Ready for my last tour
In the meantime I have arrived in Uyuni (3'700m) in the southwest of Bolivia, the jump-off point for my upcoming trip to the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt desert, and the surrounding lagunas. It's pretty chilly out here in the desert and also windy - there were two powercuts yesterday night, so I was out with my headlamp. The preceeding bus ride from Potosi (see below) had been nerve-racking: 6 hours without bio break - what were they thinking? Who the hell can keep it for so long?! (Even if you don't drink at all for a whole day at some point you have to x.) Therefore I could enjoy the superb scenery only during the first 3 hours. We drove mainly through the desert, which appeared surprisingly varied and beautiful.
In the meantime I have arrived in Uyuni (3'700m) in the southwest of Bolivia, the jump-off point for my upcoming trip to the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt desert, and the surrounding lagunas. It's pretty chilly out here in the desert and also windy - there were two powercuts yesterday night, so I was out with my headlamp. The preceeding bus ride from Potosi (see below) had been nerve-racking: 6 hours without bio break - what were they thinking? Who the hell can keep it for so long?! (Even if you don't drink at all for a whole day at some point you have to x.) Therefore I could enjoy the superb scenery only during the first 3 hours. We drove mainly through the desert, which appeared surprisingly varied and beautiful.
So tomorrow at 10:30 we'll leave here by jeep towards what I expect to be one of the highlights of my travel. On Sunday they will drop me off at the border to Chile, thus I will get to San Pedro de Atacama, a small village in the north of Chile, in the early afternoon. I don't know yet what my plans are for the next and at the same time last week, but I guess I will make at least a visit to the nearby geysers and hot springs and then take a 24 hour bus straight down to Santiago.
And here's what has happened in the past 1.5 weeks:
Digging Vol. I - Pampas near Rurrenabaque
Jill, Dale, Alex (nice guy from New Zealand about my age) and my humble self started ou
r 3-day pampas tour on a Monday morning (last week) with a 3 hour ride in a fucked up jeep over a bumpy and dusty road leading to Santa Rosa, where our guide-to-be Iver picked us up in the afternoon. Before I forget: Iver turned out to be a good guide. However against what the agency had called "50% english speaking" (they tend to exagerate a bit...), he didn't really have a clue about the english language - the others were glad I could translate. Anyway, from there we cruised down the Atacuma river, seeing squirrel, howler and spider monkeys, loads of alligators (like every 20 meters), caimans, turtles, capybaras (weirdest-looking animal), 
pink river dolphins, hawk birds, eagles, kingfishers, parrots and many other species of birds I don't know the name of. It was fantastic! Besides, I hadn't expected to observe so much wildlife already on the way. After about 2.5 hours we reached our lodge at the river bank, where a much needed refreshment was waiting for us. Later, Iver took us to another lodge where we had a beer and watched the sunset over the pampas. I couldn't really sleep that night because it was so hot and humid I was sweating under the moskito net like crazy. (Iver told us it's muc
h worse in summertime - around 40 degrees Celsius more or less day and night.)
