Potosi, the Silver Mines of Cerro Rico and Sucre

The next leg of our adventure took us to Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4100m and home to some of the finest sunsets we have ever seen! Founded in Spanish colonial times the city was once one of the largest and richest in the world equal in size to London in the 17th century. The city was built on the riches of Cerro Rico ´rich hill´ which was the greatest source of silver the world has ever seen. As well as financing Spanish wars and impacting inflation in Europe, the vast riches were used to build 31 beautiful colonial churches and over 2000 colonial buildings. Indeed when the Spanish viceroy came to visit the streets were literally paved with silver. All this came at a great cost however to the indigenous and african workers, as it is estimated that between 9 and 12 million miners died in the horrendous working conditions of Cerro Rico over the last 450 or so years. Indeed, the Spanish forced a seventh of the Andean male population to work in the mines for no pay. Many never returned and this has been cited as one of the key reasons for the dramatic population fall in the Andes.

The glory days of the city have long since gone as little remains of the rich silver veins. Today the 10,000 or so co-operative subsistence miners seek lesser ores like lead, tin and zinc, although, many still dream of striking it rich and rumours of a solid siver cone in the centre of Cerro Rico still persist. To see for ourselves, we went on a tour of the mine risking life and limb in the process, as well as our respiratory health - arsenic being one of the many unpleasant gases available for inhaltion. Upon starting their career, the average life expectancy for a miner in Cerro Rico is 15 - 20 years. Sadly the workforce also includes about 1000 children. The conditions inside were abysmal. We had to crouch and stoop through the dark, damp and claustrophobic tunnels as we followed the mine cart tracks deeper into the mountain. Our helmets saved our heads on many occasions as we bumped into the low supporting beams, some of which looked extremely precarious. The miners are deeply superstitious and we were fascinated by the depictions of El Tio and Pachamama. Upon entering the mine and venturing beyond the last rays of daylight one encounters El Tio (King of the Underworld), a rather scary looking devil like figure with a very large erect phallus. He is covered in offerings of coca, black tobacco cigarettes, streamers, llama blood and bottles of ´Bolivian whisky´ which is 96% alcohol. Offerings must be made to El Tio to ensure safety and bountiful riches while inside the mine. Pachamama is the goddess of earth and is housed in a different shrine along with Jesus and protects miners upon leaving the mine. Similar offerings are left for the Pachamama. After we had tried our hand at some back-breaking labour (at 4200m! phew!) we sat with the miners sharing sips of Bolivian whisky, chewing coca and listening to their fascinating stories. It was an amazing and humbling experience and one we won´t forget in a hurry.

We were so happy to see daylight when we emerged that we celebrated by blowing up a stick of dynamite. The fuse lasted two and a half minutes and we all took it in turns holding the lit dynamite before our guide ran off with it to a safe distance. The explosion was deafening and very impressive. You can watch video of it below! Scarily, Potosi is the only place in Bolivia where the sale of dynamite, ammonia nitrate and detonators is unregulated. Just imagine all the intoxicated miners blowing up dynamite inside of a mine that our guide said is like ´Swiss cheese´and is in imminent danger of collapse in the next 5 or 10 years...... ESTAN LOCO!!

After being miners for a day we soothed our aching muscles in the nearby hotsprings of Ojo del Inca (Eye of the Inca), a magnificient 50m diameter natural hot spring. Bubbles rise in the centre of the pool and legend has it that that unwary bathers who venture to the middle will be sucked down to a hot muddy death. While we were there, we didn´t see anyone brave enough to test the legend. However, many others (including ourselves) had great fun plastering ourselves in the mineral rich mud which gave our skin a nice rosy glow.

Following on from Potosi we moved on to the capital of Bolivia, Sucre. Although capital in name, it is only a small city of 210,000 people and lacks the vibrancy and economic muscle of the defacto capital, La Paz. Known as the ´white city of the Americas´due to the predominance of white washed buildings, Sucre boasts some of the finest colonial architecture in South America. The city is also famed for its delicious array of chocolate shops and saltenerias (a delicious meat and gravy pasty). After a taste test of the treats on offer we promptly decided that this would be an excellent place to study Spanish for a week. Our language skills improved immensely over the week and it was well worth the effort. We also improved our nature count with an impromptu display put on by some busy hummingbirds, including one that was barely larger than a bumblebee. We were also fortunate enough to see the world´s biggest collection of dinosaur footprints at Cal Orko. There are about 5,000 footprints from at least 150 different species of dinosaur.... ROAR!!!!

