Players

After spending three days on a tour that takes you to the Uyuni Selar, this incredible 12 square Kilometer of salt fields, the rock that looks like a three, the gaysers at 14,900 feet above see level, the llamas and vicuñas crossing our truck path which made us very nervous, our first night on a hostel made of salt and a relaxing bath on the hot springs (75 Farenheit) at 7am with an outside temperature of 0 degrees celsius (30 degrees Farenheit) and having a snow mountain as curtain and meeting the Swiss man who was biking these territories I decided to stay in the town of Uyuni. This city is located at 12,400 feet above sea level and make the breathing a little heavy when you walk. But I couldn´t take off from this place without having the experience of playing a little ball. I found a small coliseum which is opened for the locals to play. I talked to some other tourists at the hotel, Irish and Israelis, and we put a team together to play against some Bolivians who run without getting tired. We played on a small field, ´fulbito´as it is known, only 5 players on each side. We had subs, they didn´t, and they still managed to take the game. 13-11 was the final score. You score a lot since the field is smaller and everything is a lot faster. BUt it was a fun to play and feel the short of breath.
Uyuni is the third city in Bolivia; first Santa Cruz, clean and safe; Cochabamba, which is on my list as a place where you need to have an eye on the back of your head to be careful. I must say though that I was almost robbed on the most folcloric way, and having the eye behind my head didn´t help. It took me a little bit to wake up from this experience on which three men, working together, took me almost on a taxi pretending that one was a just arrived tourist like myself, who approched me to look for a hostel together, I accepted. The second player stopped us a few yards from we were walking simulating an uncovered policeman looking for some tourists carrying dynamite. This was smartly put since two days before an American man and an Uruguayan woman put a bomb in La Paz, here in Bolivia. The second man insisted that I and the other ´tourist´should go to the hostel from where he received the call about possible suspects and then to the police station. I don´t how I managed to take my passport from his hands and while he made a fake call to his captain he stopped a taxi and demanded to get in. The other ´tourist´was very cooperative:¨"Whatever you say officer". I, to the contrary had a funny feeling about all this. I chose, at the beginning, to trust the first guy since my last experience with the guy who wanted to stay on our wagon on the train of death. But now my stomach and hands were cold and the feeling was not good at all. I told him that if he wanted he could check my back-packs right there on the street. I took a couple of steps back and the third guy showed up showing me also his police credentials. This third player got very close to my face but still jumped in to the car with the other two. They took off, I hesitated to take the next taxi, thinking it could be the fourth player, I took the next one and told him just to drive around to look for a hostel. He dropped me not too far, and when I told the owner of this place about this he confirmed they were thieves. That day, it rained like it hasn´t rained in years in Cochabamba, as the locals told me. So I used it to sleep. Even though this incident happened, I enjoyed walking around, having flashbacks when passing by the same street, meeting a group of four young guys who opened a bar on one of the afluent areas of Cochabamba. A different way to make money, I thought. I heard later other examples of people being taken on taxis with the same or similar excuse to be later on taken to a house and rob every single thing on their bags.
Oruro was the next city, and I was late to take the train to Uyuni so I had to stay one day. The lady of the hostel told me about some hot springs, Obrajes, so after waiting on the van for about an hour, since the van needed to be full before taking off to destination, I, and the other few pàssengers where taken, by a small woman, to a taxi which was going to the hot springs. This time, I didn´t have any funny feelings, or cold stomach and hands. I followed the group, got into the taxi, and off we were. The taxi driver was a little nervous since he thought the van driver could come around and do something to him. The cabby had stolen the van´s passengers after all. Once at Obrejos, I used the pool and the bath, I can´t recall having been more relaxed before in my life.
The train was scheduled to depart at seven pm to Uyuni, at the arrival next day at 7 am. I bought the tour for the three days. This time, the team had 6 players. Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Peru-USA and the Bolivian driver.