r 3-day pampas tour on a Monday morning (last week) with a 3 hour ride in a fucked up jeep over a bumpy and dusty road leading to Santa Rosa, where our guide-to-be Iver picked us up in the afternoon. Before I forget: Iver turned out to be a good guide. However against what the agency had called "50% english speaking" (they tend to exagerate a bit...), he didn't really have a clue about the english language - the others were glad I could translate. Anyway, from there we cruised down the Atacuma river, seeing squirrel, howler and spider monkeys, loads of alligators (like every 20 meters), caimans, turtles, capybaras (weirdest-looking animal), 
pink river dolphins, hawk birds, eagles, kingfishers, parrots and many other species of birds I don't know the name of. It was fantastic! Besides, I hadn't expected to observe so much wildlife already on the way. After about 2.5 hours we reached our lodge at the river bank, where a much needed refreshment was waiting for us. Later, Iver took us to another lodge where we had a beer and watched the sunset over the pampas. I couldn't really sleep that night because it was so hot and humid I was sweating under the moskito net like crazy. (Iver told us it's muc
h worse in summertime - around 40 degrees Celsius more or less day and night.)The next morning we got off the boat after a short cruise and spent the following hours walking, wading and stumbling through the pampas (yes, that was the pampas now - after years of abusing the w
ord!). See in a picture to your right Dale aka "The Snake Man" (self-proclaimed) poking around for an anaconda - regrettably didn't find any. After a while Iver told us to wait for him ("stay where you are") while he would be looking to find an anaconda. We did so and got a little bored. We heard some noises, and Dale spotted a crocodile at the bank of the river, only 
a few meters away from us. Of course we needed to get closer to get a nice shot. Some exagerated it slightly so the crocodile got pissed at us... and moved unexpectedly, frightening us quite a bit. (At least it was a crocodile - the last time we had gotten frightened it turned out just to be a turtle emerging from the river right next to our boat.) It was Jill who eventually spotted the anaconda short after this incident: It was about 2m long Iver guessed. (They can get up to 7m and more. Apparently there is a 50'000 dollar reward for the person that finds a 10m anaconda.) Lucky us to have seen one! After an unhealthy lunch (food-wise the trip wasn't quite a highlight; will get back to Bolivian nutriti
on later on) we hung out in the hammocks. See an example of Bolivian sanitary installations in the picture to your right :-). In the late afternoon we did another boat trip, where we saw more pink dolphins and of course birds, turtles, caimans and alligators. Iver, Dale and Alex even went to swim in the river while Jill and I tried to fight the moskitoes...
ord!). See in a picture to your right Dale aka "The Snake Man" (self-proclaimed) poking around for an anaconda - regrettably didn't find any. After a while Iver told us to wait for him ("stay where you are") while he would be looking to find an anaconda. We did so and got a little bored. We heard some noises, and Dale spotted a crocodile at the bank of the river, only 
a few meters away from us. Of course we needed to get closer to get a nice shot. Some exagerated it slightly so the crocodile got pissed at us... and moved unexpectedly, frightening us quite a bit. (At least it was a crocodile - the last time we had gotten frightened it turned out just to be a turtle emerging from the river right next to our boat.) It was Jill who eventually spotted the anaconda short after this incident: It was about 2m long Iver guessed. (They can get up to 7m and more. Apparently there is a 50'000 dollar reward for the person that finds a 10m anaconda.) Lucky us to have seen one! After an unhealthy lunch (food-wise the trip wasn't quite a highlight; will get back to Bolivian nutriti
on later on) we hung out in the hammocks. See an example of Bolivian sanitary installations in the picture to your right :-). In the late afternoon we did another boat trip, where we saw more pink dolphins and of course birds, turtles, caimans and alligators. Iver, Dale and Alex even went to swim in the river while Jill and I tried to fight the moskitoes... Before we went to sleep we played cards until around 11 (yeah!), upon which The Snake Man reminded us to listen to a bird in the morning which supposedly makes a sound like "What the fuck?" (anybod
y else see a pattern here?)... Now, Iver made us miss that highlight; he woke us up early for the sunrise over the pampas - it was well worth it! After breakfast we were already due to accomplish our final task: Piranha fishing! These little beasts really do have teeth! I can believe they would eat anyone alive even though they are rather small. The biggest ones would weigh around 200g Iver said, but most we caught were between 5 and 8cm I'd say. It was quite a goofy mission. Funny enough, following these awesome 2 days and a half, we had to get back to Rurrenabaque in the same dusty jeep again. At night we went for dinner and drinks, celebrating into Dale's birthday. I got a few well-mixed white russians.
y else see a pattern here?)... Now, Iver made us miss that highlight; he woke us up early for the sunrise over the pampas - it was well worth it! After breakfast we were already due to accomplish our final task: Piranha fishing! These little beasts really do have teeth! I can believe they would eat anyone alive even though they are rather small. The biggest ones would weigh around 200g Iver said, but most we caught were between 5 and 8cm I'd say. It was quite a goofy mission. Funny enough, following these awesome 2 days and a half, we had to get back to Rurrenabaque in the same dusty jeep again. At night we went for dinner and drinks, celebrating into Dale's birthday. I got a few well-mixed white russians.
