Made it in Potosi with my belongins! This mining town used to be the largest town in the Americas back in the 16 and1700's due to the silwer that was discovered there by the Spanish. Today they mainly mine tin and -------. I did the mine tour in the morning, which includes getting gear to wear in the mines (hard hat, overall, boots and light) and also a quick tour at the local shops where the miners buy their coca leavs and dinamite (yes, they sell it on the street!). The conditions inside the mine leave a lot to be desired for and hopefully it is a bit better back home for our miners there! The tunnels are very small (I bumped my head a few times - thank you hard hat - and I had to bend down a few times to walk and get past), and there are these consistent fumes and gasses that hang around in the air. So not sure how the miners manage it, but after 30-40 minutes inside the mine, that was it for me! The mine tour is certianly not for people who dislike small places! The miners work really very hard and you can see it is very physical work that they have to do. Funny thing is that they also built/carved out small little rest rooms inside the mines to they can rest and smoke and drink beer (yes, crazy!). There is also a small little devil like statue at the entrance of the mine, which is for good luck and the miners bring the statue coco leaves and sigarettes. I was very glad to see the light again at the end of our tour.
In the afternoon, I did the city tour, which was acually quite painful, as my guide could bearly speak English and he would say¨"yes" to any question I aksed, and I could see he did not have a clue about the question that I had asked him. The only real highlight of the city tour was the one meseum, where they still have various paintings from the old days, which are stunning (and I am not even a big art fan) and then also old mahcines that were used to produce coins (due to all of the silver that Potosi produced back in the dasy). Also met my firts Carribean traveller from Trinidad on the tour. Off to Uyuni ("Uni") on the bus tomorrow.
23 October 2010
My bus to Uni was only leaving at lunch time, so i had some time to do some admin work (including updating my blog and also booking accomodation in Chile). I also realised that nto being able to speak Spanish can e tricky as well, as I got my Nike shoes repaired after the bicycle trip, but it almost made me miss my buss, as I was waiting for these 2 clowns to fix it, after I thought I had specifically asked them to have it fixed by 11! Then onto the bus to the town of Uni. I realised again that in Bolvia, specifically on the local busses, that they dont aply the rule of one ticket for one person, as various people were sitting on each other¨s laps or in the pathway (which was very annoying). I also did not realise that a hen made it onto the bus with a local lady that was sitting behind me - I did not hear a thing as the hen "behaved" itself. Realised again how careful you have to be with our belongins, as a french guy"s bag got stolen while we were at a stop for drinks and to strech our legs (mental note for Rio and BA). It was a 6 hour bus ride to Uni, and I was very glad when we got there. I met, Nate (an American) and we went out for dinner that evening to a awesome restaurant, that is owned by a guy from Boston, and is part of a hotel. Had an amazing pizza and also my first desert for the trip!
24 October 2010
Had a very nice breakfast at my hotel (bets thus far in the trip) at Hotel Tambo Aymara (met up with Nate again as he was also staying there). Went down to Kantuka Tours to get ready for our 3 day/2 night trip to Salar de Uyuni and also got my exit stamp at immigration. While I was wiaiting for the tour to begin, met a very nice Auzzie couple (we discussed the Pablo Escabar tou in Medellin in Columbia - which was very interesting for me, as I just finished reading his brothers book called "The Accountant") and we had a good few laughs. I also wondered down one of the steets to take some pics of Uni, and then bumped into Pieter and Nadia van Heerden (small world) - they were also going on the Salat trip and heading to San Pedro - same trip as mine, but just with a different company. Tour started and off we went in our 4x4 to the salt flats. The salt flats are all actually a lake, but the salt moves to the survice and becomes very hard (so you can drive on it, although in specific areas). Our group had 7 people and 1 driver (who could not speak a word English and was actually very frustating). There was 3 Isrealis, 1 Kiwi (18 years old), American (who was also our guide as he could lucklily speak Spanish) and then an old man from the UK (60 years old). You can aslo take the coolest pictures on the salk flats, as there is no "perspective" from a camaras point of view, so if your creative, wha-la........ It really is something amazing to see these salt flats and is something I am not used to. Had lunch at the salt hotel (yes, hotel made from salt blocks except the walls outside), and then headed to this "island" in the middle of the salt flats with its huge cacti, Isle Incahuasi. Arrived in Sun Juan in the afternoon, and stayed at a hostel that can house 3-4 groups, but becasue we were the nly group there, all of us got our own room! Isrealis taught us some card games in the evening and then off to bed. An amazing day with stunning scenery!