Tiwanaku, the Wild West and the Southern Altiplano

We continued our adventures into 2010 with a trip to Bolivia's most important archaeological site, Tiwanaku, set on a barren plane 70km from La Paz. Tiwanaku was the cradle of Andean civilisation, first established in 1,000 B.C. The museum contained some interesting exhibits including trepanned skulls, pottery and mummies. However, the Spanish have left virtually nothing of the treasures that this site once held and we were left somewhat disappointed following the archaeological marvels of the Sacred Valley in Peru.



Our last act in La Paz before heading south was to visit the witches market where we acquired a travelling good luck charm in the form of a small black ceramic llama. Hopefully, with his cheeky grin, he will serve us well!




We packed our llama and headed three hours south to Oruro, a run down tin mining town that has past its prime. Oruro is famous for its elaborate carnaval held in February involving fantastically over-the-top costumes, water-fights and crazy masks. We wandered down the street where the costumes were being made and were in awe of the craftmanship. It's a shame we won't be around to see the party in full swing! We also visited a neat little mining museum administered by nuns with the entrance located in the town's main church. After a steep descent into the mine we paid our respects to 'El Tio' (the Aymaran god of the underworld) by offering coca leaves and money. The mining museum was not the only unusual thing about the church, there were also dark and mysterious murals depicting the contrast between heaven and hell. There were definitely pagan overtones to this brand of Christianity and it was an interesting example of what happens when two sets of beliefs are merged into one.




Our first South American train journey took us from Oruro to the Southern town of Tupiza. We were extremely impressed by the level of comfort and 'bow-tie' service which put British trains to shame. I even got to enjoy a hot chicken dinner as we watched the sunset on the endless horizon of the Altiplano. We arrived in Tupiza to find a town that would not look out of place in a Western movie. The surrounding cactus strewn canyons and red pillars of rock are known as the 'badlands' of Bolivia and played host to the final shoot-out of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid during a botched robbery in 1908.







Despite a childhood allergy, I thought this would be the perfect place to try horseback riding and fulfill my dreams of becoming a cowboy! To my amazement my reaction to the horses was minimal and before long I was cantering on the back of my trusty steed 'Gaucho'. It was an exhilarating moment and I felt truly free as we rode through the spectacular scenery.






After some delicious Argentine steaks and a few days by the pool we headed to Uyuni, a bleak desolate place with very little to recommend it apart from the convenience of booking a Salar de Uyuni tour. Indeed, the main highlight of the town (apart from leaving) was the train cemetery, choo choo. We found a sour, expensive gringo town so promptly got round to booking a tour. Due to the distances covered, lack of roads, wilderness and extremely cold nights, an organized 4x4 tour is pretty much the only way to see this vast area.





So first the bad news -The vehicle turned out to be a lemon, having lost its 122,000 km battle against the salt and rough roads. The food was barely adequate (with ketchup being the most exciting ingredient on offer) and the going tough on our backsides. We broke down about six times in three days and we spent 3 hours on day two amusing ourselves with an old mining tire in a sparrow fart town waiting for the 4x4 to be fixed!

On the plus side we saw some of the most startling scenery in our adventure so far. The salt flats were like an illusion and we took advantage of it to take some artistic shots. We also spent the night in a salt bed in a salt room in a salt hostel. It was interesting but very cold. We also met some wonderful Argentinians who were more than happy to help us with our Spanish.





Over the next few days we visted volcanoes, ogled flocks of flamingos, saw stunningly empty mineral stained lakes and basked in the isolation (apart from the 20 other 4x4´s on the circuit!)
We were also treated to a ´rock tree´and sightings of desert foxes, viscachas (Andean rabbit type creatures) and vicuña (wild realtive of the llama). On the last day we experienced the splendour of the Eduardo Avaroa nature reserve with its geysers, hotsprings and rugged moonscapes. When we got up at 3:30 am we were treated to the most amazing clear night carpeted with stars. The milky way was visible in its full splendour.








Following our southern Altiplano expedition, we now find ourselves in Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4100m! It has a tragic history that we will tell you all about next time.....


Ciao for now! Leon and Lydia