The next day I regrettably had to say goodbye to Jill and Dale - they would go on a jungle trip and subsequently travel Bolivia at a slightly slower pace, doing parts of it by train. (Actually they will be tr
avelling the world for a few more years - South America, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Africa... Hopefully I can meet up with them some time in the future for a vacation.) As a consolation I got on the most spectacular flight ever - from Rurrenabaque (around 100m) to La Paz (around 4'000m); from the pampas and jungle over the highlands (steppe) to the mountains. I have to admit that I had a few tense moments when we approached 
and overflew the snow-capped sixthousands and the flight got shaky. It was a small plane. Frankly, I think I arrived in La Paz quite pale. But I wasn't the only one - I shared a cab with Noa, an Isrealian girl, who was headed for the Loki Hostal in the city centre as I was. After check-in we went to the creative museum of instruments (we saw guitars made of armadillos if you know that animal) and later strolled along the witchmarket, which a.o. has lama foetuses and embryos on offer. (Brings luck of all kinds, depending on what you do with them.) Later on I had dinner and a drink with Felipe, a Chilean mountain guide and at least as much of an 80s fan as myself.Chilling in Sucre
My next destination was Bolivia's capital Sucre. I was looking forward to hanging out, reading a book and enjoying myself for a few days. And the white city (founded 1538 by the Spaniards as "La Plata", which was subsequently changed into Sucre in 1839 in honor of the famous independence leader Mariscal Anton
io Jose de Sucre; obviously lots of history in this city) didn't disappoint me: With its modest climate (2'750m), beautiful colonial buildings (made UNESCO world heritage in the early 90s) and just about enough but not too much going on (290'000 people) I was able to perfectly relax for 3 days. There was the warm-up going on for this week's festivities in honor of the Virgen de Guadalupe with marching bands and traditionally dressed dancers of all ages (also middle-aged men!), which reminded me of the carnival in Switzerland. (Just to mention it: Each band had about as many euphonia as trumpets - finally a community who appreciates the invaluable importance of euphonia for proper sound :-))
io Jose de Sucre; obviously lots of history in this city) didn't disappoint me: With its modest climate (2'750m), beautiful colonial buildings (made UNESCO world heritage in the early 90s) and just about enough but not too much going on (290'000 people) I was able to perfectly relax for 3 days. There was the warm-up going on for this week's festivities in honor of the Virgen de Guadalupe with marching bands and traditionally dressed dancers of all ages (also middle-aged men!), which reminded me of the carnival in Switzerland. (Just to mention it: Each band had about as many euphonia as trumpets - finally a community who appreciates the invaluable importance of euphonia for proper sound :-)) On Saturday night I attended a Michael Jackson memorial event featuring THE sout
h american MJ double, Omar Blanco from Venezuela. He is actually really good, and the whole event was hilarious. Another encounter worth mentioning is my sightseeing tour with Nestor. Nestor is a local cab driver aged about 65 (i.e. he's one of the 4% of Bolivians benefiting of the free medical care for 65+ people... - good for him as he's a diabetic), a former professional boxer. He told me he met Fidel Castro personnally and was south american box champion in 1972 (I haven't checked yet). So you can imagine we had a pretty good time visiting places like an old castle out of town and the cementery. Also funny was the powercut on Sunday night. By the way there is fairly tasty chocolate in Sucre as far as I can tell, being not much of an expert though.
Digging Vol. II - Mines of Potosi
On Monday I took the bus to Potosi. Just outside Sucre a guy got on the bus and held
a speech about healthy nutrition for about 20 minutes. At first I thought he's from the government, that this is all about education but it turned out to be advertisement for some sort of ointment against rheumatism and many other illnesses a human being can have. After proper demonstration of use and making some sales he finally shut up and got off the bus, which by this time smelled heavily of eucalyptus. (Bolivians in fact do eat very unhealthy: A lot of the food is fried. There's a lot of corpulent women and chubby girls and people have very bad teeth; the latter of course not only due to nutritional factors.)
