A long hot walk

At 8am we set off steeply up the cobbled street between the pretty whitewashed earth houses which had blue or green painted doors and windows, heading to meet our local guide at the start of the Camino Real walk to Guane. It’s a cobblestone path dating back hundreds of years connecting the area’s farmlands. It led us very steeply downhill with stone walls on each side, through the peaceful countryside. At the beginning there was shade from the hill but as the sun rose further we had bright sunshine interspersed with some welcome shade when the path was tree-lined. The Andes were ever-present across the valley. At one point we stopped for a snack of deep-fried ants. They tasted of frazzled burger. Occasionally we had to toil uphill which got more debilitating as the heat increased. The last km was a struggle for both of us so we continued to re-hydrate and wet our hats with water.

Around 11 we reached the village and sat with Mary and Guisepe to enjoy an ice cream. We continued on to a mirador where there was a cafe - the freshly squeezed lemon juice was most welcome as was the bag of ice for my neck and head. On our way back to the meeting point we called into the simple church to admire the high ceiling with wooden rafters.

The guide insisted we go into the little fossil museum so we wandered in to see thousand of enormous fossils and huge cannonball sized dinosaur poo. They also had a mummy of a 15 year old girl and some plaster Marys and Jesuses. One Jesus was in a knee-length pink romper suit. (Sadly no photos were allowed in case robbers saw the treasures on social media.)

We all squashed into a decrepit old vehicle for the 3/4 hour drive back to Barichara where we had a delicious late lunch in a local restaurant. The veggie option was fried plantain slices, lettuce, tomato, onion, a huge slice of avocado with salsa and 2 kinds of tasty slightly spicy beans. I’m doing better here for food than on most trips. Dinner last night at Gringo Mike’s was really good. We shared burritos which were spicy and had good fillings for black beans and veg. The salad was apple, blue cheese, walnuts and avocado (of course).

We had a steep climb back to the hotel, calling in at the church which was enormous with imposing tiled flooring.

I’m now going to have a quick swim to cool off. The temperature was 34 degrees by the end of the walk. I did 12km, (18,743 steps) today.

Mr C’s swollen elbow had gone down this morning but by the time we got back from the walk it was much worse. Google suggests elbow bursitis so we’ll have to try to see a doctor.