Chaqui and Los Banos, Bolivia

Chaqui and Los Banos slideshow

The taxi driver who charged me an extra Boliviano for the ride to the bus station in Sucre deserved every penny of it for his tip on Chaqui. “It is only an hour from Potosi and yes, there is plenty of accommodations, plus, the water is the best in the world.” He said in Spanish. As an addict to hot springs, I had to check this out. Not that Los Banos, four miles from the pueblo of Chaqui, is a great resort town. In fact, the place, looks very strange, with rundown, unfinished buildings, a mountain right in front of it, colored with washed clothes to dry, and campesinas cleaning chicken and everything else in thermal water, running all over the place. Too bad I could only take a couple of pictures. I did not feel right intruding. There were so many million dollar type shots though, that will be for my eyes only.

But there was a really nice resort type place (although the rooms were closed) with baths and a natural sauna. Yes, a natural steam sauna I have only seen twice in my life: once in Tassara, California, and the other at Ko Samui, Thailand. This was very nice and different, with eucalyptus and mint leaves spread all over the ground where steaming water came out from. It worked great for my lungs and the whole respiratory system. In fact, the 24 hours that I spent at the baths did a world of good for me. My body is more relaxed and my difficulty breathing due to the high altitude is gone.

The trip back was interesting. There was a huge festival going on in Chaqui and buses were not getting all the way to the banos because of obscene traffic jams. Then I got into a truck with other people and I rode “a convertible” with great views on the way. There are beautiful mountains everywhere you look at here and there is always something interesting going on. Usually it is related to animals – the way they are kept and handled or just the way they look, specially the llamas, .

Speaking of animals, the bus from Chaqui to Potosi stopped on the road and picked up a couple of campensinos traveling with their “cordero”, yes, sheep. I smiled my whole way from Chaqui to Potosi as Spanish music was playing, I was the only non-Indian, non-Bolivian person on the bus, a sheep traveled with us and all around, there were beautiful mountains to look at.