| We all slept well and were up at our usual 7:00. We ate, packed,
paid, and left by 8:30. We stopped at the river to fill our water
jugs and then drove the 5 km or so to the section. The strata are
the same as we had worked but they are intruded by a group of white, dacitic
sills and dikes. Matt, Rich, and I stayed to drill some rocks while
Pedro and Brian drove upsection to collect some tuffs. When they
returned, we had collected 3 sandstones and one tuff. We decided
that that was sufficient for this year so we piled into the vehicle and
headed out. We hoped to reach Tupiza.
We drove toward Oruro but near Corque turned SW with the intention of
taking two shortcuts across two of the great altiplano salars to get to
Tupiza. We drove toward the Chilean border for ~3 hours but upon
our arrival found the first salar flooded due to the wettest year on record.
We had asked several locals en route about the condition of the salar;
they all assured us it was dry. Sigh… The second salar (Uyuni),
we learned, was also flooded… sigh.
We turned around and drove back the 3 hours to Corque and then drove another 6-7 hours to Potosí, the world’s highest city. Poor Pedro did it all without complaint. The road was mostly dirt. We ate junk food for dinner and arrived around 2 a.m. We stayed at the Hotel San Antonio in shoebox like rooms with an exterior shared bathroom. It was too late to dwell on the situation. I went to bed but discovered that it and the blankets were too small for my size. I curled up with cold feet and quickly fell asleep. |