25 October 2010
Slept very comfortably, which was nice, as we were heading towards our firts full day of the trip. Our driver was late with our departure, as he waited till everyone was finished with packing, before he decided to fill the 4x4 with gas (only in Bolivia). Our morning part took us to a semi active volcano, Ollague Volcano, which all the cars stop at to take some pictures. Later in the morning and up just after lunch time, we stooped at 3 beuatiflull lagoons with 3 different kinds of flamingos. very surreal, there is nothing for kms on end, and then wha, lagoons with flamingos with this great back drop of the mountains........ One of the funny moments for me was that at one of the lagoons, the Isrealis (2 guys and 1 girl) asked the rest of our group if we could move away and go a bit further, as they wanted to take some nude pics! At our lunch stop, I met up with Nadia and Pieter again. In the afternoon, some sections felt like we were riding on the moon, just flat lanscape with rocks. We stopped at some very cool rock formations with various shapes and sizes. Our day ended when we entereted the nature park Eduardo Avaroa Fauna National Reserve and our last stop of the day was at Lagina Colorada, which basically means "red lagoon". The lagoon is as it names implies, red, cuased by algie. Slept at this hostel style place again in the park, but Dan (old British guy) and myself were not impressed with the room that was allocated to our group. It only had 6 beds (they wanted two of us to share a bed) and the room between the beds were so narow that I could not even fit my backpack inbetween them! So we arranged that we get another room so we could split the group and Dan paid for the extra room (75 Bolivianos, which is just over 10USD, and in the bigger sceam of things, nothing and worth the extra space that we were given). At night, I brouhg myself my last beer in Bolivia (tomorrow I was heading off to Chile). Hostel were we slept was actually terrible, there was 3 other groups with us, and the toilets were terrible (smell was unbearable).
26 October 2010
Last day in Bolivia, and to be honest, I was glad. Not that I dont like the place, but it just gets to you after a while the poorness and how far behind they are in certain things. So I am glad to be heading towards Chile today, whcih is very modern and completely different to Bolvia. We woke up at 4 am to be on the rode at 4:30 am in order to see the geysers with sunrise, but that plan went haywire when the driver only woke up at 4:50 (we were all standing ready to go at 4:30) and the 4 x 4 broke down. At least the driver managed to fix it, and we arrived at the shooting geysers (still in the Nature Reserve). Truely a very nice sight. My only problem was that I was developing stomach problems and I was in need of a toilet badly. So off we went to the hot springs with safe bathing temperatures, which was 20 minutes from the geysers, and as we were driving along, I was analysing eveyr posisble rock to see if I could potencially do my "business" there. We arrived at the hot springs and I made a rin for it to the toilets! We also had breakfast at the hotsprings, and this is where I could feel my stomach really going bad. Dan and myself then got onto another 4x4 to make our way to the border for San Pedro. On our way, we also stopped at Laguna Verde, which means "Green Lake" and again, literaaly green. We waited at the border for about hour and 30 minutes for the other people from the other tours to arrive at the border post (there is only 2 busses that take you from the border to San Pedro). At this stage I could also feel that I was getting a bad fever, and combined with my stomach problem, was not putting me in avery good position. I wanted to go to the bathroom at the border post, but in true Bolivian standard, there was none, so I just had to deal with it. The ride took about 1 hour from the border to get to San Pedro, at which stage we stopped to at immigration. This turned out to be a pain as well, as we had to wiat an hour becasue they were looking through all of the busses and bags of the people (our bus was last to arrive). So when I eventually made it to the hostel, I just want straight to the toilet and then off to my bed to get some much needed sleep. I woke up and felt very waek, but decided that I just had to get out of bed and do something. Took some pills for my stomach, but was looking for soemthing for the fever. Luckily Pieter saw my FB post, and the evening they stopped by at my hostel to give me some much needed medication (thanks guys!!). In all, Salar was a great trip and I would just go to Bolivia to see it again, it is amazing and there are some breathtaking views and scenary!!!! (even thoug the drivers are actually supposed to be your guides as well, but in reality, they are just drivers!).
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