Best and Worst
Me and Emma got back today and are slowly getting round to unpacking, sorting out mail and getting very drunk (hopefully). In the meantime I thought I'd add a section on the best and worst bits of the trip. I'm starting off with toilets but plan to add some more classy stuff later.
The worst toilet I had to sit down on was in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. The plaster was crumbling, the paint cracking, there were no locks and only 2 cubicles for around 50 backpackers, all fighting the effects of dodgy foreign food of varying potency. Toilet paper is deposited in or around small bins on the floor, to protect the fragile waste plumbing, but inevitably some sneaks in the bowl and the system starts to clog. Buckets of water are carried from a large barrel by the sinks to slosh away the turds in the absence of running water. We are in a desert and there is clearly no more water arriving once the barrel is dry. I have to go at around 9pm and the water is already starting to lose in the battle of the barrel against the bowels. There is a brown, sticky mess waiting for me when I arrive. I do my business as quickly as possible, which is frustratingly slow, probably a consequence of the stressful conditions. I get busy with the bucket and manage to leave a respectably clean bowl behind, given the situation. Around 10.30 the barrel is empty and the fact that the toilets are blocked has little relevance. The mounds grow and we all go to bed and try not to think about it. I wake up in the night and have to go, but thankfully it is a stand up job. There is no electricity and I hazily stagger around by torchlight trying not to touch anything. I am not the only one who has had to go and by now it is obvious that these people must have really been desperate. Come the morning the situation is even worse and one of the toilets is covered in sick. I can tell you, with absolute certaintity, that had I been feeling sick I would have gone nowhere near that toilet. I can only assume that it was a spur of the moment thing. Nasty.
Anyway, on to more pleasant matters I reckon the best toilet may have been in the posh hotel we stayed in after coming back from 8 days trekking round the Torres del Paine. I'm not really sure if it was the best but I basically just want to show off about having stayed in a damn posh hotel. Got to make the most of it and all.
The worst toilet I had to sit down on was in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. The plaster was crumbling, the paint cracking, there were no locks and only 2 cubicles for around 50 backpackers, all fighting the effects of dodgy foreign food of varying potency. Toilet paper is deposited in or around small bins on the floor, to protect the fragile waste plumbing, but inevitably some sneaks in the bowl and the system starts to clog. Buckets of water are carried from a large barrel by the sinks to slosh away the turds in the absence of running water. We are in a desert and there is clearly no more water arriving once the barrel is dry. I have to go at around 9pm and the water is already starting to lose in the battle of the barrel against the bowels. There is a brown, sticky mess waiting for me when I arrive. I do my business as quickly as possible, which is frustratingly slow, probably a consequence of the stressful conditions. I get busy with the bucket and manage to leave a respectably clean bowl behind, given the situation. Around 10.30 the barrel is empty and the fact that the toilets are blocked has little relevance. The mounds grow and we all go to bed and try not to think about it. I wake up in the night and have to go, but thankfully it is a stand up job. There is no electricity and I hazily stagger around by torchlight trying not to touch anything. I am not the only one who has had to go and by now it is obvious that these people must have really been desperate. Come the morning the situation is even worse and one of the toilets is covered in sick. I can tell you, with absolute certaintity, that had I been feeling sick I would have gone nowhere near that toilet. I can only assume that it was a spur of the moment thing. Nasty.
Anyway, on to more pleasant matters I reckon the best toilet may have been in the posh hotel we stayed in after coming back from 8 days trekking round the Torres del Paine. I'm not really sure if it was the best but I basically just want to show off about having stayed in a damn posh hotel. Got to make the most of it and all.
posted by Emma at 4:31 pm
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