an
town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, but much nearer than Achicachi, and
we eventually arrived there at 5 p.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. Never mind, we were hungry and partook of
whatever was brought along, until the "inner man" cried content! The
meal, I may add, was washed down with a cheap "wine" distilled from
cheaper raisins, but it was something wet, and for the time sufficed.

Our pack animals arrived at Guarina about 7 p.m., and we very soon had
our things unpacked and occupied our beds, knowing that a pretty early
start would be made in the morning. The night passed uneventfully, and
at daybreak we got under way, bound for Achicachi, about five leagues
off. There is still a road for vehicles to this town, and keeping along
the shores of Lake Titicaca, we reached this larger Indian town about 9
a.m. The population was about 5,000 Indians, but it is a very
uninteresting, bleak spot, and we only remained long enough to have a
square meal, which we were again fortunate enough to have provided for
us by the reigning magistrate. That over, we then dispatched our coach
on its return journey to La Paz, and thought of our other means of
transport for the forward journey