After driving all day followed up with shopping at Wal-Mart, we didn’t have much energy to do anything on Thursday. Friday, we thought about putting the kayak in, but since it threatened to get windy, and our location was not ideal for kayaking, we decided to go hiking instead. From our camp, we could see a couple of hills carved into the hills behind us. So, we started out for the large cave that almost looked like it had a chair in it.
As we got closer, we discovered it was a cactus in front of it, as was supposed.
The rock formations here are interesting. It is sedimentary rock, but they way that it is formed looks like a pile of concrete with large rocks in it. This creates ripe conditions for small rock slides, so we had to be careful. This is on top of our goals to avoid the thorns and spines that most of the desert plants seem to possess. Through our hiking and climbing, I have discovered that Jonathan is much faster than I am. I shouldn’t be surprised; he is faster than I am in most everything. In this case, I don’t know if he is just more confident, or if it has something to do with his greater reach. Maybe I just don’t have any balance at all. Anyways, while climbing these hillsides, Jonathan is quick and graceful, while I am slow and nearly crawling on all fours. Once we reached the cave, I decided we needed a bit more exercise and adventure and proposed we climb to the topmost peak of the hills we were on. The view was great.
On the way down, Jonathan found some large spiders. In fact, one he didn’t see right away fell onto his leg. I must say, it was the first time that I saw Jonathan so “excited” about an insect on him. To be fair, he had reason, check these guys out. To give perspective, the first’s body itself (not including head or legs) was about an inch long.
This one is hiding in its web tunnel. Jonathan tried to convince it to come out to play with only succeeding in getting it to poke out a leg. He was another big one. We headed out Saturday morning. Unfortunately, as I was looking into the ottoman, I dropped the (wooden) lid squarely on my feet. It was extremely painful, and I am now boasting two bruises and one welt. Made me hobble like an old woman all day. When we went back to Wal-Mart to get oil for van maintenance, Jonathan almost left me behind at the door, forgetting that I was limping along.
And, since Wal-Mart did have any good tortilla offerings before, Jonathan and I made a stop at our first tortilleria on Saturday as we drove through La Paz again. This was a “hi-tech” shop with a tortilla press in use. It was a slab of grill that moved back and forth while another slab half the size flattened each tortilla dough coin. It was quite interesting. When the tortilla dough had been flattened and steamed, it was tossed onto an actual grill where another guy cooked and flipped them. They made about ten while I was there waiting.
Spanish Words of the Day:
Rock/landslide: el derrumbe
Spider: la araña
Hill: la colina, el cerro
Bruise: el moretón, el cardenal
Welt: el verdugón
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