First sightseeing stop in Bolivia was Potosi.
A little bit of background history, in the early 1700s a llama farmer sat down on a large hill for lunch. After putting out his campfire, he noticed a streak of silver in the ground. This hill became known as Cerro Rico (Rich Hill), and would go on to fund Spain's conquests over the next two centuries with its abundant lodes of silver and other precious minerals. The town Potosi boomed with this find, and within 25 years, its size rivaled London and Milan back in the 1700s. Sadly, once the silver ran out, growth of the town stopped and fortunately, the presence of tin was enough to keep the mines afloat for awhile. After the market was overflooded with tin exports, Potosi was unable to keep their boom going and have been stagnated ever since. Right now, the mines in Cerro Rico are still open for other ores but the conditions in these mines are absolutely shocking. There are now 15000 miners working there, most of them there for 15 hour days and work only using basic tools and dynamite. The average lifespan of a miner is 33 years, and most of them are expected to die of silicosis pneumonia within 10 years of them starting in the mines. There are also children as young as 12 years old who start work on the mines, following their family's footsteps. It is really sad, and we were able to take a tour of the mines to see the dark and dank environment that we live in. It was hard to breathe as we were at a high altitude, and there was dust everywhere. Before starting the tour, we went to the miners markets to buy presents for the workers. You can buy coca leaves, alcohol, crackers, and believe it or not, dynamite and fuses! The coca leaves are for the miners to chew on, which staves off hunger and fatigue while they are working. As there are no bathrooms in the mines or anything, the workers only eat once in the morning, and then when they get home late at night. Hence the need for the coca leaves! The alcohol is 96 per cent proof, and commonly drunk on a Friday night (Friday drinks are universal, yay!!) completely undiluted. The miners are very superstitious and believe that if they drink their alcohol pure, they will find their minerals pure. Of course, it doesn't help if they are completely pickled on a Friday night and prone to falling off the steep hill, but I am not about to question the tough coca-chewing, pure alcohol-swilling miners.
After Potosi, we headed to Uyuni which was a definite highlight for this tour. This town is close to Salar de Uyuni, ie the Salt Flats. This was an unbelievable landscape of white salt as far as the eye can see, framed with a clear blue sky. Because of vastness of the flats, you can take some fantastic pictures playing with perspectives to get some amazing results. One of my favourite photos we took was with a toy dinosaur that we borrowed from our hotel. By placing it close to the lens, and with us further away frozen in a run-in-horror pose, it looked like a scene just out of Jurassic Park.
Following our two nights in Uyuni, we drove back to Potosi to stay the night before going onwards to La Paz in the morning.
La Paz was very interesting. The city is built at the bottom of a valley, so the view as we were driving down was spectacular. I am noticing one annoying thing when it comes to our new digital camera. As amazing as the landscapes that we have seen, it is really difficult to translate the grandness and the scale of things onto the camera. Obviously it has much to do with the zooming limitations on our happy-snap digital, but it is frustrating when a landscape that can literally take your breath away turns out to look like a bunch of houses clumped together on the viewing screen.
The highlight in La Paz was definitely biking down Death Road. It is not called Death Road for no reason!! We started on the top of a mountain at 4700m, and ended up at 1100m. Luckily, the tour guides we went with was extremely professional with a big emphasis on safety. We were padded from head to toe, with elbow and shin guards, a riding jacket, bike helmet and sexy fluoro vest. We split into groups from fastest to slowest, with a guide for every 7 people available. Now, if I had time to turn my head away from the rider in front of me, while using every ounce of concentration I had to will myself to stay upright on the road, I am sure that the scenery would have been spectacular. On the one or two peeks that I had, it certainly was. We literally sailed through clouds on the first part down, with our hands frozen into claws by the thin chilly mountain air. The second part was by far the scariest and most thrilling. We rode down gravel paths no more than 3 metres wide at some parts, with a steep bloodcurdling drop below on the left. It was absolutely beautiful though. We rode through rivers and waterfalls, all the while passing through dense cloudforest. The path wound through the mountains, and you can see on the opposite mountains - thin threads of silver winding through dense pathways of rich green which was water running off the peaks to the rivers below. It was stunning, and I was so proud of myself and Glen for making it down in one piece!
Before I end this blog on Bolivia, I feel that I need to mention one more good thing about this country. Things are so CHEAP!! For example:
Medium size bottle of Coca Cola - $0.60
Two steak dinners and five cocktails at a nice restaurant - $25.00
Llama steak - $4.00
Bottle of wine - $8.00
Hand knitted beanie - $2.50
Alpaca wool scarf - $2.00
Strawberry daiquiri - $2.20
50km bus ride on a luxury coach - $1.00
1kg of laundry to wash and dry - $1.00
Dried llama foetus at the Witches Markets - $5 (bargain!)
Two long plaits of real human hair (yes, we did buy this!) - $4.50
I can go on and on but I think you guys get the jist!
Currently we are in Puno, which is near Lake Titicaca where we will be visiting for an overnight excursion tomorrow. I am getting really excited for our Inca Trail excursion which will be in less than a week!!
Take care all, and we will see you in less than three weeks!
Love
Sandra
Hi Sandra
A very interesting blog entry today. It sounds like you are experiencing lots of amazing things. You are writing so beautifully. I hope you can put some of your writing skills to work once you return home.
Lots of love from Julie. Has Glen told you that the cat is becoming increasingly confident and bossy. She can even hold her own in a catfight with the local Tom.
Posted by: Julie | March 06, 2008 at 05:28 AM