h american MJ double, Omar Blanco from Venezuela. He is actually really good, and the whole event was hilarious. Another encounter worth mentioning is my sightseeing tour with Nestor. Nestor is a local cab driver aged about 65 (i.e. he's one of the 4% of Bolivians benefiting of the free medical care for 65+ people... - good for him as he's a diabetic), a former professional boxer. He told me he met Fidel Castro personnally and was south american box champion in 1972 (I haven't checked yet). So you can imagine we had a pretty good time visiting places like an old castle out of town and the cementery. Also funny was the powercut on Sunday night. By the way there is fairly tasty chocolate in Sucre as far as I can tell, being not much of an expert though.Digging Vol. II - Mines of Potosi
On Monday I took the bus to Potosi. Just outside Sucre a guy got on the bus and held
a speech about healthy nutrition for about 20 minutes. At first I thought he's from the government, that this is all about education but it turned out to be advertisement for some sort of ointment against rheumatism and many other illnesses a human being can have. After proper demonstration of use and making some sales he finally shut up and got off the bus, which by this time smelled heavily of eucalyptus. (Bolivians in fact do eat very unhealthy: A lot of the food is fried. There's a lot of corpulent women and chubby girls and people have very bad teeth; the latter of course not only due to nutritional factors.)I found a nice hostal right in the centre of the 164'000 city located at 4'070m, the highest of its size in the world and UNESCO world heritage as well. About 10'000 of the habitants are miners. Fou
nded in the 15th century’s midforties upon the discovery of silver, Potosi used to be the biggest city in the Americas in the early 17th century before its economy declined after silver was found in other places as well. Potosi was nearly dead at the end of the 19th century, and it was only at the beginning of the 20th century that it recovered thanks to the discovery of tin. According to the legend, an guy named Diego Huallpa from Cuzco had discoverd the silver on the Cerro Rico ("rich hill") by coincidence: He was herding his sheep when somehow all of a sudden his whole herd disappeared. Looking for it for many hours he found himself freezing in the cold night and lit a fire. When he woke up in the morning he found silver. Anyway, the Cerro Rico is perforated by mines like Emmenthaler (originally about 5'500m high, today around 4'800m). Nowadays the miners work on their own account, 8 hours a day without food and daylight. (In for
mer times they would work, sleep and worship in the mine 6 months in a row - if they were lucky they would get out alive.) In order to suppress any sensation of hunger they chew bags of coca leaves every day, dyeing their lips and teeth (or what's left of them - lots of potential Straumann end customers...) black. It's possible to take a tour to the mines and watch the miners at work, which I did in a group of 7 on Tuesday. Upon equipping ourselves with protection clothing (I let Agustin take the picture of sexy me only for you guys!), coca leaves and lemonade as a present for the miners, alcohol for the "Tio de la mina" (uncle of the mine; kind of a patron) and the "Pachamama" (mother earth) as well as a bar of dynamite for personal use we drove up the Cerro Rico. (All of it can be bought from the shop around the corner :-)) We entered the largest mine (entrance at about 4'300m) in the hill and spent the following two hours walking and crawling through the dusty and sometimes wet tunnels, jumping off the tracks whenever a cargo of ore was shifted. Temperatures vary within meters between chill and heat up to 40 degrees. It was an intense a
nd at the same time sad experience: Many of the miners enter their worklife at the age of 13 already, destroying their health within merely a couple of years. They don't have a choice as employment is scarce in the area - either they do this work and die young or they don't have work at all, which of course isn't an option (at least not in Bolivia). My throat hurt after only 2 hours in the mine. I also wondered about safety - obviously no one is supervising the stability of the hill whatsoever. All of us were exhausted and glad to get out eventually. See in the picture Sol, our guide, and me with the dynamite (housewife technique - bar of nitroglycerin put into a bag of ammoniumnitrate), holding the burning fuze, about 2 more minutes to go till the explosion... (I shot a nice little movie of that.)In the late afternoon I went to visit the museum of national coins, where I learned t
hat all of the Bolivian money is made elsewhere: Coins up to 2 bolivianos (around 30 cents) are made in Spain, the 5 bs. coins in Canada and the bills in France... Weird, isn't it? I rounded the day off with a llama for dinner, which was excellent.Over and out.
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