Monday, November 14, 2005
November 13, 2005: From Oruro to Julo
At dawn I awoke, finished updates for this website and then headed down to meet Nathalie. It turned out that part of the team was experiencing stomach ailments and so we divided into two groups. One group would proceed to our next destination [our Poquentica base of operation at Julo] while other team members would stay behind to recover at the hotel. They would take Cipro [an antibiotic], re-hydrate, and join us as soon as they recovered.
Dana stops at the side of the road for another UV sample.
We stopped in a small town to eat.
A geologic formation along the side of the road.
More diverse terrain.
More diverse terrain.
As we were driving, we started to pass human made structures.
We spotted human made structures in the distance.
After passing these structures for a while, we stopped to take a closer look. Nathalie speculated that these might be Incan structures. Cristian theorized that the structures might be an ancient form of grain or food storage. Pottery shards that we found might be from vessels that were used to store the grain.
We stop to take a closer look at the human made structures.
Here is the texture on the structures. They appeared to be made from a mixture of mud mixed with grass/hay.
Nathalie found shards of pottery.
A look inside one of the structures.
After this short break we drove for a while more. Later, we stop when we find interesting geologic features.
An interesting geologic feature.
While driving along we spotted Sajama, the tallest mountain in Bolivia [6500 meters tall].
Here is a blurry shot of domestic animals called Alpacas as seen from the car as we sped past. A lot of the terrain in this region reminded me of childhood memories of driving through the western part of Texas and New Mexico. I started to wonder why I never saw animals like these through the windows during those drives.
Edmond and Sajama as seen from the car.
Night started to fall as we turned off of the main road and onto a bumpy unpaved one. In the darkness, we took a wild ride to the small town/village called Julo.
We finally arrived and had dinner at a local community/civic center. We were in an extremely small town/village.
At dawn I took a clearer look at the town.
Another shot of the town that is hosting us.
Dana stops at the side of the road for another UV sample.
We stopped in a small town to eat.
A geologic formation along the side of the road.
More diverse terrain.
More diverse terrain.
As we were driving, we started to pass human made structures.
We spotted human made structures in the distance.
After passing these structures for a while, we stopped to take a closer look. Nathalie speculated that these might be Incan structures. Cristian theorized that the structures might be an ancient form of grain or food storage. Pottery shards that we found might be from vessels that were used to store the grain.
We stop to take a closer look at the human made structures.
Here is the texture on the structures. They appeared to be made from a mixture of mud mixed with grass/hay.
Nathalie found shards of pottery.
A look inside one of the structures.
After this short break we drove for a while more. Later, we stop when we find interesting geologic features.
An interesting geologic feature.
While driving along we spotted Sajama, the tallest mountain in Bolivia [6500 meters tall].
Here is a blurry shot of domestic animals called Alpacas as seen from the car as we sped past. A lot of the terrain in this region reminded me of childhood memories of driving through the western part of Texas and New Mexico. I started to wonder why I never saw animals like these through the windows during those drives.
Edmond and Sajama as seen from the car.
Night started to fall as we turned off of the main road and onto a bumpy unpaved one. In the darkness, we took a wild ride to the small town/village called Julo.
We finally arrived and had dinner at a local community/civic center. We were in an extremely small town/village.
At dawn I took a clearer look at the town.
Another shot of the town that is hosting us.
