Coroico - or How Dim supposedly saved my life

Again, right now I'm in Arequipa, Peru, but I'm slowly catching up on my diary.
So this bit is about Coroico, the warm little town we fled to after cold cold Uyuni.

Home. Sweet, swimming pool + hammocks + buffet + hot showers +"view over the universe" (Lonely Planet) + sauna. So here we are, in paradisiac Coroico. And the sun just came out. This feels familiar. Reminds me of Coban, Guatemala. The kind of place that makes you feel like you've been 'in transit' for all the previous time. And sure, everything you want, you get, and it's courtly put on your tab. A nice 'welcome back to reality' for when you check out from this oasis. The kind of place that's made to revive one's sexual drive. Maybe it's no wonder that the place is overtaken by french couples in their late twenties.

There isn't much to do in Coroico, but they'll still try. The Lonely Planet recommended two remote places worth a hike. A trio of waterfalls on one side, and a river for swimming on the other. So Dim and I set out to hike to the waterfalls. It sounded cool, we packed our simming suits and left the hostel, together with a german couple we met that morning at breakfast. Actually, another 2 french girls joined us too, as we met in the street (on our way to first buy something for lunch at the waterfalls). The hike was cool, you basically walk on the side of the mountain/hills while enjoying a magnificent view of the valley. less cool were the waterfalls themselves.

Erase all your mental images of waterfalls for a second. Now, make an indent into the mountain, nothing fancy, just tiny enough to let some water flow. Then, add tubes. A lot of tubes, going all the way to the villages for water distribution. Then, add a fence or two around the trickling water. Ok, you're almost there. Add a bit of trash here and there. Make the people tired from having walked 3 hours towards a palce where their swimming suit is of no use. Tadaaaa, welcome to Coroico's Lonely Planet recommended attractions. That's how I came to conclude that it probably goes like this:

First, a small village is nicely located. Then, some outsiders, or ex-travellers decide to open up a hostel there. After a while, the village gets mentioned in the Lonely Planet. So far so good, really. But then, the village gets it up his head to start offering 'attractions'. Can't open a tourist adventure agency if you got nowhere to take them to. So you come up with cool sounding names like 'El Vagante' for what is basically a crappy river, hire some tourists to pose on a picture of them smiling in the water. Set the price at tripple the cost of going back and fourth there. And voila, you get backpackers walking 3 hours to a waste-of-my-time piece of falling water.

Oh well. Most of the time, we just spent it sleeping, eating, swimming, sauna-ing or reading. I even got my lips back (they got messed up in Uyuni from the cold, I had the mouth of a cro-magnon). We splurged for a room with a view, and basically did nothing for 3 days. Dim and I finetuned our "this man saved my life in Uyuni" story, recalling our car accident. Dimitri is one social animal. All I had to do was let him hit the swimming pool downstairs, wait some minutes on the balcony and then come down. By then, Dim had started a conversation with everyone at the pool. I just had to come down, say Hi, and add "This man saved my life!". The rest of the conversation went by itself.

Tal Benisty