Sucre & Round Two of La Paz

Sucre & La Paz, Bolivia

From the mines we were happy to move on to Bolivia's former capital city, Sucre. We found that it didn't have too much to offer, but was a welcome rest. We visited the cathedral and adjoining museum, which left us a little freaked out with lots of statues of religious figures that seemed to stare at us anywhere that we went. 

Sucre gave us a chance to catch up on sleep, before heading back to La Paz to begin our journey out of Bolivia and onto Peru. The only thing in La Paz we had left to do was 'The worlds most dangerous road' but hearing of someone we met breaking their collarbone cycling the road just as we arrived to La Paz, we opted to visit Tiwanaku, a pre-Inka site, instead.

Heading straight off an all-night bus and onto another one to visit Tiwanaku, we tried to stay awake to take in all the information our tour guide gave us. Tiwanku was a pre-Inka site that is still being discovered and was a small town that inhabited lots of farmers. Over 60% of the information has been lost about the site, but the visit got is excited about our visit to Macchu Pichu! The Inkas had beliefs similar to the Egyptains regarding the after-life and we saw the process of mummification and beheading. 

After the tour and hearing about 'the highest Indian restaurant in the world', we decided to head to The Star of India for dinner. Ordering a Tandoori and Korma, I'm afraid to say we were disappointed and were not impressed with the quality of the food, especially with the craving of a homemade curry back home! This led to an early night before heading to Puno, Peru in the morning and heading to Lake Titikaka for a home stay with a family on the Armintani Island. 

The Mines of Potosi

Potosi, Bolivia

Potosi, the self proclaimed "highest city in the world", was just a short bus journey on from Uyuni. After our trip to see the Salt Flats we thought we had started to acclimatise and felt much more confident of dealing with being so high up. But the altitude came and slapped us in the face again.
Unable to do much more than grab a quick dinner of fried chicken (which is hugely popular here in Bolivia, by the way) we made straight for our hostel to rest up.
The hostel we chose, Juan Carlos V, was another fine choice. We had some difficulty aquiring a room to begin with, as we only speak "un poco de español" and our new landlord spoke even less English, but after a lot of gesturing and some fine translation from one of the other guests we were all booked in for the night.
After dumping our bags in our room we made for the rooftop terrace which gave a beautiful view of the city and many mountains surrounding it. It's astonishing to think that so many people could find their way to and live so happily tucked away in those mountains.
The next day there was only one thing on my mind - go to see the mines. Potosi is famous for it's mines, which produce silver and zinc among other natural resources and caused something of a silver rush amoung Europeans in the 1500s. Georgie, though, was understandably nervous about heading in. We decided to book with a company called Real Deal Tours after being recommended them by a friend we met on our Salt Flats expedition. She had also been nervous about being in the confined space but had assured us that she hadn't felt too scared on this tour.
So we handed our money over and waited to depart.
First up we went to a local market as it is the custom to buy presents for any miners you encounter whilst trawling through the mines. Common items to pick from include drinks (mining is thirsty work), Coca Leaves (miners love to chew on these as they work away) and dynamite (apparently quite useful in the mining industry). We went with drinks and coca leaves.
We then got kitted out in waterproof over layers, breathing masks and miners helmets and made our way to the mines.
They were so interesting, both in how vast they have become (the sheer manpower it will have taken to carve these labyrinths in to the mountains is crazy!) and in seeing how these people earn their livings. Our tour guide Efrain told us that his father had worked down the mines for 70 years and out of those that we bumped in to this number ranged from 12 to 40 odd. To try and add a little perspective to that, we came out with heavy lungs from all the dust and debris from spending barely 2 hours inside and we had worn masks.
Now these mines aren't exactly Moria but they are pretty scary in parts. The worst of which came when we had to scale three flights of ladders in quick succession, I didn't dare look down. Oh and once we'd done this we came face to face with the devil, or 'Teo' as the locals call him. It is their belief that he owns all of the minerals in the mountains and as such they have built a statue of and regularly pay homage to him, offering llama blood, coca leaves and alcohol as marks of respect.The interesting part about the alcohol is that it is 96%, this is because the miners believe that by drinking the purest alcohol possible, Teo will reward them with pure Silver and not a mixture of elements that then need refining.
You can also add to this frightfulness the nightmare of nightmares - I dropped the first memory card we used in our camera somewhere in the mine. I'm so annoyed that we've lost 150 odd images from our first few days in Rio, but hey, at least we didn't run in to a Balrog!
 

Beginning Bolivia

La Paz & Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

After 3 flights, a 6 hour layover, 2 slices of pizza and 2 milkshakes we made it to our second country- Bolivia. The first thing that hit us landing in La Paz was the altitude. Not being able to take more than a few steps without needing to take a breather was a challenge, especially after a long day of flights and with big backpacks.

Luckily we checked in to a lovely hostel in La Paz 'Arthy's Guesthouse' which had rooms built around a central courtyard and a kitchen for us to make a quick dinner before heading to bed. 

We are travelling Bolivia by bus so most places we only see for one or two days. Our first stop. La Paz. Still feeling the altitude on our first day in Bolivia, we visited the markets - something we were told La Paz is famous for. These are dotted all over the city, with various items for sale - vegetables (avacados the size of my head), lightbulbs, football shirts and so much more. With a maze of different things for sale, we also wanted to have a look at the 'Witches Market', which was supposed to offer up some unusual items.

Meandering through various side streets, we found the Witches Market and before we knew it came face to face with dead dried llamas. This came as a little shock at first, but we later found out that they are llama fetuses, that are buried outside houses as a form of protection from evil sprits. Various other unusual items were also found as we walked cautiously through the market such as dried bird beaks and crushed bugs, all said to be used as natural remedies and cures. We decided to just stuck to paracedomal for the time being.

After a short stop in La Paz, we headed on to an overnight bus to Uyuni, this was where we went on a tour to do our main activity in Bolivia - the Salt Flats (or Salar de Uyuni to the native tongue)! Uyuni is a very small and dusty town with not much going but we managed to eat well, rest up and get ready for our tour. 

We went on a 3 day jeep tour with Red Planet Tours, who we would highly recommend. The first day we drove across the salt flats which was an incredible experience. The Salt Flats themselves are almost as big as Northern Ireland and it looked like smooth snow for miles. After the obligatory perspective photo shoot on the salt flats we visited Fish Island, where an island of cacti had grown over hundreds of years in the middle of the salt flats. This was enough for the first day as we stayed in a basic hostel in the middle of nowhere. We had a chance to get to know the people in our jeep (particularly our Bolivian tour guide Juan who told us all about life as a llama farmer) and enjoy some delicious Bolivian dinner before bed.

The next day begun by a trip to the lake to see the Flamingos who lived in the middle of the salt flats and we also saw the Red Lake where the water had been coloured by the materials from the nearby mountains. We were then taken to the Sol de Mañana Geyser - where we saw hot bubbling mud coming out from the ground at over 200C. The day ended perfectly with dinner and the chance to bathe in the natural thermal springs on top of the mountains and look out at the stars for hours. We were told this is one of the best places in the world for star gazing, being so high up there is very little light pollution and the air is so thin.

The final day we stopped off at the Salvador Dahli desert- somewhere that supposedly inspired Dahli's works and the rock tree that had formed through wind to look like a tree before heading back to Uyuni town amazed by the different sights.