We returned to the hotel to get Matt; he looked like death warmed over.  I sat in the back seat, for the first time, so Matt could sit up front.  We drove up the long grade to El Alto to exit the city.  As we headed south to Oruro we had to stop several times so Matt could vomit.
 

The city of Oruro is situated against a mountain composed of a Tertiary ignimbrite sheet in the eastern part of the Altiplano.

 

Heading west from Oruro, the road passes a large, shallow lake which is  usually mostly a salt flat. This year was one of the wettest on record so most of the lakebeds actually had lakes in them! an unusual event...

At Oruro, we turned west and returned over the road, which we had traveled, two days before, to Turco.  We followed signs to the Hotel Pimiri, which is in the middle of nowhere.  An attending woman was the only person there.  She wanted $20/person.  We said no and drove on into Turco.  At the central plaza we filled our water jugs, intending to camp.  I asked a Chola if there were any pensiones in town and she said yes, telling me where.

The first place left us standing outside for 10 minutes so we left and drove a couple of km outside of town to a Camelid protection project.  The portero fixed us up with some rooms for 3 bolivianos per person per night.  I shared a room with Brian that looked like it hadn’t been slept in for years.  I asked the portero for a broom and swept out a mound of dust, peeled paint, and trash.  Pedro found some better straw mattresses down the hall so we moved them in.  Brian’s was made from American flour bags and mine was made from Costa Rican ammoniuMay 8, 2007 just to be sure. 

It got very cold and windy outside after darkness fell.  We had electricity from 7-10.  We were all very glad to not be camping.  Matt was still feeling queasy when he went to bed.