I have been a very busy bee. Buzzed all over the place, the last few days. I have seen some sights, and experienced some experiences. If I used the same in-depth analysis I have previously stuck to, this would be a very long blog post indeed. So i won´t.
Leaving La Paz, I took a bus all the way to Uyuni. This was a mistake. Sure, it seemed comfortable enough for the first 3 hours or so, and it was very entrancing watching an enormous thunderstorm on the horizon, but what I didn´t anticipate was the 6-7 hours of spine-shattering vibrations that would follow. I´m not kidding, I thought I had developed blisters on the back of my shoulders from contact with the seat. There was also a moment when I thought the entire roof would shake free. The fact that this was happening between the hours of midnight and 7am did not please me.
From Uyuni, I took a 3-day tour of the salt flats. This turned out to be 1 day of salt flats, and 2 days of amazing multi-coloured lagunas, decaying trains, smoking volcanos, absurd altitudes (4500m+), steaming hot springs, impressive geysers, bizzare wind-carved rocks, and great travel companions. This was probably the highlight of my entire trip, and so you will just have to wait until I upload the pictures to see what I mean, because it would be ridiculous for me to try and do it justice in text form.
Back at Uyuni, I booked my bus ticket to Potosi the next day. This bus was far less vibratory (if it´s not a real word, it is now). However, it seems that no journey can go entirely to plan - the bus stopped on a road on a hillside, and we were told that was as close as we would get to the city - we would have to walk the rest of the way. The reason? The entire city was closed. As a protest over another city trying to claim a resource-rich area which had historically belonged to Potosi, no vehicles were allowed to enter or leave the city. One of my travel companions who lives in Bolivia told me that sometimes, such protests can last over a week. Considering the city folk were slashing the tyres of fuel trucks and other vehicles trying to do their job, this left me with concerns about getting to La Paz in time for my flight.
As it turns out, some vehicles are allowed to move around within the city. Like taxis! As a result, 7 of us bundled into a small taxi, with the bags on the roof, for a (only mildly) uncomfortable ride into the city.
Today, I found out that the city was only blockading itself for one day, so I shouldn´t have any problems getting out. Also today was my main reason for visiting Potosi - a mine tour! We donned dirty overalls and helmets with old-school light packs, and jumped in a bus up to the mine entrance. As someone who has been caving a few times, I figured that the tour would be pretty easy. Obviously there wouldn´t be anything narrower than I have crawled through before. What I hadn´t counted on, was the fact that the mine entrance is at approximately 4500 metres altitude, and areas of the mine can reach over 35 degrees. Breathing was a concern, no more so than when the guide decided I (as the only male tourist in the group) should demonstrate how hard it is to move the mine carts around. These weigh half a ton, and move about 2 tons of rock about. The two of us completely failed to put a derailed mine cart back onto the tracks, but I got plenty of manliness when I later helped some miners push a full cart for a few hundred metres.
Potosi is a pretty unusual mining city. It was once the largest city in bolivia, with the spanish (and their slave locals) mining huge quantities of silver. So much so that, rumour has it, it would be possible to build a bridge from Potosi to Spain entirely out of silver, using what has been mined here. And yet, despite this 400 or so year history of mining, they don´t have the equipment and technology to process the silver they mine to a pure quality. They do some minor processing (which involved a lot of water, and spinning wheels and belts and stuff) to get to 60% quality, then export it to companies who further refine it and sell pure silver at a massive profit. Why has nobody thought to invest in some proper facilities here, take a cut, and make a fortune? The miners are definitely living in a different age. The most advanced workers use pneumatic drills. However this basically destroys their lungs in under 10 years, so the majority of miners use a chisel pole, a mallet, and lots and lots of sticks of dynamite. In the 2.5 hours or so we were underground, I heard at least a hundred thumps from explosions in other parts of the mine. No wonder that geologists predict that the entire mountain will collapse in 20-80 years because of how riddled with tunnels it is.
Planning ahead, I have a few days left before I return to the British Isles. Originally I was expecting to return to La Paz from here, but I think I can fit a visit to Sucre into my schedule, since everyone says it is a beautiful city you ¨just have to visit¨.
Hasta Luego!
No comments:
Post a Comment