in the U.S. being treated for lung cancer. One cigarette a day is all I want at this elevation. I wish we hadn’t bought that pack at the karaoke bar in Oruro! |
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