Almuerzo

Thursday 21st April 1988

David and Karin called for me at 08:00 hrs. and we went over to Bill and Pen’s hotel, the Rosario for a good breakfast of muesli and yoghurt. We then all trooped up to the railway station to get tickets for tomorrows train to Calama.

A huge queue snaked down the road by the station, each local with a large empty Gaz cylinder to exchange for a full one. We got our first-class train tickets for 55 Bolivianos and were told that the train would leave at 12:00 hrs. noon and arrive at Calama in Chile at 17:00 hrs. the next day.

We then went on a shopping trip to get supplies for this long train journey ahead. We found a covered collection of stalls and stocked up with tinned tuna, cheese and fruit juices. We then trouped around the Casa de Cambio’s looking for one that would firstly change travellers cheques and secondly that stocked Chilean Pesos as well as Bolivianos.

Karin decided that the best approach was to change travellers cheques for $US dollars cash first of all. This was achieved at a mysterious shampoo and sweet shop which was located on Calle Yanacucho to the right of the Farmacia Hispania.

Here Karin and David disappeared out the back to an office while Bill, Pen and I looked hungrily at the British and American confectionary on display. We went off afterwards to find a Casa de Cambio but by now we were in the “dead zone” when all of the shops were shut for a couple of hours for lunch.

We found a place for our own lunch which was popular with the local “white collar” workers and settled down to a substantial almuerzo which was also very cheap. Almuerzo is the most important meal of the Bolivian day, so much so that daily life tends to revolve around it. Long lunches are traditional throughout the country, so businesses and shops often close between the hours of 12 and 2 pm, so that the workers have time to return home for lunch.

A typical Bolivian lunch would consist of several courses, including a soup, a main course of meat, rice, and potatoes, then a dessert and coffee. Lunch is taken at a leisurely pace and is traditionally followed by a nap, the oft-cited siesta.

The bow-tied waiter did well, rushing around and taking numerous orders and getting them right despite not writing anything down. After lunch we still had half an hour until things started opening at 14:00 hrs. so we walked along the main drag.

Bill and Pen wanted to visit the American Express and VARIG Airline offices and we also checked out the cinemas to see what was showing and a what times. After a couple of Casa de Cambios which didn’t have Chilean Pesos or wouldn’t change travellers cheques I went off by myself, arranging to meet up with the others later.

I found the Sud Amer Cambios at Colon 256 and here I was able to change travellers cheques to the value of $70 US dollars for 55 worth of Chilean Pesos and 15 worth of Bolivianos at reasonable rates. There were 272 Chilean Pesos per $1 US dollar.

I then returned to my room to write up some of the backlog of my diary and run off some postcards. This kept me very busy until 18:30 hrs. when Bill and Pen came to call. While the others went to see another film, Pen and I went to see “The Last Emperor”. This was a fascinating film shown in a luxurious cinema with a modern sound system.

In this 1987 movie this sweeping account of the life of Pu-Yi, the last emperor of China, follows the leader's tumultuous reign. After being captured by the Red Army as a war criminal in 1950, Pu-Yi recalls his childhood from prison. He remembers his lavish youth in the Forbidden City, where he was afforded every luxury but unfortunately sheltered from the outside world and complex political situation surrounding him. As revolution sweeps through China, the world Pu-Yi knew is dramatically upended.

At the interval a couple of men with cardboard boxes sprinted to beat each other to customers wanting to buy their sandwiches for a Boliviano. I left Pen at the end of Calle Socabaya at 22:30 hrs. and sprinted uphill to the hotel and a welcome bed.