m., having covered, more or less,
fifty miles since morning. The journey seemed longer, as the country is
so much alike all along the route; but as the roads were fair,
travelling was quite comfortable.
Guarina is purely an Indian fishing village, and the only white people
are the Bolivian half-caste authorities. As I have already stated, there
are no hotels or even lodging-houses in these Indian towns, and ordinary
travellers have just to hunt about until they find a place suitable to
put beds for the night. However, as my friend was a "personage" in
Bolivia, in other words, a man of position and power in political
circles, we of course fared considerably better than we should otherwise
have done had he not been with us; and we were invited to put up in the
house of one of these men in authority. He did his best for us in their
frugal way of living, and gave us a meal consisting of "Chairo," which
is soup as black as coal, and made from frozen potatoes which are called
"chuno." These are about the size of walnuts, hard and black, and have
to be well soaked before cooking, and then they are not a savoury bite.
The next plate consisted of "Chalona," already described as lean sheep
dried in the sun, and which, generally speaking, is very repugnant in
appearance, smell, and taste.
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