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Published: November 20th 2015
The beginning of our trek to MaraguaWe were looking forward to our arrival in Sucre because it meant we'd have a home for more than a couple of days at a time. We rented a small apartment with our own bathroom and kitchen and you'd think we hit the lottery with the amount of excitement between us upon seeing our new home. It's the small things that we've begun to appreciate more and more as we travel along. The first few days were pretty laid back as Kristine settled into her new school and we explored the city streets for cafes and parks to hangout at.
On our first weekend we decided to take a trek for two days to Maragua crater, just outside the city limits of Sucre. We met up with our guide and another couple from Australia early Satuday morning for a 20 km hike to a little town in the middle of the mountain range, where we would spend the night. The day didnt start out with the weather we had hoped for. The first hour was chilly with an intermittent mist but then slowly started to clear out by noon and become a clear, sunny afternoon. After our picnic in a
Picnic Timemeadow overlooking the river, we continued our hike through small villages and farms and learned about the geography of the area from our local guide Johnny. When we finally arrived at our camp for the night we were suprised at our accomadations. We stayed in little stone and mud huts that had a kitchen, fire place and bedrooms for everyone. After a hearty dinner of soup, chicken and pasta and a good nights sleep we were ready for the last 15 km. The last day of our trek was as nice as it could get weather wise. We enjoyed hiking the day away and exchanging stories about weddings, sports and our home towns. Johnny put together one last picnic for us before driving back to sucre to end another fun trek with new friends.
Much of the next week was spent between Spanish classes and studying, runs around the park, and watching sunsets at our new favorite hangout. On top of all of that....we like to pretend we're busy...Kristine was planning out my birthday. We had a great day, she made pancakes in the morning, rock climbing in the afternoon and we ate an amazing Italian dinner that would
rival any Italian restaraunt in Philadelphia. It was a birthday I'll always remember.
With our final weekend we hopped on a bus and headed south to Potosi about 3 hours away from Sucre. There, we got set up with an ex miner to explore the mines of Cerro Rico. Potosi was once one of the richest cities in the entire world due to the amount of silver that was extracted from the mines. But when the Spanish conquistadores arrived, they took the majority of the silver and minerals for themselves. The saying goes that with the amount of silver from the mines, a bridge could've been built from Potosi to Spain. Now there's barely any minerals and silver left to mine and they think the mines will be completely depleted in 10 to 20 years. A crazy concept since they've been mining the mountain for 400 years. Before we went in we stopped at the miners market. This is where all the miners buy supplies for the daily work. It's also set up so that tourists can buy the miners supplies as a way to help them out. You can buy anything from cigarettes to dynamite, so obviously we
bought a stick of dynamite and a bottle of soda for them. Once we were in the mine we put our claustrophobia to the test while walking hunched over for most of the time through the tunnels that crisscross through the mountain. We joked that after seeing how hard these miners had to work and the conditions they worked in we would never complain about our jobs when we get back home. Our guide told us that the average lifespan for a miner was 45-50 and that they all smoke because the smoke that goes into their lungs is better than what they're breathing in while in the mines. It was certainly a unique and humbling experience for us both. Now we're back for one more week in Sucre before we take our adventure south towards Salar de Uyuni and then onto Chile.
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