good talk

A few, a very few, of my Readers have some hair ... and might wish to emulate the wise old Ed and follow the "Che Trail."  Santa Cruz, Bolivia's largest city, 1.14 mil., is a hour's flight from La Paz, I got in around 9 P.M.  I took a taxi to around where I had read they had collectivos going to Samaipata.  He got me in the general area but there were only expensive hotels and Ed wished to be frugal.  The kindly manager of one told me to walk 3 blocks, take a left and then a few more blocks to where there were a number of cheap flops.  He spoke accurately, I carried my bag (wheeled-luggage is for sissies) to a hotel which had rooms that were very broken-down but clean and safe, with bathroom for 10 U.S. a night.  I came outside in the morning and a collectivo to Samaipata was about to leave a half-block away.  A few hours to Samaipata, a nice quiet place, and I went to RoadRunners Travel Agency (theroadrunners@hotmail.com) where I met Danielle, who was German-Swiss.  Some of the Krauts are brain-heavy and so was Danielle.  Her family was in the hotel business and she had only been there 6 months and not knowing any before now spoke fluent Spanish.  You might even have lunch with this good lady as did I.  Danielle took me to where the taxi-drivers hang out in a room on the plaza and Vladimir said that he'd take me to La Higuera and the next day on the way back to Vallegrande, he then drove me to the Santa Cruz Airport, I paid the excellent Vladimir 166 U.S.  It's a dusty road sometimes with boulders in the way and it took maybe 6 hours to La Higuera where I stayed at the excellent Frenchman's Hotel where he made me an excellent dinner, he showed biographicals of Che in Spanish (neither Vladimir or the Frenchman spoke English) while I quaffed 3 Braz. beers, I stayed at his hotel, in the morning he made me a good breakfast, the total bill was 25 U.S.  Vladimir got me to the airport well ahead of my flight to Santiago. The CIA-Operative who ordered and attended Che's Murder kept Che's Rolex as a trophy, proudly displaying it for decades.